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For Immediate Release March 7, 2018 Contact: Tim McNamara ([email protected])

2018 MEN’S COACH AND PLAYER OF YEAR AWARDS

IRVING, Texas – Middle Tennessee senior forward Nick King has been named the Conference USA Player of the Year for the 2017-18 season, while UTSA head coach Steve Henson has been named the Gene Bartow Coach of the Year presented by the Birmingham Tip Off Club. These awards were announced today prior to the opening of the 2018 Conference USA Men's Basketball Championships presented by Baylor Scott & White Sports Performance Center at The Star. Voting on the awards was done by the C-USA head coaches and media members in each conference city.

King picked up the honor after leading the Blue Raiders to their second consecutive regular season C-USA title and the school’s first-ever Top 25 national ranking. He was named to the All-Conference USA first team and the 2018 C- USA Newcomer of the Year earlier this week.

The only player in C-USA who ranks in the top five in scoring and rebounding, King places second with 21.2 points per game and fifth with 8.4 rebounds per contest. In his 30 starts, he has led the team in scoring 23 times and registered 18 games with 20 or more points, while placing third in C-USA in double-doubles with 10. King enters this week’s C-USA Championship with 637 points this season, breaking the Middle Tennessee school record of 623, set by Kim Cooksey in 1985-86. He has also tied the school record for most career 30-point games (four), despite only playing in 30 games for the Blue Raiders. The Memphis native has been named Conference USA Player of the Week four times, the most of any player this season.

King is the third Middle Tennessee standout to win C-USA Player of the Year, joining in 2014 and JaCorey Williams last season. He joins Williams as the only players to win Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year in the same season since the Newcomer honor was introduced in 2007.

Henson guided UTSA to its best finish in five years as a member of Conference USA, posting an 11-7 league record and a fifth-place showing in the regular season. Just two years after taking over a program that had won five games, he led the team to 18 victories heading into this week’s conference championship. It marks the school’s first winning season since the 2011-12 campaign. He has also helped build a strong home court advantage for the Roadrunners, going 11-3 at the Convocation Center in each of his years two seasons at the helm.

The Roadrunners success this season is due largely to a number of key first-year members that Henson brought to the program. A UTSA frosh was named the Conference USA Freshman of the Week 10 times this season, with Jhivvan Jackson earning seven plaudits and Keaton Wallace three. Jackson was named C-USA Freshman of the Year and second team All-Conference after setting a new UTSA freshman scoring record, while Wallace, the team’s second-leading scorer was listed on the All-Freshman squad. Additionally, junior guard transfer Deon Lyle stepped in to become the team’s leading three-point shooter and third-leading scorer en route to earning C-USA Sixth Player of the Year.

-more- Henson becomes the second coach in UTSA history to be named conference coach of the year, joining Tim Carter, the 1999 Southland Conference Coach of the Year. The last seven C-USA Coach of the Year awards have come from seven different schools.

The C-USA Coach of the Year award is named in honor of Gene Bartow, the legendary former coach at UAB along with other schools, who passed away in January 2012.

2017‐18 CONFERENCE USA PLAYER OF THE YEAR Nick King, Middle Tennessee, Sr., F, 6‐7, 225, Memphis, Tennessee

2017‐18 CONFERENCE USA GENE BARTOW COACH OF THE YEAR Steve Henson, UTSA (32‐32 at UTSA and career)

The 2018 C-USA Men’s Basketball Championship presented by Baylor Scott & White Sports Performance Center at The Star in Frisco tips off on Wednesday at 6 p.m. CT. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit ConferenceUSA.com.

-ConferenceUSA.com-