BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team as a whole and former Tiger and Chicago Bulls rookie Tyrus Thomas are nominated for 2006 Southern Sports Awards and fans can take part in the voting.
The all-star special featuring the South’s biggest legends, superstars and celebrities will be broadcast in markets throughout the South beginning Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. (WBXH-TV in Baton Rouge, Channel 16 on cable). The second annual two-hour awards extravaganza will be taped on Dec. 6 at Davidson College’s Duke Family Performance Hall in Davidson, N.C. Edge Marketing and Lincoln Financial Sports produce the show.
Last year’s award winners included Dean Smith, Richard Petty, Rick Flair and Bobby Bowden.
Fans can vote for award winners now through Dec. 4 at www.southernsportsawards.com.
Thomas is nominated in the Newcomer of the Year category along with NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, Raymond Felton of the Charlotte Bobcats, Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets, Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints, Tim Tebow of Florida, Mitch Mustain of Arkansas, Matthew Stafford of Georgia, Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina and C. J. Spiller of Clemson.
LSU’s upset in the Sweet 16 of tournament top seed and No. 1-ranked Duke is up for performance of the year by a team. Others in the category are: George Mason University’s Final Four run, NASCAR Bush Series driver David Gilliland winning a race with no sponsor, Arkansas upsetting No. 2 Auburn in football, Vanderbilt upsetting No. 14 Georgia in football, North Carolina baseball making the College World Series Finals, Kevin Harvick locking up the NASCAR Busch Series title with largest point-margin ever, Clemson scoring 24 fourth quarter points to beat Wake Forest, Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals winning 5-4 after being down 3-0, and, the Miami heat down 2-0 in the NBA Finals coming back to win the title.
Former Tiger and Miami Heat star Shaquille O’Neal is also in the Fan Favorite category with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Michael Vick, Tony Stewart, Julius Peppers, Dwayne Wade, Chipper Jones, Steve Smith, Dontrelle Willis and Kasey Kahne.