RUSTON - One day after earning his second consecutive Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year Award, Louisiana Tech head coach Kurt Budke was named the 2004 NCAA Division I Region 7 Coach of the Year which was announced by Russell Athletic and the WBCA.

Budke joined seven other regional coaches in earning his award, along with Miami's Ferne Labati (Region 1), Duke's Gail Goestenkors (Region 2), Auburn's Joe Ciampi (Region 3), DePaul's Doug Bruno (Region 4), Texas's Jody Conradt (Region 5), Penn State's Rene Portland (Region 6) and Loyola Marymount's Julie Wilhoit (Region 8).

Budke earned the honor after leading the Lady Techsters to a third straight Western Athletic Conference title, a 24-2 record, the No. 1 seed in the upcoming league tournament and a No. 6 national ranking.

"I'm very fortunate to have the caliber of assistant coaches that I have," Budke said. "Chris Long is a man who should be and will be a Division I head coach in the very near future. I've said all along that both Katie Hall and Christie Sides are two of the rising young stars in this business. It's easy to win coach of the year awards when you have this type of staff."

Region 7 consists of all Western Athletic and Mountain West Conference schools. The eight winners will advance as a finalist to the national level of the selection process which is voted on by members of the WBCA and the national winner will be announced April 6.

"On behalf of the WBCA, we our honored to recognize this outstanding group of coaches," said Beth Bass, WBCA CEO. "Each individual coach has proven to be a great leader both on and off the court and is truly deserving of this acknowledgement."