Eight Southland Men?s Basketball Players Named NABC All-District
FRISCO, Texas ? The Southland Conference had eight of its top men’s basketball players named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 23 Team, the organization announced Thursday.
Stephen F. Austin senior Matt Kingsley, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi junior Kevin Palmer, UT Arlington senior Anthony Vereen and Nicholls State senior Ryan Bathie joined Jackson State junior Grant Maxey on the All-District 23 First Team a week before the start of the 2009 State Farm Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament in Katy, Texas.
The leading scorer for the East Division leaders, Kingsley ranks sixth in the conference in scoring and rebounding with 15.7 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per game. The senior center from Houston, Texas, also ranks among league leaders in blocks per game and has twice been selected the Southland Conference Player of the Week.
A guard/forward from Baltimore, Md., Palmer has led the Islanders to a 10-5 record in conference and is the league’s only men’s player to receive Player of the Week honors three times this season. The first-year junior college transfer leads the conference with 17.7 points per game and is the only player to score at least 500 points this season. Palmer also leads the league with 80 steals on the season.
Vereen, also a native of Houston, has led the Mavericks to a 9-6 mark in conference play and is also a two-time Southland Conference Player of the Week selection. The senior forward ranks second in the league in scoring with 17.5 points per game and is third in overall field goal percentage (.578). He is also second on the team with 6.5 rebounds per game and also ranks among team leaders in assists.
A native of Melton, Australia, Bathie has led the Colonels to an 18-10, 11-4 record in his senior season. The senior forward leads Nicholls and is third in the conference in scoring with 15.9 points per game. The two-time Southland Conference Player of the Week also ranks second on his team in assists and became the third player in school history to score more than 1,000 points in his career earlier this season.
The Southland Conference’s second team selections include Sam Houston State juniors Ashton Mitchell and Corey Allmond and Lamar seniors Jay Brown and Kenny Dawkins. Alcorn State junior Troy Jackson was District 23’s other second-team honoree.
In all, 10 players, five first-team and five second-team, from 24 NABC districts, which were realigned for the 2008-09 season, received all-district honors. All 240 honorees were selected and voted on by the member coaches of the NABC and are now eligible for the State Farm Coaches’ Division I All-America teams to be announced on April 4.