John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins became the first Kentucky teammates to make The Associated Press first All-America team since Ralph Beard and Alex Groza in 1949.
The wire service announced its All-America team Monday at noon.
Other members of the first team were Scottie Reynolds of Villanova, Wes Johnson of Syracuse and Evan Turner of Ohio State. The AP named Turner the Player of the Year.
Kentucky had not had a first-team AP All-America selection since Ron Mercer in 1997. Wall and Cousins became the 15th and 16th UK players to make first team since The AP began naming All-America teams in the 1940s.
Wall was a contender to be The AP’s Player of the Year. But the balloting by members of the media who vote on the weekly top 25 poll tabbed Ohio State’s Evan Turner as the Player of the Year.
Past UK first-team All-America selections are Mercer (1997), Jamal Mashburn (1993), Kenny Walker (1986), Kyle Macy (1980), Dan Issel (1970), Louie Dampier (1966), Cotton Nash (1964), Johnny Cox (1959), Cliff Hagan (1954 and 1952), Bill Spivey (1951), Beard (1949 and 1948) and Groza (1949).
Wall and Cousins became the first teammates to make The AP first team since J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams of Duke in 2006.
For the third straight season, two freshmen made The AP first-team. In 2007, Kevin Durant of Texas and Greg Oden of Ohio State made the first team. In 2006, Michael Beasley of Kansas State and Kevin Love of UCLA made it.
Wall and Cousins also became the seventh and eighth freshmen on The AP first team. Other first-team freshmen were Wayman Tisdale of Oklahoma (1983) and Chris Jackson of LSU (1989).
Of UK Coach John Calipari’s star freshmen point guards, Wall is the first to be named to The AP first team. Derrick Rose was voted to the third team in 2008 and Tyreke Evans made Honorable Mention in 2009.
Wall set a UK record for assists with 241 this season. His average of 6.5 assists ranked third nationally. He also averaged 16.6 points and led the team with 66 steals.
Cousins barely missed averaging a double-double on the season. He averaged 15.1 points and 9.9 rebounds. He recorded 20 double-doubles in 38 games. Only five players in Division One had more double-doubles.
Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald- Leader has covered Kentucky basketball since the 1981-82 season. That time includes five coaches, five Final Fours, four athletic directors, two interim athletic directors and many memories. Before coming to Lexington, Tipton worked eight years for the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch. He covered Marshall’s basketball team for two seasons before coming to the Herald-Leader.
1 comment so far ↓
Either Calipari should be embarrassed he didn’t do better with…two… all-americans or the voters made a mistake. And I bet Coach K at Duke would agree, considering in 2006, when Reddick and Williams did the same and then lost the same in the region semifinals to LSU, as the tournament overall number 1 seed. But I bet I know what they’d both pick.