Indiana State University head men's basketball coach Josh Schertz has been named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year during the MVC Awards Banquet on Wednesday, March 6, in downtown St. Louis.  Indiana State is the No. 1 seed and outright regular-season champion for the first time since 2000.

2024 MVC Coach of the Year (PDF)

The Sycamores finished the regular season 26-5 and 17-3 in league play. The 26 wins are the most for ISU since the Sycamores won their first 33 games in 1978-79 and reached the NCAA Final Four title game. The 17 league wins also surpass the school record of 16 established by that Larry-Bird-led 1979 team. In Schertz's three seasons at the helm, ISU has won more games each year:

SEASON    ALL      MVC
2021-22     11-20      4-14
2022-23     23-13    13-7
2023-24     26-5      17-3

ISU finished the regular season by averaging 84.5 points per game, which is the highest in the MVC. The last team to average 84.0+ was Bradley in 1988 (92.5 PPG). The Sycamores have led the MVC in field goal percentage, assists, and three-point field goal percentage in back-to-back years, which has never happened in the MVC.

Indiana State also broke its own school record in made three-pointers as a team, set last season at 340. With 11 made triples on the day, ISU sits with 341 made threes, a new school record.

Schertz joins former Indiana State coaches Bill Hodges (1979), Tates Locke (1991) and Royce Waltman (2000) as ISU mentors to earn the league's Coach of the Year honor.

Schertz is a four-time National Coach of the Year and in his third season at Indiana State in 2023-24.  Schertz came to Terre Haute after an exceptional 13-year tenure as head coach at NCAA Division II Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., where he had a career record of 337-69 (.831). Schertz led the Railsplitters to 10 NCAA Division II Tournament appearances, won 14 total conference championships and three Southeast Regional titles, and had five seasons of 30-or-more victories.