To further recognize his achievements, CollegeInsider.com has officially renamed its National Coach of the Year award to honor recently retired Mount St. Mary's head coach Jim Phelan.

CollegeInsider.com is pleased to announce that the award will now be named the "Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year" award.

"I am honored to have the CollegeInsider.com National Coach of the Year award named after me," Coach Phelan said. "I've been fortunate to have many great players and assistant coaches throughout my career and having the award named after me is a reflection of their success."

The first recipient of the 2003 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award will be announced on Monday, March 10.

The CollegeInsider.com National Coach of the Year award is in its seventh year of existence. Previous winners include Rob Barnes (Mississippi), Rob Evans (Mississippi), Bob Huggins (Cincinnati), Greg Kampe (Oakland), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) and Bo Ryan (Wisconsin).

"This just made perfect sense," CollegeInsider.com's Joe Dwyer said. "Coach Phelan is an inspiration to so many people and he represented all that is good about college basketball. It is an honor for us to have his name headlining our national coach of the year award."

The Northeast Conference has also announced that their conference Coach of the Year will also bear the name Coach Phelan.