Mississippi State’s junior center Mario Austin has been named one of the 20 finalists for this year’s Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year Award. Jackie Bradford, the president of the Atlanta Tipoff Club, made the announcement Tuesday afternoon from the organization’s Atlanta offices.
The Naismith Board of Selectors, which includes some of the country’s leading basketball coaches, journalists and administrators, began the selection process earlier this year and have reduced the number of finalists by balloting to the 20 top male and female players they felt most deserving of the award. Lady Bulldog senior forward LaToya Thomas is a top-20 finalist for the women’s Naismith honor. The winners of the Naismith Awards will be honored in Atlanta on Friday, April 11, 2003.
Austin, who has also made the Midseason Top 30 list of candidates for this year’s John R. Wooden Award, is joined on the 2002-03 Naismith Award candidate listing by Southeastern Conference foes Keith Bogans of Kentucky, Florida’s Matt Bonner and Jarvis Hayes of the University of Georgia.
Austin, 6-9, 260 pounds from York, Ala., is currently leading coach Rick Stansbury’s 19th-ranked Bulldogs in scoring (16.9 ppg), rebounding (8.3 rpg) and field-goal percentage (56.8 percent) on the season. Having recently joined the school’s 1,000-point club for career scoring, Austin currently tops the SEC in field-goal percentage (59.2 percent) for conference games only, while ranking eighth in league scoring (15.5 ppg) and fourth in rebounding (8.2 rpg).
A second-team all-SEC selection a year ago as a sophomore, Austin is the reigning SEC Tournament MVP after leading last year’s State squad to the school’s second league tournament title in the last seven years.