C-USA Names Santee to All-Freshman Team
3/5/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2002
Memphis freshman Dajuan Wagner, who is on pace to break former Saint Louis star Larry Hughes' Conference USA freshman scoring record, is the C-USA Freshman of the Year, the league office announced Tuesday.
Joining Wagner on the all-freshman team are TCU guard Corey Santee, East Carolina center Moussa Badiane, Marquette guard Travis Diener and Jason Maxiell.
Santee is second in the league with 5.90 assists per game and is the seventh player in Conference USA history to record multiple 20-plus point, 10-plus assist games in the same season.Badiane set the Conference USA freshman record with 84 blocked shots, and is tied for second on Conference USA's single-season rejection list. Diener, whose cousins, Drake and Drew, play for C-USA American Division rivals DePaul and Saint Louis, respectively, is third in the league in three-point field goal percentage at 43.1 percent.
Wagner enters this week's Conference USA Tournament as the league's second-leading scorer at 21.4 points per game. He has scored at least 20 points on 20 different occasions, which is tops in C-USA. He also ranks among the league leaders in assists at 3.43 per game. He has been held to single digits just once in his college career, and he was recently named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 7 team. Wagner has helped Memphis to 22 wins, its highest total since 1995-96, as the Tigers are the third seed in this week's tournament and face the winner of the Houston-East Carolina first round game in Thursday's 3:30 p.m. quarterfinal.
Cincinnati senior swingman Immanuel McElroy, who has helped spearhead one of the nation's top defenses, was named Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year, while Bearcat teammate Jason Maxiell was named Sixth Player of the Year after finishing among the league's Top 20 in field goal percentage, rebounding and blocked shots.
Often assigned to guard the opposing team's leading scorer, McElroy has contributed to a share of Cincinnati's seventh straight Conference USA regular season title. As the top seed, the Bearcats meet the winner of the South Florida-UAB first round game in Thursday's 7:00 p.m. quarterfinal. According to the Feb. 26 NCAA Statistics, Cincinnati leads the nation in field goal percentage defense (37.0) and is sixth in the nation in scoring defense (58.4). Only two Cincinnati opponents have hit 50 percent or better from the floor this season. McElroy, a 6-4 senior from Port Arthur, Texas, has slowed several of Conference USA's most prolific scorers.
Maxiell has energized Cincinnati off the bench, posting 11 points and nearly seven rebounds per game in his last four outings. He tied his career scoring high with 18 points on 9-of-9 shooting from the field in a 79-62 victory at DePaul on Feb. 19. He has recorded multiple block games 11 times, including a career-high seven rejections against Saint Louis on Feb. 12. The 6-7, 235-pounder is the first freshman in Conference USA history to win the league's Sixth Player of the Year honor.
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2001-02 CONFERENCE USA SIXTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR Jason Maxiell, Cincinnati, F, 6-7, 235, Fr., Carrollton, Texas/Newman Smith
2001-02 CONFERENCE USA DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR Immanuel McElroy, Cincinnati, G/F, 6-4, 195, Port Arthur,Texas/Lincoln/Tyler
2001-02 CONFERENCE USA FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR Dajuan Wagner, Memphis, G, 6-3, 200, Fr., Camden, N.J./Camden
2000-01 CONFERENCE USA ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM Moussa Badiane, East Carolina, C, 6-10, 215, Fr., Paris, France Travis Diener, Marquette, G, 6-0, 160, Fr., Fond DuLac, Wis./Fond DuLac Jason Maxiell, Cincinnati, F, 6-7, 235, Fr., Carrollton, Texas/Newman Smith Corey Santee, TCU, G, 6-2,. 185, Fr., Flint, Mich./Southwestern Academy Dajuan Wagner, Memphis, G, 6-3, 200, Fr., Camden, N.J./Camden
