State's Mario Austin Named SEC Player Of The Week; Collects Coaches' Second-Team All-SEC Honors
May 25, 2016 | Men's Basketball
A 6-9, 265-pound native of York, Ala., Austin earned his second player of the week honor after averaging 24.5 points and 11.0 rebounds last week in helping lead coach Rick Stansbury's Bulldogs to wins over Arkansas and South Carolina. In Wednesday's 89-83 home win over the Razorbacks, Austin came within two points and one rebound of matching his career highs in a 30-point, 13-rebound performance. He was 10-of-12 from both the field and the line, along with equalling his career high with four assists, in the win over Arkansas. This past Saturday at South Carolina, Austin scored 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 9-of-11 accuracy from the charity stripe, while also collecting nine rebounds in MSU's 64-57 road win over the Gamecocks.
For his efforts this past week, Austin becomes the first Bulldog player to win the SEC's Player of the Week honor twice during the same season since former MSU standout Darryl Wilson accomplished the same feat during MSU's Final Four campaign of 1995-96. Former all-SEC forward Greg Carter also earned the league's player of the week award two times during the 1990-91 season.
On the season, Austin enters this week's SEC Tournament ranked ninth in the SEC in scoring (16.2 ppg) and fifth in rebounding (7.7 rpg), in addition to leading the league in field-goal percentage (58.4%). The former McDonald's All American by way of York's Sumter County High School becomes Mississippi State's first underclassman to garner either first- or second-team all-SEC honors since current Golden State Warriors center Erick Dampier earned first-team all league plaudits as a sophomore in 1994-95. Austin also presently rates as the school's highest scoring sophomore player since Wilson averaged 16.2 points per contest during the 1993-94 campaign.
With a team-high six double-doubles to his credit this season, Austin has posted nine 20-point scoring efforts on the year. Along with his career-high 32 points against Kentucky in MSU's league season-opening win over Kentucky, he has become the first Bulldog player to score 30 or more points twice in a season since Wilson did so during the 1994-95 campaign.
Owners of a league-best, five-game winning streak, the 23-7 Bulldogs enter this week's SEC Tournament as the No. 2 seed from the league's Western Division. After posting a 10-6 SEC mark during the regular season and receiving an opening-round bye, MSU will take on the winner of Thursday's Florida Auburn first-round contest during quarterfinal-round action Friday evening in Atlanta. Tip-off for State's initial SEC Tournament appearance is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET at the Georgia Dome. Again this year, the first-round games along with the tournament quarterfinals and semifinals will be televised by JP Sports.
