District 3 is comprised of schools from the Big South Conference and Atlantic Sun Conference.

Holtmann, 41, was earlier named Big South Conference Coach of the Year, and is a finalist for the 2013 Hugh Durham Award as the national mid-major Coach of the Year.

In his third year in charge of the Runnin' Bulldogs, Holtmann led his team to a 21-13 season, a second-place finish in the South Division race and a run into the VisitMyrtleBeach.com semifinals. Gardner-Webb was selected to play in the postseason for the first time as a Division I member, hosting Eastern Kentucky in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) on March 19.

Gardner-Webb, picked by the Big South's head coaches to finish fifth in the six-team South Division, finished just one game out of first place - and only one game from sharing the best league record during the regular season.

GWU finished with the highest RPI in its Division I tenure (#195), and had the Big South's top RPI by the end of the regular season. Gardner-Webb ended the regular season on a seven-game win streak and ran that streak to eight games before falling by three in the tournament semifinals. The Runnin' Bulldogs closed the regular season with 10 wins in the final 11 games.

The 20-win season was also Gardner-Webb's first since gaining full NCAA Division I status in 2002-2003.