STARKVILLE, Miss. ? Continuing to add to his impressive list of individual honors, Mississippi State junior guard/forward Jamont Gordon has been named to Rivals.com’s 2007-08 All-America Second Team.
A third-team all-America selection last year by Rivals.com, Gordon is one of three SEC players named to this year’s 15-man list. SEC Player of the Year Shan Foster of Vanderbilt is a first-team member, while Tennessee’s Tyler Smith has been chosen to the third team.
A unanimous All-SEC First Team recipient by a vote of the league’s head coaches as well as by the The Associated Press this season, Gordon currently ranks seventh in the SEC in scoring (17.2 ppg), third in assists (4.94 apg) and 13th in rebounding (6.6 rpg). In helping lead coach Rick Stansbury’s 23-11 Bulldogs to a second-round NCAA Tournament appearance and second straight SEC West title, Gordon averaged 14.5 points, 11.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists this past weekend during South Regional play in Little Rock, Ark. In Sunday’s three-point loss to second-ranked Memphis, Gordon notched his fourth double-double of the year and 14th of his career with 21 points and 11 rebounds against the top-seeded Tigers.
For his three-year collegiate career to date, the Nashville native presently stands seventh on Mississippi State’s all-time scoring list with 1,558 career points, along with ranking third with 484 career assists and tied for 12th with 677 career rebounds in 99 career outings.
A product of prestigious Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, Gordon is also a national finalist for this year’s John R. Wooden Award (national player of the year) and Bob Cousy Award (nation’s top collegiate point guard). The two-time, first-team all-SEC selection has also been named to Scout.com’s 2007-08 All-America Second Team, in addition to garnering first-team all-district laurels from the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). Locally, Gordon is one of three finalists for the Cellular South Howell Trophy (Mississippi’s collegiate player of the year) for the second consecutive year.
Headlined by Rivals.com’s National Player of the Year Michael Beasley of Kansas State, the five-man first team is rounded out by North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough, D.J. Augustin of Texas and Davidson’s Stephen Curry. Hansbrough and MSU’s Gordon are the only two repeat selections from Rivals.com’s 2006-07 All-America teams. Joining Gordon on this year’s second team are Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis, Stanford’s Brook Lopez, Luke Harangody of Notre Dame and UCLA’s Kevin Love.
