BATON ROUGE — LSU senior guard Marcus Thornton, the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year after leading the Tigers to the SEC regular season championship and the NCAA Tournament, was a unanimous choice as Louisiana Player of the Year in the annual announcement of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association All-Louisiana College Basketball team.
Thornton’s coach, Trent Johnson, won Coach of the Year honors in his first year at LSU.
Nicholls’ Fred Hunter added the state Freshman of the Year to his Southland Conference honor, while Malcolm Thomas of Louisiana-Monroe and LSU-Shreveport’s Mike Pilgrim tie for the state Newcomer of the Year honor for those athletes playing their first year of basketball in the state.
The team was selected following nominations from the four-year basketball playing institutions in the state and then a panel of LSWA members were asked to select their top 15 players with the top player receiving 15 points down to one. From those point totals, three-five member teams were selected and then members picked the top choice for the special awards.
Thornton, last year’s Louisiana Newcomer of the Year, averaged 21.1 points per game, 5.5 rebounds, and hitting 78 three-pointers for the Tigers. Thornton became a more complete player in his senior seasons with his ability to drive to the bucket and score and draw free throws and his ability to be able to defend. He was second in the SEC in scoring and finished the season with 19 consecutive double figure games, including back-to-back 30-point games, the first time an LSU player did that since 1995.
Thornton, who was a unanimous pick on the 21 ballots submitted, was a Wooden Award finalist and a second-team All-American selection by rivals.com.
Johnson, who came to LSU from Stanford, made his first season one Tiger fans would long remember, leading the Tigers to the SE regular season championship with a 13-3 record and an overall mark of 27-8, equaling the third most wins in a season in program history. The team, which clinched the title with a week still to play, advanced to the NCAA Tournament second round before losing to eventual national champion North Carolina.
Johnson was the consensus SEC Coach of the Year and was a finalist for four national coach of the year awards.
Hunter helped Nicholls State to an impressive 12-4 mark in conference play, averaging 10.6 points and 3.5 rebounds. The native of Denton, Texas was fourth in the SLC in field goal percentage at 55.5 percent (126-of-227). Hunter averaged 23 minutes a game and started 30-of-31 games during the course of the year, averaging over one assist and one steal a contest.
LSU-Shreveport’s Pilgrim was a mid-season transfer and the junior from Cincinnati set a single season LSU record for shooting percentage, making 64.2 percent of his shots. He was named a first-team Gulf Coast Athletic Conference selection, averaging 14.0 points and 7.5 rebounds for the Pilots, who again went to the NAIA National Tournament for the fifth straight year.
Thomas, a junior college transfer from Karnack, Texas, averaged 12.3 points per game and 4.8 rebounds in his first Division I season. He started the season coming off the bench, moved into the starting role and eventually shooting 40 percent from three-point range (46-of-115). He had nine games in double figures against conference foes and one of the top rebounding guards in the league with nearly 150 boards.
Joining Thornton on the first team were Ryan Bathie of Nicholls, Kyndall Dykes of UNO, Kyle Gibson of Louisiana Tech and Tasmin Mitchell of LSU.
Bathie averaged 15.8 points per game (sixth in the SLC) and the senior was a first-team All-SLC selection, while Dykes finished second in the Sun Belt in scoring at 17.3 points per game. Gibson earned second team All-WAC honors for Tech averaging 16.1 points per game, while Mitchell, who was a first-team All-SEC selection for LSU averaging 16.3 points, was the only other player besides Thornton named on all 21 ballots.
On the second team are Ryan Brock of Loyola, Chris Davis of Southern, Josh Johnson of Louisiana College, Bo Spencer and Garrett Temple of LSU. The third team was Anatoly Bose of Nicholls, Chris Gatlin of LSU-Shreveport, Chris Johnson of LSU, Magnum Rolle of Louisiana Tech and Kevin Sims of Tulane. Four players were selected honorable mention: Chase Adams and Nick Stallings of Centenary, Shaun Dumas of Xavier and Pilgrim of LSU-Shreveport.
LSWA All-Louisiana Men’s Basketball Team
First Team
Name, School/P/Ht/Cl/Hometown/Notes-Stats/Pts
*Marcus Thornton, LSU/G/6-4/Sr./Baton Rouge, La./2nd team A-A, SEC POY 21.1 ppg/315
Tasmin Mitchell, LSU/F/6-7/Jr./Denham Springs, La./1st team All-SEC, 16.3 ppg/271
Kyle Gibson, Louisiana Tech/G/6-5/Jr./Los Angeles, Calif./2nd team All-WAC, 16.1 ppg/201
Kyndall Dykes, UNO/F/6-3/Sr./New Orleans, La./2nd SBC in scoring, 17.3 ppg/165
Ryan Bathie, Nicholls/F/6-6/Sr./Melton, Australia/1st team All-SLC, NABC All-District, 15.8 ppg/135
PLAYER OF THE YEAR ? Marcus Thornton, LSU
Voting ? Thornton 21.
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR ? Fred Hunter, Nicholls
Voting ? Hunter 10, Derrick Parker 7, William Mosley 3, Pat Richard 1
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR ? (Tie) Mike Pilgrim, LSU-Shreveport; Malcolm Thomas, ULM
Voting ? Pilgrim 7, Thomas 7, Jamel Guyton 4, Gary Redus II 3
COACH OF THE YEAR ? Trent Johnson, LSU
Voting ? Johnson 20, J.P. Piper 1
Second Team
Name, School/P/Ht/Cl/Hometown/Notes-Stats/Pts
Ryan Brock, Loyola/F/6-3/So./New Orleans, La./NAIA A-A HM; GCAC Newcomer, 19.9/122
Chris Davis, Southern/PG/6-3/Sr./Baton Rouge, La./3rd team All-SWAC, 14.5 ppg (3 SWC)/117
Josh Johnson, Louisiana College/F/6-5/Sr./Ruston, La./All-ASC, 3rd team All-South, 17.5 ppg/112
Garrett Temple, LSU/G/6-6/Sr./Baton Rouge, La./2nd team All-SEC, SEC Def. Team/89
Bo Spencer, LSU/G/6-1/So./Baton Rouge, La./PG SEC champs, 11.6 ppg, 2.6 apg/87
Third Team
Name, School/P/Ht/Cl/Hometown/Notes-Stats/Pts
Magnum Rolle, Louisiana Tech/F/6-11/Jr./Freeport, Bahamas/All-WAC Newcomer, Defensive/77
Kevin Sims, Tulane/PG/5-10/Jr./Jackson, Miss./Bob Cousy Award List, 13.0 ppg/66
Chris Gatlin, LSU-Shreveport/G-F/6-6/Sr./Baton Rouge, La./NAIA A-A HM, All-GCAC, 16.5/56
Anatoly Bose, Nicholls/F/6-6/So./Sydney, Australia/3rd team All-SLC, 15.0 ppg/51
Chris Johnson, LSU/C/6-11/Sr./Montross, Va./All-SEC Defensive, 2.7 bpg/51
Honorable Mention
Chase Adams, Centenary; Shawn Dumas, Xavier; Mike Pilgrim, LSU-Shreveport; Nick Stallings, Centenary.