MSU's Jamont Gordon Named To 2008 John R. Wooden Award Final Ballot
STARKVILLE, Miss. ? Mississippi State University junior guard/forward Jamont Gordon has been selected as one of 24 student-athletes named to the official voting ballot for the 2008 John R. Wooden Award All-American Team and Player of the Year. The announcement was made Monday at The Los Angeles Athletic Club by John R. Wooden Award Chairman Richard "Duke" Llewellyn.
Gordon, who was also recently named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District 6 First Team, enters postseason play ranked fifth in the SEC in scoring (17.5 ppg), third in assists (4.77 apg) and tied for 14th in rebounds (6.3 rpg). Coming off back-to-back efforts of 24 points at Vanderbilt last Wednesday and 23 points in Saturday’s home win over LSU, he also stands tied for third in the league with 14 outings of 20 or more points on the year. In conference games only for the season, the Nashville product ranks seventh in scoring (17.5 ppg), third in assists (4.94 apg) and 15th in rebounding (6.3 rpg).
During his 95-game MSU career for coach Rick Stansbury’s Bulldogs, Gordon enters this week’s SEC Tournament ranked eighth on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,499 career points, in addition to standing third with 459 career assists and 15th with 643 career rebounds. With career averages of 15.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists, Gordon presently rates as the nation’s lone active non-senior Division I player to have totaled 1,400 career points, 600 career rebounds and 400 career assists. This season, he joins UT Martin’s Lester Hudson as the lone two Division I men’s basketball players to currently average 17.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists an outing on the season.
Joining Gordon from the Southeastern Conference on the official ballot of this year’s Wooden Award Top 24 candidate listing are Shan Foster of Vanderbilt and the Tennessee tandem of Chris Lofton and Tyler Smith. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Gordon becomes the first Mississippi State player included on the Wooden Award official ballot since Lawrence Roberts made the ballot as a senior in 2004-05 after having previously been selected to the 2003-04 Wooden Award All-American First Team in his first season with the Bulldogs.
The 2008 Wooden Award ceremony, which will include the presentation of the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winners, the Wooden Award All-American Teams, and the Legends of Coaching Award to Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, will be held at The Los Angeles Athletic Club the weekend of April 11-12. The top five male and female finalists will be invited to Los Angeles for the awards ceremony and will receive a contribution from The Los Angeles Athletic Club for their university’s general scholarship fund.
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. It is bestowed upon the nation’s best player at an institution of higher learning who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 grade point average. Last year’s recipients were Kevin Durant of Texas and Tennessee’s Candace Parker.