BOSTON – Following a 20-win season which culminated with an appearance in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament Final, UT Arlington's KT Turner has been named a finalist for two different National Coach of the Year honors: the Joe B. Hall Award and the Ben Jobe Award.
 
The Joe B. Hall Award is presented annually to the nation's best first-year men's basketball head coach in Division I, while the Ben Jobe Award is issued each season to the country's top minority head coach.
 
Turner completed his first year at the helm of UTA with a 20-14 overall record and a 13-7 mark in the WAC. The Mavericks had an eight-game winning streak entering Saturday's WAC Championship against Grand Canyon, which was tied for the 4th longest in program history.
 
Turner inherited a roster of 10 newcomers and blended them together to be playing their best when it mattered most as UTA competed for its first conference title since 2019. The Mavs finished 3rd in the WAC after being predicted 8th in the preseason coaches' poll, with the five-spot improvement representing the best of any team in the league.
 
The 20 wins are the most in a single season for the Mavs since going 21-13 in 2017-18. Additionally, those 20 triumphs are the most by any first-year UTA head coach, with Turner surpassing Chris Ogden's 17-16 mark in 2018-19.
 
Among the 31 first-year head coaches in the nation, Turner's 20 wins entering this week's postseason tournaments are tied for the 5th most; three coaches have 21 victories to tie for the 2nd most behind leader Alan Huss from High Point with 25.
 
UTA is currently sitting at #129 in the NET Rankings, which is 120 spots better than the #249 position the Mavs finished last season; the Mavs' average NET over the prior three seasons was #242.
 
The #129 ranking could still rise as UTA faced the nation's 8th-hardest non-conference strength of schedule. In total, the Mavs played 15 games this season against nine-different teams that made the postseason – NCAA: Grand Canyon (3x), Texas, Arizona, Texas Tech, New Mexico; NIT: North Texas; CBI: Seattle U (2x); CIT: Tarleton State (3x), Abilene Christian (2x).
 
Turner coached or recruited a WAC-most seven all-conference award winners from four-different players. Those seven were two more than any other team in the league, and included the Freshman of the Year and Sixth Player of the Year.
 
Turner also led an offensive resurgence for the Mavs, who paced the WAC in scoring and 3-point shooting. For the season, UTA scored 80+ points 13 times against D-I competition after accomplishing that feat just three times total in regulation during the previous two seasons on its way to a 76.9 average.
 
UTA's 2,614 points ranked as the 5th-highest total in any season in program history, and 305 made 3-pointers registered as the 3rd most – only six shy of breaking the all-time record of 310 set in 2016-17.
 
The Joe B. Hall Award is named in honor of the longtime Kentucky head coach who was given the task of following the legendary Adolph Rupp at the school, while the Ben Jobe Award is named for the former HBCU coaching legend. Award winners will be announced Final Four weekend in Phoenix.
   
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