KANSAS CITY, Mo. (September 10, 2009) – Head coaches Jeff Capel of the University of Oklahoma, Trent Johnson of Louisiana State University and Gary Williams of the University of Maryland have been elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

"We are very pleased and fortunate to have three outstanding coaches in Jeff Capel, Trent Johnson and Gary Williams join our board of directors," said NABC President Dale Clayton of Carson-Newman College. "They have all taken active roles with NABC and NCAA committees and initiatives and we look forward to working with them as directors."

Williams, who played point guard at Maryland and graduated in 1968, returned to his alma mater as head coach in 1989. The Terps have earned 13 NCAA tournament berths in the last 16 seasons including seven Sweet Sixteen appearances and a pair of consecutive Final Four showings. Williams and Maryland reached the pinnacle of success in college basketball, winning the NCAA championship in 2002.

The Terrapins’ all-time winningest coach with 418 victories, Williams passed hall of fame coach Charles "Lefty" Driesell in career wins at Maryland. His teams have averaged 22.6 wins per year since the 1994-95 season. Williams ranks sixth in career wins among active head coaches in NCAA Division I men’s basketball with 625 career victories in 31 seasons overall. He was the recipient of the Champion Award in 2004 for his outstanding work with Coaches vs. Cancer.

Last season, his first at LSU, Johnson earned Southeastern Conference coach of the year honors while leading the Tigers to a conference-best 13-3 won-lost record and an overall mark of 27-8. It marked the second straight coach of the year award for Johnson, who earned the same recognition in the Pac-10 in 2007-08 while coaching Stanford to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament.

Johnson’s first head coaching job was at Nevada, where he coached for five seasons and not only led the Wolfpack to its first-ever NCAA win, but his 2004 team reached the Sweet Sixteen. He moved on to Stanford for four seasons from 2004-2008 before leaving to take over the program at LSU.

In just three seasons at Oklahoma, Capel’s teams have won 69 games and have a winning percentage of .679, the best marks at OU for any coach in his first three seasons. Over the last two seasons, the Sooners have been especially impressive with 53 wins and two NCAA tournament berths. Last season, OU reached the Elite Eight as Capel’s team was led by consensus National Player of the Year Blake Griffin.

At the age of 27, Capel began his head coaching career at Virginia Commonwealth in 2002 and led VCU to a conference title and an NCAA tournament berth in 2003-04. As a player, he was a four-year starter at Duke and played in the 1994 national championship game as a freshman.