Walkup Named Lou Henson All-American
3/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BOSTON - Stephen F. Austin junior Thomas Walkup has been named a finalist for the 2014-15 Lou Henson Mid-Major Player of the Year, announced today by CollegeInsider.com. In addition, Walkup secured himself as a Lou Henson All-American for the 2014-15 season.
The Lou Henson Award is presented annually to the top Mid-Major player in Division I college basketball. The award is named in honor of Lou Henson, who retired after a spectacular coaching career that lasted 41 years. When he left the game in 2005, he was sixth all-time in career Division I wins with 779. He is the winningest coach at both Illinois and New Mexico State. He is one of only 12 coaches in the history of the game to take two schools to the Final Four.
The Southland Conference Player of the Year, Walkup posted a breakout season for the Lumberjacks, guiding SFA to a 29-5 record, SLC regular season and tournament titles, and a second-straight NCAA tournament appearance. He led SFA in scoring (15.6 ppg), shooting percentage (.567) and rebounding (6.5 rpg), ranking among the Southland Conference leaders in a number of categories.
Walkup was even more productive during Southland Conference play, averaging 18.1 points and 6.6 rebounds while shooting 61.2 percent from the floor. Four of his five double doubles of the year came in SLC play, including three-straight to close out the regular season in the wins over Incarnate Word, Northwestern State and Sam Houston State to secure SFA's third-straight regular season SLC title.
The Pasadena native guided the `Jacks to back-to-back SLC tournament titles, becoming just the third player in conference history to win back-to-back tournament MVP honors.
With one season of eligibility remaining, Walkup has accumulated 1,129 points during his SFA career, which is two points shy of cracking the Lumberjack top-20 leading scorers while ranking 10th during the Division I era. He is also on the brink of joining the Lumberjack all-time leaders in rebounds (521), assists (242), ranking ninth all-time in career field goal percentage (.558).
Walkup is one of three Southland Conference players to make the list, joined by John Jordan of A&M-Corpus Christi and Jalan West of Northwestern State. SFA is one of only 15 schools to have a repeat selection from 2013-14 and is one of seven to have two different players represented during that span, joining teammate Jacob Parker's selection in 2013-14.
The 2015 recipient will be announced at the CollegeInsider.com Awards Banquet on April 3 in Indianapolis, site of the 2015 men's NCAA Basketball Championship.
2015 Lou Henson All-America Team
Lawrence Alexander, North Dakota State
D.J. Balentine, Evansville
John Brown, High Point
Julius Brown, Toledo
Jalen Cannon, St Francis Brooklyn
Karl Cochran, Wofford
AJ English, Iona
Kahlil Felder, Oakland
Chris Fowler, Central Michigan
Ty Greene, USC Upstate
Tyler Harvey, Eastern Washington
Corey Hawkins, UC Davis
Tyler Haws, BYU
R.J. Hunter, Georgia State
John Jordan, Texas A&M Corpus Christi
David Laury, Iona
Shawn Long, UL Lafayette
Mikh McKinney, Sacramento State
Justin Moss, Buffalo
Mike Myers, UMES
Saah Nimley, Charleston Southern
Wesley Saunders, Harvard
Justin Sears, Yale
Keifer Sykes, Green Bay
Marcus Thornton, William and Mary
Corey Walden, Eastern Kentucky
Brad Waldow, Saint Mary's
Thomas Walkup, Stephen F. Austin
Jameel Warney, Stony Brook
Jalan West, Northwestern State
Alan Williams, UC Santa Barbara
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