Green Bay head men’s basketball coach Brian Wardle was named the 2014 Skip Prosser Man of the Year award at the annual CollegeInsider.com awards banquet on Friday afternoon in Dallas.
The Skip Prosser Award was established in 2008 to honor those who not only achieve success on the basketball court but who display moral integrity off of it as well. The award is named after the late Skip Prosser, who died suddenly in 2007 while the head coach at Wake Forest.
Prosser posted a career record of 291-146 in 14 seasons as a head coach at Loyola, Xavier and Wake Forest. During his time at Wake, Prosser’s teams averaged 21 wins per season while playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“It is a great and humbling honor to receive the Skip Prosser Man of the Year award,” Wardle said. “Through my encounters with Coach Prosser as an opposing player and a young coach, I know he was a man of great integrity and an excellent basketball coach. I want to thank College Insider and the awards committee for recognizing Green Bay Basketball. I especially thank my family, our athletic department staff, our coaching staff and our players. This is the type of award I will be most proud to share with my kids and grandkids one day.”
Past winners of the honor include Mike Brey (Notre Dame), Ed Conroy (The Citadel), Bob Marlin (Sam Houston State), Chris Mack (Xavier), Jimmy Patsos (Loyola MD) and Joe Mihalich (Niagara).
Other finalists for this year’s award include: Roman Banks (Southern University), John Becker (Vermont), Glenn Braica (St. Francis Brooklyn), Dick Hunsaker (Utah Valley), Tony Jasick (IPFW), Joe Jones (Boston University), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Paul Lusk (Missouri State), Phil Martelli (St. Joseph's), Randy Rahe (Weber State), Monte Ross (Delaware), Wayne Tinkle (Montana), Michael White (Louisiana Tech) and Jay Wright (Villanova).
In 2013-14, Wardle guided the Phoenix to the program’s best season in nearly two decades. Green Bay posted a 24-7 overall record and used a 14-2 mark in Horizon League play to claim the conference’s regular season title for the first time since 1995-96. Wardle was named the Horizon League Coach of the Year and the National Association of Basketball Coaches District 12 Coach of the Year.
Wardle completed his fourth season at the helm of the Green Bay program in 2013-14 and has an overall record of 71-55. The Phoenix has improved its overall and Horizon League win totals in each of the past four seasons.
(Release courtesy of Andrew Gavin, Green Bay Athletics)
