Tide Hoops Team Holds Annual Awards Banquet
4/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
April 13, 2008
TUSCALOOSA - An overflow crowd that spilled into the hallway outside the banquet room gathered Sunday evening for the University of Alabama's annual basketball awards banquet hosted by the Tuscaloosa Tip-Off Club and TIDE PRIDE.
"I am proud of this team. I am not happy and they are not happy about the amount of wins we had this season, but this group of young men gave us great effort, and they finished strong with the wins against Arkansas and Vanderbilt and Florida and gathered some momentum that can carry over into next season. And they're already working hard in the weight room and conditioning program getting ready for next season," said Alabama basketball coach Mark Gottfried. " The expectations are high and they always will be high. These men put on their Alabama uniforms and dream of playing for national championships. That's not going to change and we will continue to work to make that dream happen. But what you have with these men is also a group who makes us proud off the court. These are men who are going to be successful in life. This is a terrific group of guys. They work extremely hard on the court, in the classroom, in how they represent Alabama. I believe in them as players and as people."
The banquet was held at the Sheraton Four Points in Tuscaloosa. The event opened with a special presentation from the Tuscaloosa Tip-Off Club to University of Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore for the establishment of an athletic scholarship honoring two men who passed away this year who both served as officers in the club, former Tide player Paul Sullivan and Larry Park. Sullivan was the first Alabama basketball player drafted by the NBA.
"The Alabama basketball family lost two great ambassadors in Paul and Larry," said Tip-Off Club board member Bert Sims in presenting a check to Moore for the scholarship.
All-Southeastern Conference junior forward Richard Hendrix took home the most awards Sunday night, winning the Jerry Harper Rebounding Award with his SEC-leading 10.1 average, the Paul Sullivan Most Blocked Shots Award (63), The Highest Field Goal Percentage Award and the Highest Scoring Average (17.8) award. Hendrix also received a painted basketball commemorating his 1,000th Alabama career points and was lauded for his work in the classroom as a May 2008 graduate and for being one of six Crimson Tide players who were named to the Academic All-SEC team this season.
Mykal Riley and Brandon Hollinger brought home two awards. Riley, a senior who has been playing at the Portsmouth Invitational this past week won the Most Steals Award (54) and the Highest 3-point Field Goal Percentage Award (.433%). Hollinger won the Most Assists Award (103) and shared the Hustle Award with sophomore Demetrius Jemison for their day-in and day-out work ethic. Freshman Senario Hillman won the Guy Lee Turner Defensive Award as the team's best defender, and Justin Knox won the Highest Free Throw Percentage Award (.800%). Greg Cage, who will be enrolled for dual graduate school and law degrees in the fall, won the Hayden Riley Scholarship Award. He will graduate within three years of enrolling at Alabama and has a 3.50 GPA.
Sophomore Mikhail Torrance won the Robert "Rah Rah" Scott Christian Leader Award, a community honor. And Junior Alonzo Gee and Yamene Coleman were the inaugural co-winners of the Larry Park Coaches Award which is based upon attitude and spirit. Park was the president this past year of the Tuscaloosa Tip-Off Club and died unexpectedly in March.
Alabama finished 17-16 this season, advancing to the SEC tournament quarterfinal. The team won the tournament championship of the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic and produced a John Wooden candidate and 1st Team All-SEC Award winner in Hendrix. Riley was voted to the five-man All-SEC Tournament team as well. Alabama produced a program record six out of a possible 12 Academic All-SEC players. That group included Hendrix, Jemison, Cage, John Dill, Kyle Sellers and Justin Tubbs. Alabama has graduated six of the players on its 2007-08 team already, Ronald Steele, Riley and Dill and will graduate three more in May, including Hendrix, Cage and Sellers. Hendrix and Cage are making history as the first basketball players to graduate within three years of enrolling.
