Men's Basketball: Butler Part of Lowe's Award List
November 04, 2009 04:45 PM | General
By MSNsportsNET.com
November 4, 2009
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| Da'Sean Butler |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia men's basketball player Da'Sean Butler has been named a candidate for the 2009-10 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – classroom, character, community and competition.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School™, the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Butler is one of eight players on the list who is also a candidate for the AT&T Naismith Trophy. Eleven men’s players are from teams ranked in the preseason top 25 poll.
Lowe’s, an official Corporate Partner of the NCAA, will announce the Senior CLASS Award™ winner for men’s basketball at the 2010 NCAA Men’s Final Four® in Indianapolis in April and for women’s basketball at the 2010 NCAA Women’s Final Four® in San Antonio in April.
The list of 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists each midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of classroom,character, community and competition.
“Lowe’s is proud to be associated with the nominees for the Senior CLASS Award™ in men’s and women’s basketball,” said Tom Lamb, Lowe’s senior vice president of marketing. “Each of the student-athletes has shown tremendous commitment to their studies during their college careers. They have also demonstrated great character and a passion for community service.”
Butler led the Mountaineers to a postseason berth in last season's NCAA Tournament, finishing the season with averages of 17.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. He is a critical part of this year's WVU team that enters the season with a No. 8 ranking in the Associated Press preseason poll and a No. 9 spot in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Top 25 poll.
This marks the ninth year for the basketball division of the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. Previous winners of the men’s basketball award include Juan Dixon of Maryland (2002), David West of Xavier (2003), Jameer Nelson of St. Joseph’s (2004), Wayne Simien of Kansas (2005), J.J. Redick of Duke (2006), Alando Tucker of Wisconsin (2007), Shan Foster of Vanderbilt (2008) and Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina (2009).
