Kennedy, Moreira Receive AAC Honors

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (The American/SMU) – Junior Markus Kennedy was named Sixth Man of the Year and senior Yanick Moreira was named the Most Improved Player as the American Athletic Conference announced it specialty awards Wednesday. The duo helped SMU to a 24-6 overall mark and a 15-3 conference mark, earning the programs first league title since 1993.

Kennedy, a Philadelphia native, is averaging 11.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 22.4 minutes off the bench for the Mustangs. In only conference games, Kennedy was fourth in steals (1.4), fifth in shooting (.567), seventh in rebounding (6.2), 11th in scoring (11.8) and 13th in blocks (1.0). He was named AAC Player of the Week on Feb. 12 and has three AAC Honor Roll selections this season.

A Luanda, Angola, native, Moreira started all 30 games for the Mustangs. His 2013-14 averages of 6.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, 0.5 blocks and 13.5 minutes jumped to 11.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 24.5 minutes. He finished fourth in the AAC in shooting (.563); seventh in blocks and rebounds; and 15th in scoring. Moreira has one AAC Player of the Week (Dec. 20) nod this season.

On Tuesday, Kennedy and Moreira were recognized with All-AAC second-team honors. Their teammate Nic Moore was a first-team honoree. Coach of the Year, Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be announced at the conference awards banquet on Thursday.

SMU is the No. 1 seed for The American tournament and faces the winner of No. 8 East Carolina and No. UCF on Friday at 12 p.m. ET/ 11 a.m. CT at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. The game will be televised on ESPN2.