Virginia Military Institute head basketball coach Duggar Baucom has received a contract extension through the 2018-2019 season.
Baucom is the Institute’s all-time leader in victories with 140 and has piloted the Keydet basketball program to unprecedented competitive consistency throughout his nine-year tenure. He is one of only two VMI head basketball coaches to guide the Keydets to two 20+ win seasons.
VMI posted a 22-13 record in 2013-14 and advanced to the semifinals of the Collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament after logging wins over Canisius, IPFW, and Ohio before falling to Yale in a nationally televised contest. The postseason tournament appearance was VMI’s first in 37 years and the 22 wins tied for the third most in school history. VMI also captured the 2013 All-Military Classic Championship last November for its first regular season tournament title since 1978.
Baucom has guided the Keydets to four winning seasons over the last six years and an appearance in the Big South Championship finals game three times over the last eight seasons. His teams also advanced to the conference tournament semifinals five of the last six years. Baucom also moved past the career 100-win mark faster than any coach in VMI basketball history giving him the best winning percentage of any coach in the school’s modern era. He is the first VMI basketball coach since 1922 to hold a .500 career winning percentage mark.
Over the last eight years, the VMI basketball program under Baucom has also posted more wins (133) than all the military service academies and The Citadel during that time.
Under Baucom, the Keydets have employed a signature fast-paced style of hoops that previously led the nation in Division I scoring for an unprecedented five consecutive years, from 2006-07 through the 2010-11 campaigns. Again, in 2013-14, VMI led the nation in scoring averaging 88.3 points per game.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to lead VMI Basketball through 2019,” said Baucom. “I am very proud of the competitive program we have established at VMI. The credit for the success we have built here is far reaching. Our achievements are due to my outstanding coaching staff, strength coach, training staff, academic support personnel, sports information department, administrative assistant and the great support of our loyal Keydet Nation. I have been blessed to have awesome cadet-athletes who have bought into our vision and taken personal ownership in our program. They have excelled on the court, in the classroom, and after graduating from the Institute. I am very honored and humbled to be a part of it. “
Since transitioning to the up-tempo, high-flying system, the VMI record books have undergone a major facelift with over 80 school, individual, team, conference and facility records and superlatives rewritten in the Baucom era.
In 2008-09, Baucom also led VMI to a 24-8 mark and a berth in the Big South Conference finals. The 24 victories were the second-most in school history and the campaign began with a bang when the Keydets knocked off Kentucky, 111-103, in historic Rupp Arena. That victory kick-started a memorable campaign that saw the Keydets profiled in Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine and the New York Times, along with several other major media outlets. The season saw Baucom honored as the 2009 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) District 3 Coach of the Year, while he was also among 10 finalists for the Hugh Durham Award, given annually to the nation’s top mid-major coach.
VMI players under Baucom have attained All-Big South Conference honors 11 times, All-Freshman honors five times, Defensive Player of the Year three times and Freshman of the Year once. Reggie Williams, who graduated in 2008 as the school’s all-time leading scorer (2,556 points) after leading the nation in scoring two consecutive years, played with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, Charlotte Bobcats, and Oklahoma City Thunder over the past five seasons. Stan Okoye, who graduated from VMI in 2013 after a standout college career, was named 2012-13 Big South Player of the Year.
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