Moore Named AAC Player of the Year
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HARTFORD, Conn. (The American/SMU) – Unanimous first-team all-league selection Nic Moore was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, league officials announced at the conference awards banquet on Thursday. Moore helped lead SMU (24-6, 15-3) to The American regular season championship, the Mustangs’ first conference title since 1992-93. The No. 1-seeded Mustangs will play in the quarterfinal in Hartford on Friday.
Moore becomes the eighth Mustang to earn the honor and the first since Quinton Ross, who was named the Western Athletic Conference player of the year for the 2002-03 season. This is the 10th honor, overall, with Gene Phillips picking up the accolade three times (1968-69, 1969-70, 1970-71) during his career.
The junior has started all 30 games for the Mustangs (24-6, 15-3), and leads the team in scoring (14.4), assists (5.3), free-throw percentage (.875) and minutes (34.0). Both his free-throw percentage and three-point field goal percentage top The American, while he is second in assists and fourth in scoring.
This season, Moore tied his career-high in points with 28 against Houston (Jan. 24), including eight three pointers, which ties both the SMU and American record. At Michigan on Dec. 20, he reached the
1,000-point milestone for his career with 17 points in the road win.
Moore was named to watch lists for the Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy and Lute Olson Award this season and was a preseason unanimous All-AAC first-team selection. His unanimous first-team selection on Tuesday made him the first Mustang to receive back-to-back honors since Jeryl Sasser did the same in the WAC during the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons.
Two additional Mustangs earned honors earlier this week as Markus Kennedy was named to the second team and picked up Sixth Man of the Year accolades and Yanick Moreira was announced as the Most Improved Player in addition to his second-team nod.
Moore and the Mustangs take on the winner of No. 8 East Carolina and No. 9 UCF in The American quarterfinals on Friday at 12 p.m. ET/11 a.m. CT in the XL Center on ESPN2.
