RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) announced on Tuesday that The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men's basketball coach Lew Hill, who passed away tragically on Feb. 7 at the age of 55, is the District 6 Co-Coach of the Year.
 
Hill shares the honor with Todd Simon, the head coach of future Western Athletic Conference (WAC) member Southern Utah.
 
This is Hill's fourth honor since the regular season ended, as he was the unanimous selection for WAC Coach of the Year and a finalist for CollegeInsider.com's Ben Jobe Award, presented annually to the top minority coach in NCAA Division I men's basketball, and the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award, giving annually to those who not only achieve success on the basketball court but who display moral integrity off the floor as well.
 
Before his passing, Hill coached the Vaqueros to an 8-4 record, including a 2-0 mark in WAC play. The Vaqueros won their WAC opener over Dixie State by 33 points, the largest margin of victory in a conference game in program history. After sweeping Dixie State to improve to 8-3, Coach Hill had his team off to their best start since 2001-02.
 
The Vaqueros went 6-4 in non-conference play, including their largest-ever margin of victory over UTSA, 81-64 on Nov. 28, and a sweep of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union.
 
After Coach Hill's final game on Feb. 6, UTRGV ranked third in the NCAA and first in the WAC in three-point percentage defense (25.7%), third in the NCAA and first in the WAC in offensive rebounds per game (14.42), fifth in the NCAA and first in the WAC in turnovers forced per game (18.33), eighth in the NCAA in first in the WAC in total rebounding (41.25), 14^th in the NCAA and first in the WAC in steals per game (9.1), 19^th in the NCAA and second in the WAC in turnover margin (3.9), and 26^th in the NCAA and second in the WAC in field goal percentage defense (39.7%).

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