CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State head men's basketball coach Gary Waters has been named one of 16 finalists for the 2015 Ben Jobe Award, marking the second straight year he has been recognized among the finalists.

The Ben Jobe Award is presented annually to the top minority coach in Division I men's basketball. The recipient of the 2015 award will be announced at the CollegeInsider.com Awards Banquet on April 3 in Indianapolis, site of the 2015 men's division I basketball championship.

Waters has led the Vikings to an 18-14 mark this year, including an 11-5 mark in the Horizon League, which tied CSU for third place. He led the Vikings to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, his seventh postseason appearance in nine seasons at CSU.

It marked the seventh time in the last eight seasons that Waters led the Vikings to double-digit league wins.

Waters owns a 19-year head coaching mark of 346-261 and is 175-126 in nine seasons at CSU. He is the all-time winningest coach in CSU history, while his 301 games coached at CSU are second most all-time behind Ray Dieringer's 360 games.

Waters will lead CSU against Western Michigan in a first round game of the CIT on Wednesday (March 18) night at 7:00 p.m.

Waters is joined on the list by Tommy Amaker (Harvard), Kevin Baggett (Rider), Bobby Collins (UMES), Ed Cooley (Providence), Mike Davis (Texas Southern), Frank Haith (Tulsa), Ron Hunter (Georgia State), James Jones (Yale), Robert Jones (Norfolk State), Kevin Keatts (UNCW), Marvin Menzies (New Mexico State), LeVelle Moton (NC Central), King Rice (Monmouth), John Thompson III (Georgetown) and Willis Wilson (Texas A&M Corpus Christi).