Salem, VA (02/16/01) -- Guilford head men's basketball coach Butch Estes received the Old Dominion Athletic Conference's (ODAC) men's basketball Coach of the Year Award along with Randolph-Macon boss Mike Rhoades at the annual ODAC Men's Basketball Tournament banquet Friday night in the Salem Civic Center. Quakers senior Todd Ashworth (High Point, NC/Southwest Guilford) earned honorable mention All-ODAC recognition in voting conducted by the league's 10 head coaches.

A two-time Southern Conference Coach of the Year at Division I Furman, Estes inherited a 3-21 club when he took over in May, 1998, and helped double Guilford's win total with a 6-18 mark in his first season. After narrowly missing the 2000 ODAC Tournament, the Quakers posted a school-record nine ODAC wins this year, including a 65-56 triumph over nationally ranked and previously unbeaten Bridgewater January 15. Guilford enjoyed a four-game winning streak this season, the program's longest since 1993, and carries a 10-14 overall record into Saturday's ODAC quarterfinal contest with Randolph-Macon. The 10 victories mark Guilford's highest win total since the 1994-95 club finished 11-14.

Estes has a 243-217 career coaching record in 16 seasons with Guilford, Furman and Presbyterian. He becomes Guilford's first ODAC Men's Basketball Coach of the Year Award recipient. The High Point, NC, native also picked up his first Southern Conference prize in his second season at Furman in 1987.

Ashworth enters his first league tournament as Guilford's top scorer (12.1 ppg.) and rebounder (6.6 rpg.). The 6-5 center/forward shoots over 50 percent from the floor and ranks 10th among ODAC scoring leaders and fifth in rebounding. He averaged 12.6 points and 7.4 boards per league game and has two double-doubles. Ashworth led Guilford's scorers eight times and topped the club's rebounders in 16 of the team's 24 games. He hit for a personal-best 22 points in the Quakers' 88-81 road upset of Virginia Wesleyan January 8, one of his career-high 16 games with 10 or more points. Ashworth's 544 career rebounds rank first in Guilford's Division III history.

Ashworth helped Estes' Quakers secure the number-six seed in this weekend's eight-team ODAC Tournament. Guilford meets Rhodes' third-seeded Randolph-Macon (15-9) club in Saturday's final quarterfinal contest at 8:00 P.M. in the Salem Civic Center. The winner advances to Sunday's 4:00 P.M. semifinal match against the winner of the #2 Hampden-Sydney-#7 Eastern Mennonite contest. The winner of Monday night's tournament final earns the ODAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III playoffs.