MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Birmingham-Southern
College and Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the
Year Chris Graves, along with Centre College senior Greg Ross,
highlight the conference's selections to the D3hoops.com Men's
All-South Region team the website announced on Monday. All-South Region Team |
All-West Region Team
Graves was selected as the South Region Coach-of-the-Year and Ross
was named to the South Region First Team. Graves is just the third
Region Coach-of-the-Year honoree from an SCAC institution -
following Mitch Coloe of Birmingham-Southern who was selected South
Region Coach-of-the-Year in 2010-11 and Greg Mason of Centre who
won the award in 2007-08.
Joining Ross as All-Region selections was Zac Richards of
Birmingham-Southern who was named to the All-South Region Third
Team. Ryan Milne of Colorado College was an All-West Region Second
Team selection.
Despite dealing with double-teams for much of the season,
Ross (pictured left) was second in the league in scoring
at 16.4 points per game and led the SCAC in rebounding with 8.0
boards per game. The senior also led the SCAC in free throw
percentage at 86.8 percent (118-136) and was second in field goal
percentage at 52.6 percent (160-304). He recorded a league-high six
double-doubles this season and led Centre in scoring 12 times and
rebounding 17 times. In a signature win over sixth-ranked Cabrini
College, Ross hit a free throw with no time left to send the game
into overtime, then hit two more free throws with no time left in
the overtime period to win the game. Ross was a first team All-SCAC
selection this season. Ross was a three time SCAC Player of the
Week selection during the season.
Graves (pictured right), who is in his first year as head
coach, guided the Panthers to a
banner year, finishing 25-3 and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA
Division III national tournament the first year they were eligible.
He was also named SCAC Coach-of-the-Year, the first time that a
first-year head coach has earned the honor and guided the Panthers
to the SCAC tournament semifinals. Birmingham-Southern was ranked
as high as eighth by D3hoops.com during the season.
Graves served as an assistant coach at Birmingham-Southern the
previous three seasons under last year's South Region
Coach-of-the-Year Mitch Cole and moved into the head coaching chair
after Cole resigned to take a job with Texas A&M last year. As
an assistant, Graves helped guide the Panthers to the 2010-11 NCAA
Division III Provisional tournament championship in their final
year of reclassifying from Division I to Division III.
Junior forward Zac Richards of Birmingham-Southern
(pictured left) averaged 11.9 points (16th – SCAC)
and 6.2 rebounds(tied 7th – SCAC) a game for the
Panthers while being named to the All-SCAC first team. He also shot
63.9 percent from the floor for the year. He tallied two
double-doubles on the season and led the Panthers in scoring 11
times and rebounding 13 times during the season. Richards was
fourth in the league in free throw percentage at 80.8 (84-104)
percent. Richards earned SCAC Player of the Week laurels twice
during the season.
Sophomore guard Ryan Milne of Colorado College
(pictured right) 
followed up his SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year award by leading the SCAC
in scoring (19.0 points per game), assists (5.0 assists per game)
and minutes played (37.7 minutes per game). He ranked among the
league's best in free throw percentage (85.0 percent - 2nd), field
goal percentage (38.1 percent - 6th) and made 3-point field goals
(2.4 per game - tied for 3rd). He led the Tigers in scoring 14
times during the season and scored 20 or more points 11 times
including two 30+ point efforts. Milne was a first team All-SCAC
honoree and garnered SCAC Player of the Week honors three times
during the season.
Players were nominated for these awards by the Sports Information
Directors at the various schools, who were contacted multiple times
as the season wound down to remind them to make their players
eligible. There were 680 players nominated nationwide, a new high.
The ballot was then made available to SIDs, who voted for a
predetermined number of players in their region.