VMI extends Baucom contract through 2015

VMI head basketball coach Duggar Baucom has received a contract extension through the 2014-2015 season, Athletic Director Donny White has announced.

Baucom, who has established a system of fast-paced, uptempo style of hoops that has led the nation in Division I scoring for an unprecedented five consecutive years, has guided the Keydets to winning campaigns in two of the last three seasons. His 87 career wins rank second all-time on the all-time coaching list at the Institute. Over the last five years, the VMI basketball program under Baucom has also posted more wins (80) than all the service academies and The Citadel during that time.

“I am most pleased to sign Duggar Baucom to an extension on his contract,” said White. “VMI Basketball is in excellent position to compete for conference championships each year due to the good work of Coach Baucom and his staff. His offensive style is exciting and it has helped greatly in recruiting outstanding young players. I look forward to another successful basketball season at VMI with Duggar Baucom.”

VMI concluded its 2010-11 season, Baucom’s sixth at the helm, with an 18-13 record which matched the 1995-96 squad for the second-most wins posted in a season by a VMI Basketball team since 1978. The Keydets closed out the season winning six of their last eight contests. VMI also advanced to the semi-finals of the Big South Conference Championship Tournament for the third time in five years.

Since transitioning to the up-tempo, high-flying system, the VMI record books and undergone a major facelift as 78 school individual, team and facility records been 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, their second-such berth in three years. The 24 victories was 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 an unforgettable 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-Conference honors seven times, All- Freshman honors four times, and one has been selected Freshman of the Year while another was picked the conference’s top defender. 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, has played with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors the past two seasons.

“I appreciate the confidence that General Peay and Coach White have in me to continue to lead this program,” said Baucom. “I am fortunate to have a great staff and I am blessed to have awesome cadet-athletes who are bought in to what we are trying to accomplish here.”