Marshall University Athletics
Marshall’s Cornelius Jackson Named Finalist For 2025-26 Ben Jobe Award
3/4/2026 8:55:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Herd MBB Coach earns prestigious honor for 2nd straight year
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall University Men's Basketball Coach Cornelius Jackson was named a finalist for the 2025-26 Ben Jobe Award, given annually to the top minority head coach in Division I Men's College Basketball by CollegeInsider.com.
It is the second time in as many seasons as a head coach that Jackson has earned the honor. He is one of 25 finalists who will be in the running for the award.
For the second straight season, Jackson has his team in the highest tier of the Sun Belt Conference.
The Herd is currently 19-12 overall and just completed a regular season in which they are the No. 2 seed after finishing just one game out of first place in the SBC regular season standings.
Marshall's No. 2 seed earns the Herd a berth in the Sun Belt Conference semifinals at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday against a team to be determined. The bye to the semifinals means the Herd is just two wins from securing its first SBC Men's Basketball Championship.
The Herd recently earned All-SBC conference accolades with Wyatt Fricks being named a First Team selection while guard Jalen Speer was named as a Second Team honoree.
With a win in the SBC semifinals on Sunday, Jackson would also secure consecutive 20-win seasons to start his head coaching career and tenure leading the Thundering Herd.
Over the last two seasons, Jackson has compiled a 39-25 record with the Herd with 23 of those wins coming in Sun Belt Conference play.
The recipient of the annual award will be determined by the 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches and well as two CollegeInsider.com senior staffers.
The 2026 award recipient will be announced in Indianapolis, Ind., during the NCAA Men's Final Four.
The Ben Jobe Award is named in honor of one of the most iconic coaches in the history of basketball at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Jobe was best known for the 12 years he spent as the head coach of Southern University where he compiled a record of 209-141 while leading the Jaguars to the NCAA Tournament four times – one of which was in 1993 when his Southern team was ranked No. 15 and defeated No. 2 Georgia Tech, 93-78, for one of the most improbable wins in NCAA Tournament history.
Jobe also had coaching stints at Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Talladega, Tuskegee and South Carolina State.
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