KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Josh Merkel, who led his Randolph-Macon program to the 2022 NCAA Division III men’s basketball national title, has been selected as the NABC Division III Coach of the Year.
Merkel’s Randolph-Macon team finished the season with a dominant 33-1 record, including a perfect 16-0 mark in the ODAC. The Yellow Jackets tore through the Division III tournament, winning all six games by at least 16 points, including a 75-45 victory over Elmhurst in the championship.
For the season, Randolph-Macon outscored its opponents by an average of 19.4 points per game, while averaging only 10.3 turnovers and holding opposing offenses to just 39.8 percent shooting.
2021-22 marked Merkel’s seventh season at Randolph-Macon. He has upped the Yellow Jackets’ win total in each full season, including a 27-win campaign in 2018-19 and 28 wins in 2019-20. R-MC was unbeaten in 2020-21 before the season was discontinued due to the pandemic.
Merkel is the first recipient of the NABC Coach of the Year award in Randolph-Macon history.
