No. 7 Saint Mary's (Calif.)
Men's Basketball
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mark H. Carter and Family Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball Head Coach Mark Byington is the 2025 Skip Prosser Man of the Year, CollegeInsider announced on Tuesday. The national award recognizes success on the court coupled with exemplary moral integrity.
In his first season at the helm of the Commodores, Byington led the program to 20 wins and Vanderbilt’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017. Byington’s 20 regular season wins mark the most by a first-year coach in Vanderbilt history.
The Commodores won four games over top-15 ranked opponents, the most since 1987-88, and five total games over ranked teams. The Dores also posted the third-largest, year-over-year improvement in KenPom among power conference teams.
Vanderbilt’s 11-win improvement marked the fourth largest in program history. The 20-win regular season was Vandy’s first since 2011-12.
ABOUT THE SKIP PROSSER MAN OF THE YEAR AWARD
The Skip Prosser Man of the Year award honors those who not only achieve success on the basketball court but who display moral integrity on and off it as well.
In six years at Wake Forest, Prosser posted a 126-68 record. For his career, he was 291-146 in 14 seasons including six as the head coach at Xavier and one year at Loyola (Md.).
At Wake Forest, Prosser’s teams averaged 21 wins per season while playing in arguably the nation’s most difficult league, the Atlantic Coast Conference. Prosser won 100 games at an ACC school quicker than all but two coaches in the 55-year history of the conference. He coached NBA stars Chris Paul and Josh Howard, led the Demon Deacons to the first No. 1 national ranking in school history and earned ACC Coach of the Year honors in 2003.
Prosser passed away of an apparent heart attack on July 26, 2007, in his office at Wake Forest. He had just returned from his morning jog.
