WALDROP ADDS NABC AWARD
April 7, 2006

FORT WORTH, TX:  Texas Wesleyan University men’s basketball head coach Terry Waldrop, already named Rawlings-NAIA Coach of the Year, added another award to his resume last weekend.  Waldrop was honored in Indianapolis during the NCAA Division I Final Four weekend, along with coaches from the NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, as the National Association of Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year.

Waldrop led the Rams to a 25-9 record and a remarkable run through the NAIA Division I National Tournament that produced the program’s first National Title in its 68 years of existence.

The 2005-06 Rams posted the second best record in school history (the 1946-47 squad went 30-4), and after setting seventeen school records last season, they broke nine more this year.  The crowning moment of a tremendous season came when Ben Hunt, a senior guard from Bendigo, Australia, and a 2nd-team All-American, drained a three with 0.2 on the clock in the NAIA National Final against Oklahoma City to deliver the title.

Waldrop received the award at the NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show and Reception Sunday night.  Of the award, Waldrop said, “That is the pinnacle of our profession.  I was fortunate enough to accept the award on behalf of our players and staff who richly deserved it.”  Indeed it was an honor to be included as a part of the event, which featured numerous stars of the basketball community.

Waldrop compared the weekend to “Basketball Mecca.”  “It was, without a doubt, the most impressive gathering of basketball people that I have ever seen in my life.  Just to be in the room with those people…it was very humbling.”

He went on to say his team’s accomplishment this season is beginning to sink in.  “When you reflect on winning five games in six days and the teams we beat, it is just an amazing team accomplishment, and that is what we are all about, team.”