Mike Brey, James Jones, Lisa Bluder and Ernie Johnson will be this year's recipients of the Joe Lapchick Character Award.
Brey was the winningest coach in Notre Dame history, coaching at the school for 23 years. He won 483 of his 582 total victories at the school, leading the team to 13 NCAA Tournament appearances that included two trips to the Elite Eight. In 2015 he guided Notre Dame to the ACC championship.
That squad went 32-6 and reached the Elite
Eight. His team beat Miami, Duke and North Carolina to win the conference tournament championship. The 2011 AP Coach of the Year also coached at Delaware before getting the job at Notre Dame.
Jones is in his 27th season at Yale, winning 418 games — second most in Ivy League history. He led the Bulldogs to five NCAA Tournament berths and nine postseason appearances.
He was the 2019 recipient of the Ben Jobe Award as the top minority coach in Division I men’s basketball and has gone 108-32 in the Ivy League over the past decade coming into this season. He has led the team to two NCAA Tournament wins — beating Baylor in 2016 and Auburn in 2024.
Bluder has an incredible 40-year coaching career, including spending the final 24 seasons at Iowa. She retired in 2024 after leading the Hawkeyes to the national championship game in two straight seasons while coaching Caitlin Clark.
She had 894 wins, which was third among active coaches when she retired. Bluder was the Naismith Coach of the Year in 2019 and Big Ten Coach of the Year three times. She was the recipient of the Carol Eckman Coaches Award in 2016, given annually to the coach that exhibits sportsmanship, ethical behavior and commitment to the student-athlete
Bluder is the winningest coach in Big Ten history going 528-254. She began her coaching career as head coach at St. Ambrose University for six seasons (1985-90) where she led the Bees to two Final Four appearances. She went from there to Drake for 10 years before coming to Iowa.
Johnson is the longtime host of TNT's "Inside the NBA", which has now moved to ESPN. He's won eight national sports Emmys as a top studio host. He has also been part of the network's coverage of the NCAA Tournament over the past 15 years.
Johnson was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2023. Besides basketball, Johnson has also broadcast baseball, golf and the Olympics.
This is the 18th year the award will be presented to those who have shown the character traits of Lapchick, who coached at St. John’s and with the New York Knicks. The quartet will be honored at a luncheon on Sept. 18 in New York.
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