The Lou Henson Award is an award given annually by Collegeinsider.com to the most outstanding mid-major men's college basketball player in NCAA Division I competition. The award, established in 2010, is named for esteemed men's college basketball head coach Lou Henson. Henson, who coached at Hardin–Simmons, New Mexico State, and Illinois, compiled 779 all-time wins. He is in the top 10 of NCAA coaching wins in men's basketball history.
Eligible conferences The list of eligible conferences has always excluded all conferences that sponsor FBS football except for the MAC and the Sun Belt. The Atlantic 10 Conference, which has not sponsored football at all since 2006, has also been excluded throughout the award's history. Note that this source lists the conferences whose players are eligible for the award. Following major conference realignment that peaked in 2013, the WAC, which dropped football after the 2012 season, was added to the eligible list, while both offshoots of the original Big East Conference—the FBS American Athletic Conference and the current non-football Big East—were excluded from eligibility.
Definitions of the term "mid-major" in the context of college basketball vary widely. For purposes of both the Henson Award, Collegeinsider.com has established its own definition of the term, which includes members of the following conferences, as well as any basketball independents.
America East Conference Atlantic Sun Conference Big Sky Conference Big South Conference Big West Conference Coastal Athletic Association Horizon League Ivy League Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Mid-American Conference Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Missouri Valley Conference Northeast Conference Ohio Valley Conference Patriot League Southern Conference Southland Conference Southwestern Athletic Conference Summit League Sun Belt Conference West Coast Conference Western Athletic Conference
Key Player (X) Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded the Lou Henson Award at that point
Winners
Year Player School Position Class Reference 2009–10 Oakland C 2010–11 Butler PF 2011–12 Norfolk State PF 2012–13 Saint Mary's PG 2013–14 Mercer PG 2014–15 USC Upstate PG 2015–16 Stephen F. Austin SG 2016–17 Monmouth PG 2017–18 Loyola (Illinois) PG 2018–19 Wofford SG 2019–20 William & Mary PF / C 2020–21 Oral Roberts G 2021–22 Chattanooga SG 2022–23 Louisiana C 2023–24 Oakland SF 2024–25 Norfolk State SG 2025–26 Navy PG
References
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