Awards Keep Coming for Saunders

The games may be over, but junior Wesley Saunders of the men’s basketball team continues to garner postseason accolades.

Saunders was voted to the Lou Henson 2014 All-America Team as one of the 30 top mid-major players in the nation. As a result, he is being considered for the Lou Henson award for the country's top mid-major performer.

Saunders caught the attention of many across the nation with his standout performance against Michigan State in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. The third-year swingman tallied 22 points in the seven-point loss against the Spartans, including going a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe.

But long before that game, Saunders was making noise around the Ivy League. Saunders was the key cog in the Crimson’s top-ranked conference offense, averaging a team-leading 10.1 field goals per game while still managing to shoot 46.4 percent from the field. The Los Angeles, Calif. native also consistently made his way to the free-throw line this season, as he ranked fourth in the Ivy League with 5.7 attempts per game.

Despite the balanced nature of the Crimson offense that saw six players average more than nine points per game, Saunders ranked seventh across the Ivy League with 14.2 points per contest. The forward dropped more than 20 points in six games, including a 24-point winning effort against perennial Ivy League title-challenger Princeton.

Other notable candidates for the award are Langston Hall of Mercer, who helped earn a second round win against Duke with 11 points and five assists, and North Dakota State’s Taylor Braun, who posted 11 points and six rebounds in an upset over No. 5 seed Oklahoma.

The winner of the Lou Henson award will be announced on April 4th in Dallas, Texas, one day before the beginning of the Final Four.