OKLAHOMA CITY – Mid-America Christian men's basketball Head Coach Josh Gamblin, after leading the program to its winningest season in the NAIA era was selected to the Silver Waves Media 50 Impactful D2/NAIA Coaches List on Wednesday.
Gamblin was included on the list comprised of 50 coaches from the NCAA Division II and NAIA levels as a panel of more than 20 people made selections based off of coaching records, high level players coached, tournament achievements, awards as well as other factors.
In his five seasons at MACU, Gamblin has accumulated a 116-54 (.682) record. Gamblin led MACU to its first ever NAIA National Championship in 2016, becoming the youngest head coach to ever win a national championship at a four-year institution at 27-years old.
Since taking the reins of the program prior to the start of the 2015-16 season, the Evangels have finished .500 or better in all five seasons under Gamblin, which included four 20-plus win seasons and three NAIA Tournament appearances.
This past season, Gamblin led the Evangels to its second ever Sooner Athletic Conference Championship, closing out the regular season with a 30-2 record and a 19-1 mark in league play. MACU received its first ever No. 1 seed for the NAIA Tournament before the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gamblin was named the SAC Coach of the Year while mentoring five players to league honors, including the NCCAA Player of the Year and NABC/NAIA All-American First Team honoree Ashford Golden. The All-SAC First Team honoree led the Evangels by scoring the fifth-most points per game in the program's NAIA era at 17.2 while being the only player in the SAC to finish in the top five in points (551, 5th), rebounds (221, 3rd) and blocks (33, 2nd).
Junior guard Terrance Jones was a SAC Second Team honoree as well as an NAIA All-America Honorable Mention selection. On top of setting the 13th-best scoring average (13.8), Jones was the fourth-most prolific shooter during the NAIA era at 56.7 percent. Redshirt senior forward Cedric Wright on top of being an All-SAC Second Team honoree also put together one of the most prolific shooting seasons in program history, knocking down 71.2 percent of his shots from the field, the second-highest in the NAIA era.
Two other All-SAC Honorable Mention recipients included senior guard D'von Moore and junior point guard Tony Dorsey.
To view the complete list of recipients, click HERE.
