The Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding minority men's college basketball head coach in NCAA Division I competition. The award was established in 2010 and is named for head coach Ben Jobe, who coached at numerous historically black colleges but whose longest tenure at one school was 12 years, which he completed at Southern University. Over his career he compiled a 524–334 overall record, including six conference regular season championships, five conference tournament championships, and eight national postseason appearances.
The award is presented to the coach who has produced the best results from his basketball team under adverse or otherwise difficult conditions. The inaugural winner, Ed Cooley of Fairfield, dealt with numerous injuries but still managed to lead the Stags to a near-school record 23 wins in 2009–10. There has been only one repeat winner, Donte Jackson of Grambling State, who won in 2018 and again in 2024.
Key Coach (X) Denotes the number of times the coach has been awarded the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year Award at that point W, L, W % Total wins, total losses, win percentage Finish National postseason tournament result
Winners
Season Coach School W L W % Finish Reference 2009–10 Fairfield 23 10 2010–11 Missouri State 26 9 2011–12 Mississippi Valley State 21 13 2012–13 UConn 20 10 — 2013–14 Texas A&M–Corpus Christi 18 16 2014–15 Maryland Eastern Shore 18 15 2015–16 Tennessee State 20 11 2016–17 Mount St. Mary's 20 16 2017–18 Grambling State 17 14 — 2018–19 Yale 22 8 2019–20 Pacific 23 10 2020–21 Florida State 18 7 2021–22 Houston 32 6 2022–23 Vanderbilt 22 15 2023–24 (2) Grambling State 21 15 2024–25 Omaha 22 13 2025–26 Kennesaw State 21 14 The COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2019–20 season to be canceled prior to any national postseason tournaments occurring.
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