BOSTON – After guiding the Boston University men's basketball team to the 2020 Patriot League championship title, head coach Joe Jones was named a finalist for the Ben Jobe Award, as announced by CollegeInsider.com. 

The Ben Jobe Award is presented annually to the top minority coach in Division I men's basketball during Final Four weekend, but with the event's cancelation, Pacific's Damon Stoudamire was announced as the winner at the same time of the release of finalists. An icon in the history of basketball at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Jobe is best known as the head coach of the Southern University, a position he held for 12 seasons. He was also head coach at Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Talladega, Tuskegee and South Carolina State.

Jones was named a finalist for the third time during his tenure at BU after being recognized in both 2013 and 2014. Besides increasing last year's win total by six games, the Terriers (21-13) claimed their first road conference title with a 64-61 win at top-seed Colgate. They posted their best home record (12-3) since 2010-11 (12-2) and earned the program's first win against the SEC back in November at South Carolina, 78-70. In one key example of their improvement from a year prior, they lowered their defensive field goal percentage from 47.1 FG% to 43.7 FG% while shooting 46.0 FG%. BU also dropped the number of turnovers per game from 12.9 to 11.3, 36th best mark in the country.

BU finished tied-for-second in the Patriot League standings at 12-6 following a fifth-place preseason selection and received six league awards for its efforts. Senior Max Mahoney (1st), sophomore Walter Whyte (2nd) and junior Javante McCoy (3rd) marked the first time since 2012-13 that three Terriers earned All-Conference honors, while Mahoney and sophomore Jonas Harper became the first-ever duo to earn All-Defensive accolades. Freshman Ethan Brittain-Watts was also the ninth Terrier in the last eight years to be tabbed an All-Rookie honoree.

Besides setting a new team record with a career 60.1 FG%, Mahoney (15.5 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 2.5 apg) finished his collegiate career as the fourth Terrier in program history to earn 1,500+ points and 700+ rebounds en route to both USBWA and NANBC All-District recognition. Mahoney was joined by Whyte (13.0 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and McCoy (12.2 ppg, 3.5 apg) in averaging double figures in points. In total, the Terriers recorded 21 double-doubles while committing just 15.1 fouls per game, 23rd best mark in the country.