UM's Jim Larrañaga To Receive Mason Medal
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Having a 27-8 season and making a run to the Sweet 16 has its perks.
Miami men's basketball coach Jim Larrañaga will receive George Mason University's highest honorary award – the Mason Medal – at the school's commencement exercises on Saturday, May 14th.
Larrañaga, who coached at GMU from 1997 to 2011 and led the Patriots to the Final Four in 2006, finished his fifth season leading the Hurricanes with the squad ranked second in the ACC and winning a pair of games in the NCAA tournament before losing to eventual champion Villanova.
The award, which is designated by the GMU Board of Visitors to be the university's highest honorary award, is designed to honor George Mason and those receiving the award should have a record of service to their community, state, or nation consistent with the level and quality of George Mason's public service in his own time.
As he typically is, Larrañaga was gracious in recognition.
"I feel very proud to accept this medal on behalf of so many people," said Larrañaga in a release from the University of Miami. "I might be the one that is being honored, but it's really more about the great team effort we got from the time we arrived. It's about the coaches who worked for me, and the players who played for me. It's about my family and how much they were part of the community."
The latest honor will just be another point on Larrañaga's impressive resume. In 2013, he was named the Associated Press and Naismith National Coach of the Year. He's also been named the ACC Coach of the Year twice in four years – 2013 and 2016 – leading Hurricanes to ACC regular season and tournament championships in 2013 and making it to the Sweet 16 in both years respectively.
