BATON ROUGE — The Southeastern Conference announced Wednesday that LSU forward Brandon Bass has been named the SEC Freshman of the Year in a vote of the league coaches.
Bass, from Capitol High School in Baton Rouge, has had a strong first year for the Tigers and is the first freshman to win the honor at LSU since Torris Bright was named Associated Press co-Freshman of the Year in 2000. Bass is averaging 12.7 points per game and 7.2 rebounds a game. He is second in the league in freshman scoring and the league’s leading freshman rebounder and his rebound total is sixth among all players entering Friday’s SEC Tournament game at 2:15 p.m. CST in Atlanta against the winner of Thursday’s game between South Carolina and Arkansas.
Bass may be playing some of his best basketball of late in the wake of the departure of Jaime Lloreda. Although now getting double teamed almost every time he touches the ball, Bass has responded with three straight double figure scoring games and enters the tournament off his sixth double-double of the year, 15 points and a season-high equaling 13 rebounds with an assist and block.
In the last three games of the season, Bass was 14-of-21 from the field (66.7 percent) as he returned to over 50 percent from the field for the season. Bass is also second in the league in blocked shot average (2.0) and his free throw percentage of 78 percent is seventh in the league.
Departed LSU player Lloreda was named second-team All-SEC by the coaches.