Texas Tech men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith has been selected as the 2015 honoree at the NABC and NCAA Office of Inclusion’s “Celebration of Champions” event in conjunction with the Final Four.  The event is slated for Sunday, April 5 from 3-5 p.m. at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, Ind.

“I cannot thank NABC and the NCAA Office of Inclusion enough for this honor,” said Smith. “It is more of an honor for the men and women I have worked with and the players I have coached for the last 24 years. Our successes through the years have been a team effort.”

In Smith’s 24 years as a head coach, he has worked led programs at Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota and Texas Tech. In all, he has more than 40 years as a basketball coach with stops as an assistant at Virginia Commonwealth, South Carolina and Kentucky.

He is one of just seven active head coaches that have won 500 career games and a national title. Smith led the Kentucky Wildcats to the 1988 NCAA title. Smith is also just one of nine coaches to take four different teams to the NCAA Championship.

A member of the athletic halls of fame at both Kentucky and High Point, Smith is a three-time national coach of the year recipient (1998, 2003 and 2005). Smith has won 20-or-more games 19 times as a head coach and appeared in the NCAA Championships 17 times over the last 24 seasons.

Smith has also had an effect in the community, as the Red Raider head coach has given back more than $2 million to assist underprivileged youth through the Tubby Smith Foundation and the Tubby’s Klubhouse’s Dell TechKnow program.

A technology-based program, Tubby’s Klubhouse’s Dell TechKnow aims to provide life skills and computer skills education for at-risk middle school students. Since 2004, more than 1,600 youth have graduated from the program.

Last year’s recipient was Nolan Richardson, who coached at Western Texas College, Tulsa and Arkansas.