GSC Announces 2019 Men's Basketball All-Conference Awards
2019 MEN'S BASKETBALL ALL-GSC TEAMS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Gulf South Conference has announced its 2019 men’s basketball all-conference awards, as voted on by the league’s coaches. Three different schools took home the major awards, with
Marquill Smith of West Georgia being named the Player of the Year,
Jon Brown from West Florida earning Freshman of the Year accolades, and West Alabama’s
Allen Sharpe picking up Coach of the Year honors.
Smith has been named a First Team All-GSC selection for the second year in a row. The Miami Gardens, Florida native is ranked sixth in the nation in scoring, averaging 27.6 points per game, and he also led the GSC in rebounds, averaging 8.6 per game. He has scored 746 points this year, which is the sixth best mark in a single season in GSC history, and he is just 16 points behind fifth place (Devin Schmidt, Delta State, 2015-16) heading into tonight's GSC Quarterfinal. He scored at least 20 points in 25 of the 27 games he played for this season, including a career-high 48 against Auburn Montgomery in February. The last West Georgia player to be named GSC Player of the Year was Deonta Stocks in 2014-15.
Brown, a six-time GSC Freshman of the Week honoree, led his team in scoring with an average of 14.6 points per game and becomes just the second GSC Freshman of the Year in West Florida history, with Anthony Russell sharing the accolade 24 years ago. He finished seventh in the GSC in scoring and fourth in minutes.
Sharpe, in his fifth season at the helm of the West Alabama men’s program, led the Tigers to a share of the GSC regular season championship after being picked to finish eighth in the conference's preseason poll. It is the second time UWA has earned a share of the conference championship under his guidance. This is the first GSC Coach of the Year honor for Sharpe, and he is the first UWA coach to claim the honor since Rick Reedy in 1988-89.
The entire list of all-conference honorees can be found in the link at the top of the story.