LSU Gold

Men's Basketball Holds Annual Awards Banquet

+0
Men's Basketball Holds Annual Awards Banquet

BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team held its annual team banquet Tuesday night at the L’Auberge Hotel and Casino.

The Tigers three seniors from this past season – Josh Gray, Keith Hornsby and Henry Shortess – were honored with their senior jerseys and Hornsby and Shortess were named the recipient of the L Club Team Captain Awards.

The LSU National L Club Team Captain Award program recognizes a player for his/her leadership on the team which mirrors the qualities of a team captain. The L Club Team Captain Award is given to a current team athlete in each sport and is chosen by the head coach. The athlete must have earned a varsity letter in their respective sport, be an exceptional leader in practice and competition, possess qualities which teammates respect and that underclassmen aspire to attain and, lastly, be a role model in the classroom and the community. 

Shortess was also honored with this year’s Dale Brown Award presented by the former LSU Coach. Shortess, who was honored early in the year as a Rucks Fellow by the Ourso College of Business, was given a scholarship in mid-season by Coach Jones for his efforts and contributions to the basketball program.

Also recognized were SEC All-Freshman Team members Ben Simmons and Antonio Blakeney and for Simmons selection as first-team All-SEC.

Simmons, who was in Oklahoma City Monday night to receive the Wayman Tisdale honor from the USBWA, also was honored for a season that saw him become the fifth LSU player to earn consensus First-Team All-America honors and other Freshman of the Year honors from the Sporting News and USA Today. He was also named the Offensive Player of the Year and was the category award winners in field goal percentage (56.0%), assists (4.8 apg), steals (2.0 spg) and rebounds (11.8 rpg).

Blakeney was named the Most Improved Tiger and earned top defensive player honor after averaging just under 20 points over the last 10 games of the season and improved his scoring average 3.1 points over that span from 9.5 to 12.6.