Men's Basketball Announces Team Awards
Derek Williams Named MVP, Papa Dia Earns Seven Honors
April 15, 2010
DALLAS (SMU) --- The SMU men's basketball team handed out its awards for the 2009-10 season at the team banquet held at the Doubletree Campbell Center on Thursday. Head coach Matt Doherty along with graduating seniors Mouhammad Faye and Derek Williams addressed the audience about the season and the future of SMU basketball. Williams was named team MVP.
The Mustangs went 7-9 in Conference USA, recording their most wins (7), best finish (tied for 7th) and best seed (No.
since joining Conference USA for the 2005-06 season. The Mustangs started 0-3 in league play, then went 7-4 in the next 11 games before losing the final two contests. SMU finished 14-17 overall. Papa Dia and Williams were selected to the 2010 All-Conference USA Third Team. It is the first time SMU has had multiple All-Conference selections since the 2001-02 season.The Ponies finished second in C-USA in scoring defense in league play, allowing just 61.0 points per game. In C-USA games, the Mustangs held opponents 11.9 points off their scoring average. Thirteen of the league opponents were held below their average with ten of them at least 11 points under their average. Three C-USA opponents did not reached 50 points. That marked the first time SMU held three league opponents below 50 points since the 1957-58 season. The scoring defense in league play was the best for SMU since holding opponents to 60.9 per Southwest Conference game in 1958-59.
Faye finished third on the team and 22nd in the league with 10.7 points per game. He also ranked second on the team and 18th in Conference USA with 5.3 rebounds per game. He was also second for the Mustangs in blocked shots (16). He finished his career 14th at SMU for three-point percentage (.339). He also had two double-doubles this year; recording them in the home win over Houston on February 27 and against rival TCU. Faye is completing his degree in French.
Williams led the team and ranked fourth in Conference USA in scoring (16.6). He also led SMU and was in the top-10 in Conference USA at 3.7 assists (10th), a 1.5 assist to turnover ratio (8th) and 36.4 minutes per game (3rd). He led SMU in scoring 20 times and in assists 24 times. His rank of fourth in the league in scoring is the highest by an SMU player since joining Conference USA. He also became the 17th player at SMU with 500 points in a season, just the 18th player to eclipse 800 points in two seasons, and the 23rd Mustang to reach 200 career assists. This year, he had 10 games with at least 20 points, including a game-high 25 points in the win over Memphis on January 30. He played all 40 minutes ten times in league games this season. Williams is completing a degree in Anthropology.
Junior Papa Dia took home the most team honors as he earned seven: the Screener, Charges, Rebounder, Blocks / Deflections, Defensive, and Most Improved awards. Dia was an All-Conference USA third team selection as he led the team and was fifth in C-USA in rebounds (8.6) and was also second on the team and 17th in C-USA in scoring (12.3). He also ranked fourth in the league in field goal percentage (.544), sixth in free throw percentage (.800) and sixth in blocked shots (1.2).
2009-10 SMU Men's Basketball Team Awards
- Screener - Papa Dia
- Charges - Papa Dia
- Rebounder - Papa Dia (8.6 ranked 5th in CUSA)
- Blocks / Deflections - Papa Dia (38 blocks)
- Defensive Award - Papa Dia
- Most Improved - Papa Dia
- Good Plays - Mouhammad Faye
- Hustle - Paul McCoy
- Assists:Turnover - Derek Williams (1.5, 114 assists to 76 turnovers)
- Coaches Award - Justin Haynes
- FT % - Rob Nyakundi (.868, 33-38)
- MVP - Derek Williams
- Academic Award - Tomasz Kwiatkowski and Austin Horn
- All-Conference USA - Papa Dia (third team) and Derek Williams (third team)
- NABC All-District - Derek Williams (second team)
