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C-USA's Wade, Gaines join Garner native West on All-America team
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
David West knows how to get
the most, whether it's points on the court or votes off of it.
He became the first Xavier
player to earn AP All-America honors Thursday as the leading vote-getter on
the 2002-03 team.
The three-time Atlantic 10
player of the year was joined on the first team by fellow seniors Nick
Collison of Kansas and Josh Howard of Wake Forest, along with junior Dwyane
Wade of Marquette and sophomore T.J. Ford of Texas.
Collison, Wade and Ford play
Saturday in the Final Four.
The 6-foot-9 West, a
second-team All-American last year, averaged 20.3 points and 12.0 rebounds
for the Musketeers, leading them to a Top 10 ranking and a No. 3 seed in the
NCAA tournament.
West, a Garner native who came
to Xavier from Hargrave Military Institute, surprised a lot of people when
he decided to pass up the NBA draft and return for his senior season. He
admitted honors like these were part of the reason.
``That was always the goal
that I wanted to give myself a chance at things like that, and that's what I
thought about as I went through all that hard work in the offseason,'' he
said.
His most remarkable
performance came against Dayton on Feb. 8, when he scored 47 points and had
18 rebounds, just missing a double-double in each half.
``I've always wanted to set
myself apart from other players, and to be the first player picked from
Xavier is part of all that,'' he said.
West, the only preseason
All-American to earn the postseason honor, received 64 first-team votes and
344 points from the 72-member national media panel that selects the weekly
AP Top 25. Each voter picked three teams and players received points on a
5-3-1 basis. The voting was done before the NCAA tournament.
West didn't sound impressed
with being the leading vote-getter.
``It's just such a sign of
respect to be on the team period that I don't know if that adds any more to
it,'' he said.
The 5-10 Ford averaged 15.0
points and 7.5 assists to lead the Longhorns to a No. 1 seed in the
tournament, and then to the Final Four, the school's first since 1947. An
honorable mention pick as a freshman, Ford became the first Texas player to
be selected for the first team since Chris Mihm in 2000.
Ford had two more first-team
votes than West but finished with 343 points.
Howard was the Atlantic Coast
Conference's player of the year, averaging 20 points and 8.1 rebounds to
lead the Demon Deacons to their first outright regular-season league
championship in 41 years and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. The 6-6
forward received 47 first-team votes and 303 points to become the first Wake
Forest All-American since Tim Duncan in 1997.
Collison gives Kansas an
All-American for the second straight year (Drew Gooden was selected in 2002
as a junior). The 6-9 Collison averaged 18.4 points and 9.3 rebounds,
helping the Jayhawks win the Big 12 regular-season title, and earn a No. 2
seed in the tournament and a second straight Final Four appearance.
Collison, an honorable-mention
pick last season, was on 42 first-team ballots and had 281 points.
Wade was the first Marquette
player to make the first team since Butch Lee in 1978. The 6-4 Wade averaged
21.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists to lead the Golden Eagles to the
Conference USA championship, and then to the school's first Final Four since
coach Al McGuire's team won the national title in 1977.
Wade, an honorable-mention
selection as a sophomore, had 273 points and received 43 first-team votes.
Hollis Price of Oklahoma was
one of four seniors on the second team. He was joined by Kyle Korver of
Creighton, Troy Bell of Boston College and Jason Gardner of Arizona.
Freshman Carmelo Anthony of Syracuse was seventh in the voting with 203
points, 58 behind Price.
Seniors made up the third
team: Brian Cook of Illinois, Reece Gaines of Louisville, Kirk Hinrich of
Kansas, Keith Bogans of Kentucky, and Ron Slay of Tennessee.
Hinrich, an honorable-mention
pick as a junior, was also on the preseason All-America team this season
with West, Gardner, Luke Walton of Arizona and Erwin Dudley of Alabama.
Last year's All-America team
was comprised of seniors Steve Logan of Cincinnati, Juan Dixon of Maryland
and Dan Dickau of Gonzaga, and juniors Gooden and Jason Williams of Duke,
both of whom left early for the NBA.
Copyright 2003
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 11:03:05 AM
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