Six Players, T
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National Collegiate Ba On November 21, 2021, two coaches and six players were enshrined at the 2021 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Celebration presented by Nike in Kansas City, Missouri. The event at the College Basketball Experience honored the 16th Class to be inducted and was part of Kansas City’s Hall of Fame Weekend, which also included the Hall of Fame Classic Tournament. The ceremonies were hosted by national college basketball analyst Andy Katz and Stephanie Ready of the NBA Network. The 2021 Class includes players David Greenwood of UCLA, Bradley’s Hersey Hawkins, Jim Jackson of Ohio State, North Carolina’s Antawn Jamison, Paul Pierce of Kansas and the late Len Bias of Maryland along with coaches Rick Byrd and Tom Penders.
THE COACHES RICK BYRD – Belmont, Maryville, Lincoln Memorial Byrd began his career coaching in the National Intercollegiate Athletic Association (NAIA) at Maryville, Lincoln Memorial and Belmont. In 33 seasons at Belmont, he guided the Bruins to 17 conference regular season and tournament championships and eight NCAA Tournaments. Belmont was often called the team no high-seeded team wanted to face in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Byrd was named the NAIA Coach of the Year in 1995 and won Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors in five seasons with the Bruins in NCAA Division I. He is the 12th winningest coach in NCAA history with 805 wins. Byrd, who played an active role as chairman of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee, was the recipient of the 2021 John R. Wooden Legend of Coaching Award. Comments from Byrd on coaching at Belmont – “I believe the success we had was due to making good choices with the staff, the culture of the university academically and socially and the character of the players we recruited. We had a very high retention rate.”
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