Richard Named Southland Men's Basketball Player of the Year

3/6/2012 3:00:00 PM

KATY, Texas - McNeese State senior Patrick Richard has been named the 2011-12 Southland Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year by vote of the league's head coaches and sports information directors, the conference office announced Tuesday in conjunction with the release of the all-conference basketball teams.

Additionally, Nicholls State forward Trevon Lewis earned freshman of the year honors and UT Arlington junior forward Kevin Butler was named the newcomer of the year. His head coach, Scott Cross, was named the Southland Conference Coach of the Year.

Richard, a native of Carencro, La., (Carencro H.S.), will enter the tournament having scored 1,563 career points which puts him 12th on the school's all-time list. He is 94 points shy of 11th place and 124 points out of 10th place. Richard also has 178 career assists which is the school's 10th best total. The 6-foot-4, 208-pound swingman leads the conference in scoring with 18.2 points per game overall and finished second in the league with 19.1 points per game during Southland games. His 36.1 minutes per game in all games and 37.4 during league play were the most in the conference this year. Richard also ranked among the conference's top 10 this season in four other categories, including free-throw percentage (sixth, .783), defensive rebounds (eighth, 4.4), assist-to-turnover ratio (ninth, 1.3) and assists (10th, 3.0).

Richard is the eighth McNeese State player to be selected as the Southland player of the year and the first since Demond Mallet in 2001. He was McNeese State's athlete of the year last year after helping the Cowboys to the conference regular-season championship and a berth in the National Invitation Tournament. The team's most valuable player the last two seasons, Richard already has a degree in mass communication and is working on a master's degree. Earlier this season, his No. 3 jersey was retired by his high school.

Lewis led Nicholls State in scoring, averaging 13.1 points per game, which was the best among freshmen and ranked 10th overall in the Southland. He is ranked eighth in the league in field goal percentage, connecting on 50.4 percent of his shots from the floor. In league action, the Houma, La. (Ellender H.S.), native was fourth in field goal accuracy, shooting 55.4 percent. The 6-foot-5, 200-pound forward has four double-doubles to his credit this season in games against Auburn, UTSA, UT Arlington and Texas State. He finished the season with three 20-point games, including a season-high 25 points in a win over Louisiana-Monroe in December. Lewis is the fourth Nicholls player to earn freshman of the year honors and the first since Fred Hunter in 2009.

Butler made an immediate impact for the Mavericks after transferring from TCU. The junior forward from Duncanville, Texas (Duncanville H.S.), averaged 11.2 points per game to rank third for UT Arlington and 5.6 rebounds per game to rank second on the team. Butler has scored in double figures 19 times and has four double-digit rebounding efforts. He grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds at Central Arkansas and led team in scoring four times. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound Butler netted a career-high 21 points and added six rebounds and career-best five steals in 22 minutes against Texas-Pan American in December. Butler is the second UT Arlington player to be named the league's newcomer of the year, following last year's recipient Bo Ingram.

Cross earned his first coach of the year award after guiding the Mavericks to their second overall and first outright Southland Conference regular-season championship in his sixth season at UT Arlington. He is the second UTA coach to earn the award, joining Bob LeGrand, who was honored in 1981. The Mavericks enter this week's conference tournament with a 23-7 overall record and finished 15-1 during conference play, just missing a bid to become the league's first team to go undefeated in a 16-game schedule with a loss in the regular-season finale. They have won 19 of their last 21 games, including 16 in a row. Cross, who guided the Mavericks to their first NCAA tournament berth by winning the Southland tournament in 2008, is 102-80 in his tenure at UT Arlington.

Richard earned all-conference honors for the third time in his career, repeating his first-team selection from last season to go with a second-team honor in 2010. He was joined on the first team this year by UT Arlington senior guard LaMarcus Reed, Northwestern State senior center William Mosley, Lamar senior guard Mike James and Stephen F. Austin junior guard Antonio Bostic. Richard, Reed (17.6) and James (16.8) were the top three scorers in the league and Mosley leads the conference in rebounding (9.6) and blocked shots (4.1). Bostic averaged 11.5 points per game and ranked second behind Richard in minutes played (36.9).

The second team was comprised of Lamar guard Devon Lamb (12.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg), UT Arlington forward Bo Ingram (12.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg), Stpehen F. Austin center Jereal Scott (12.7 ppg, 5.4 rpg), UTSA forward Jeromie Hill (12.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and Lamar guard Anthony Miles (14.6 ppg, 4.5 rbg, 4.1 apg). The third-team choices were Texas State forward Matt Staff (13.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg), Butler from UT Arlington, UTSA guard Melvin Johnson III (12.8 ppg, 3.3 rpg), Northwestern guard Shamir Davis (13.4 ppg, 3.1 apg) and Central Arkansas guard LaQuentin Miles (14.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg).

Division winners UT Arlington in the West and Lamar in the East led all universities with three all-conference selections. Northwestern State, Stephen F. Austin and UTSA each had two selections, while Central Arkansas, McNeese State and Texas State each had at least one all-league honoree.

Just three all-conference players were also recognized last season. Richard earned all-conference kudos for the third time overall, while Mosley and Scott each earned second-team honors last season. Additionally, six student-athletes were named honorable mention all-conference after receiving votes from at least 25 percent of the coaches and sports information directors.

All three all-conference teams are listed below.

The 2012 Southland Conference Basketball Tournament will be played this week at the Leonard E. Merrell Center. Four men's quarterfinal games will be played Wednesday beginning at noon with semifinal games Thursday at 6:05 p.m. and approximately 8:33 p.m. The championship game will be played Saturday at 2:05 p.m. and televised on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com. Both semifinal games will be televised on the Southland Conference Television Network. The first six games of the tournament will be streamed free on SLC NOW on Southland.org. Tickets for the tournament are available through Ticketmaster or at the Merrell Center box office.

2012 Men's Basketball All-Southland Conference Teams

First Team	School	Pos.	Cl.	Hometown
Patrick Richard	McNeese State	G/F	Sr.	Carencro, La.
LaMarcus Reed	UT Arlington	G	Sr.	Dallas, Texas
William Mosley	Northwestern State	C	Sr.	Shreveport, La.
Mike James	Lamar	G	Sr.	Portland, Ore,
Antonio Bostic	Stephen F. Austin	G	Jr.	Kansas City, Kan.

Second Team	School	Pos.	Cl.	Hometown
Devon Lamb	Lamar	G	Sr.	Jacksonville, Fla.
Bo Ingram	UT Arlington	F	Sr.	Kinston, N.C.
Jereal Scott	Stephen F. Austin	C	Sr.	LaPorte, Texas
Jeromie Hill	UTSA	F	So.	Cairns, Australia
Anthony Miles	Lamar	G	Sr.	Houston, Texas

Third Team	School	Pos.	Cl.	Hometown
Matt Staff	Texas State	F	Jr.	Houston, Texas
Kevin Butler	UT Arlington	F	Jr.	Duncanville, Texas
Melvin Johnson III	UTSA	G	Jr.	Dallas, Texas
Shamir Davis	Northwestern State	G	Jr.	Shreveport, La.
LaQuentin Miles	Central Arkansas	G	So.	Jacksonville, Ark.

Honorable Mention: Dontae Cannon, McNeese State; Trevon Lewis, Nicholls State; Jordan Reves, UT Arlington; Kannon Burrage, UTSA; Terence Jones, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi; Brooks Ybarra, Texas State.

Player of the Year: Patrick Richard, McNeese State
Newcomer of the Year: Kevin Butler, UT Arlington
Freshman of the Year: Trevon Lewis, Nicholls State
Coach of the Year: Scott Cross, UT Arlington