Tuesday, March 05, 2002
Alabama player, coach sweep SEC awards
West Hi teammates all-freshmen in MAC
The Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama swept the Southeastern Conference's awards Monday, with Erwin Dudley voted player of the year, Mark Gottfried coach of the year and Maurice Williams freshman of the year.
Dudley, a 6-foot-8 forward and center, led the conference with a rebound average of 9.1. He was second in shooting, making 58.1 percent of his field goals, and 10th in points per game (16)
Dudley, who had 14 double-doubles, is the first Crimson Tide player to win the award, voted on by the league's coaches, since Derrick McKey in 1987. Dudley was the only unanimous selection for the first team.
Gottfried coached Alabama to its first conference title since 1987. In four seasons at Alabama, he is 79-48. Williams was third in the SEC with an average of 4.6 assists per game, and 10th with 1.83 steals per game.
Florida' Udonis Haslem, Georgia's Jarvis Hayes, Kentucky's Tayshaun Prince and Tennessee's Vincent Yarbrough were also voted by the coaches to the conference's first team.
ARKANSAS:
Former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson intends to appeal the university's decision to buy out his contract, his lawyer said Monday.
Arkansas bought out the remaining six years of Richardson's contract on Friday. The announcement came six days after Richardson had publicly said: “If they go ahead and pay me my money, they can take the job tomorrow.”
Chancellor John A. White, who consulted with Athletic Director Frank Broyles before Richardson was bought out, said the ex-coach had until noon Monday to appeal to system President Alan Sugg. Richardson's attorney, John Walker, said he did not believe there was deadline.
MAC:
Kent State's Demetric Shaw was selected as the Mid-American Conference's top defensive player for the second year in a row and Western Michigan's Ben Reed is the league's top freshman.
Shaw, a 6-foot-3 senior guard from Fort Worth, Texas, was chosen the top defender in a vote of MAC coaches. With Shaw leading the way, Kent State led the conference in scoring defense (63.5 points per game) in addition to field-goal percentage defense (.411), scoring margin and rebound margin.
Reed, a 6-3 guard, helped the Broncos (17-10) win 10 more games than a year ago. He averaged 14.2 points and 6.3 rebounds a game.
Joining Reed on the all-freshman team, as voted by the league's 13 head coaches, were: Akron's Darryl Peterson, Turner Battle of Buffalo, Kent State's Nate Gerwig and Danny Horace of Miami. Peterson and Horace were teammates at Western Hills last season.
Also Monday, the MAC announced that it will continue to play its men's and women's basketball tournaments at Gund Arena in Cleveland for another four seasons. The tournament is this week at Gund.
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Alabama player, coach sweep SEC awards
