State's Mario Austin Earns USBWA All-District Hoops Honors
May 25, 2016 | Men's Basketball
Having already collected second-team all-SEC honors this week by a vote of the league's coaches as well as by The Associated Press, Austin enters this week's SEC Tournament ranked as the league's ninth-leading scorer (16.2 ppg) and No. 5 rebounder (7.7 rpg), while also pacing the Southeastern Conference and rating 15th nationally in field-goal percentage (58.4%). The 6-9, 265-pound native of York, Ala., also stands as the current SEC Player of the Week for the second time this season after averaging 24.5 points and 11.0 rebounds during last week's MSU wins over Arkansas and South Carolina.
Comprised of players from Division I schools out of the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, this year's USBWA All District IV Team is headlined by Alabama's Mark Gottfried and Erwin Dudley as Coach and Player of the Year, respectively. Also voted to the 10-man all district squad were SEC standouts Matt Bonner and Udonis Haslem of Florida, Georgia's Jarvis Hayes, Tayshaun Prince of Kentucky, and Tennessee's Vincent Yarbrough, along with Louisville's Reece Gaines, Chris Marcus of Western Kentucky, and Memphis' Dajuan Wagner.
Seeded second in the SEC's Western Division, coach Rick Stansbury's 23-7 Bulldogs will take on the winner of Thursday's Florida-Auburn first-round contest during quarterfinal-round action Friday evening at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Tip-off for State's opening game of the 2002 SEC Tournament is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET, and the game is set to be televised by Jefferson-Pilot Sports.
With the second-most overall wins (23) and the second-best overall winning percentage (.767) in the conference behind only SEC Champion Alabama, the Bulldogs begin postseason tournament competition ranked fourth among the current NCAA Division I statistical leaders in team field-goal percentage (49.0%) and ninth nationally in rebounding margin (+7.6).
