MT's Jones to Participate in All-Star game at the Final Four

Apr 01, 2014 at 04:53 pm by bryan


Senior Shawn Jones of the Middle Tennessee men's basketball team (24-9, 13-3 C-USA) will participate in the 2014 Reese's Division I College All-Star Game as announced by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Tuesday morning.

The NABC All-Star game will be played as part of the Final Four Friday at the 2014 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. The contest will take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, beginning at 4:30 p.m.

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"Being selected for the NABC All-Star game is one of the highest honors any senior college basketball player can receive," said MT head coach Kermit Davis. "I'm extremely happy for Shawn (Jones). He's so deserving of this selection and it's also a great reflection of our Middle Tennessee basketball program."

This marks the fourth postseason honor for Jones as the MT big man's accolades started to pour in after earning Conference USA First Team honors. He was also named the 2014 C-USA Player of the Year and was a NABC All-District First Team selection.

The Hialeah, Fla., native's awards come after he led the Blue Raiders to a share of the regular season C-USA title, marking their third-straight regular season conference championship and fourth in the last five years. He led Middle Tennessee to a 24-9 record on the season, helping MT to its third-straight 20-win season and becoming a part of the winningest class is program history along the way with 95 wins.

Jones was a three-time C-USA Player of the Week award winner and led Middle Tennessee in points, rebounds and blocked shots. He paced MT this season with 14.2 points per game and 15.1 points an outing in league play, while leading the Blue Raiders on the boards with 8.5 rebounds a game and 8.1 boards per contest in C-USA games. The 6-foot-8 forward posted 63 blocks on the year to average 1.9 swats per game and 2.5 in conference play. In C-USA only games, he ranked seventh in scoring, fifth in rebounding and second in blocked shots.

According the NCAA statistical rankings released March 24, Jones ranks 18th in the nation in field goal percentage and second in C-USA, shooting 57.7-percent from the floor. He ranks 50th in the nation and fourth in the conference with 10 double-doubles on the year.

The NABC All-Star rosters are composed of senior student-athletes in NCAA Division I. The teams consist of some of the nation's top 21 seniors from schools including Memphis, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Baylor, Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Saint Louis, Indiana, VCU, Mercer, Pittsburgh and others. Jones will play on the 11 member Reese's West All-Star Team under Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins.

Both the West and East teams will practice Wednesday and Thursday, before Friday's game at 4:30 p.m. The Reese's Division I College All-Star Game will be telecast on tape delay on Saturday, April 5 at noon EST on CBS.

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