ERIE, Pa. – Nearly a year after being hired as Gannon University's men's basketball coach, Jordan Fee today was named the Clarence Gaines Award recipient, presented annually to the top Division II college basketball coach by CollegeInsider.com.

Fee took over as Gannon's head coach after serving as an assistant coach at Nova Southeastern the previous seven seasons. A year ago, he was the associate head coach for a Sharks team that finished with a perfect 36-0 record and won their first Division II national championship. Head coach Jim Crutchfield was named the 2023 Clarence Gaines Award winner. Now Fee follows in his mentor's footsteps as this year's recipient.

On Monday, April 1, 2024, Fee announced his resignation from Gannon to pursue the next step in his coaching career.

The native of Grove City, Pa. was introduced as Gannon's 20th head coach on April 12, 2023. He quickly set about righting a program that won just three games in 2022-23, the second-lowest total in program history. The rebuild began with the hiring of assistant coaches Easton Bazzoli and Myo Baxter-Bell.

Throughout the summer, the staff brought in nine new players to go along with five returnees. Fee installed "The System", a fast-paced, full court-pressing, trapping style of play that was designed to wear down opponents while entertaining a victory-starved fan base.   

The season began with 10 straight wins as the Golden Knights bettered the school record for most points in a game not once but twice in the first three games. They opened the season with a 140-108 win over Glenville State to break the single-game scoring record, then broke that in game number three with a 146-70 triumph over Penn State DuBois. In the first six days of the season, Gannon matched the 2022-23 win total.

Gannon finally tasted defeat for the first time at the end of December at Millersville, and after a win over Mansfield dropped its PSAC West opener at California (Pa.) on January 6.
That would be the last loss for the Golden Knights until falling to Cal State San Bernardino in the Elite Eight quarterfinals in Evansville, ind. on March 26. Gannon ran off a school-record 21 straight victories, in the process avenging the losses to Millersville and Cal.

The year would end with Gannon setting the NCAA record for the largest improvement from one season to the next. The Golden Knights finished at 32-3, setting a record for wins in a season. The improvement of 24.5 games was not only a Division II record but a record for all divisions both men and women. Gannon went from the second-fewest wins in school history to the most wins ever.

Picked to finish seventh in the PSAC West coaches preseason poll, Gannon finished as the regular season champion with a 20-2 record, the best conference ledger in school history. The Golden Knights debuted in the national rankings in late November and by the end of the year they climbed to third in the NABC Division II Top 25, tied for the highest ranking in program history.
 

Gannon earned the right to host the PSAC Tournament and would go on to win its third PSAC crown and first since 2015. The Golden Knights defeated Indiana (Pa.) for the third time in the quarterfinals by a 94-89 score. That set up a rematch with Millersville in the semifinals. This time around the Marauders were no match for the Golden Knights with Gannon prevailing 98-64.

That set up a third meeting between third-ranked Gannon and No. 8 California (Pa.) with the PSAC championship on the line. After avenging the earlier loss to the Vulcans with a 107-98 win in February, Gannon trailed by one at the half but used a dominant second half for an 89-74 win.

The win earned Gannon the number one seed and hosting right of the Atlantic Regional. The Golden Knights met a Lincoln (Pa.) team that they defeated in the championship game of the Gary Miller Classic in the quarterfinals. While Gannon edged the Lions by four points to win that title, the second meeting wasn't as close. Gannon advanced to the semifinals with a 97-63 victory.

That left a meeting with Fee's alma mater, West Liberty, in the semifinals. Fee began his coaching career at West Liberty with Crutchfield at the helm. Gannon defeated the Hilltoppers, a perennial Atlantic Region power by a 103-88 score.

That left a rematch with a Charleston (WV) team that Gannon had rallied to defeat 91-83 in the second game of the season with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line. Gannon trailed by 16 points late in the first half and never led in the game – until the final buzzer sounded. Nigel Haughton's (Bel Air, Md./South Kent) follow of a missed shot nestled through the net as the horn sounded to give Gannon a 67-65 win, sending a sold-out crowd at the Hagerty Center Family Events Center into delirium.

Gannon was awarded the number three seed at the Elite Eight in Evansville, Ind. and faced No. 6 seed Cal State San Bernardino, the West Regional champion. The Coyotes used a big second half to end Gannon's 21-game winning streak with a 99-65 decision.

Gannon led Division II in scoring offense virtually from start to finish, ending up the number one scoring team in the country at 100.4 ppg. The Golden Knights topped 100 points a school-record 16 times.

The fast-paced style and renewed winning re-energized the Gannon fan base, as well. The Golden Knights were forced to use two homecourts in 2023-24. The first six games were played at the Highmark Events Center before the facility was shut down at the end of December. The rest of the home schedule was played at Cathedral Prep's Hagerty Family Events Center and Gannon ended up playing in front of near-capacity crowds as the season wore on. The Golden Knights would finish undefeated in home games with a perfect 21-0 record. It was just the third time Gannon finished undefeated at home and the first since 1974-75. 

The Clarence Gaines Award is named in honor of the legendary Winston Salem State head coach. One of the true legends of all-time, Clarence "Big House" Gaines retired from Winston-Salem State University in 1993 with a record of 828-446. At the time, he was the winningest active basketball coach in NCAA history. Gaines was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.

During his 47-year tenure as coach and athletic director at WSSU, Gaines coached professional basketball greats Cleo Hill, the first African-American from an historically Black college and university to be drafted No. 1 by the National Basketball Association, St. Louis Hawks, 1961, and Earl "The Pearl" Monroe.