CCU

COASTAL’S TORREY BUTLER NAMED BIG SOUTH MEN’S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

       

COASTAL’S TORREY BUTLER NAMED BIG SOUTH MEN’S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

CONWAY, S.C.. -- Coastal Carolina senior forward Torrey Butler (Baltimore, Md.-Mount St. Joseph)was named the 2002-03 Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Year, announced today by the league office. The annual award is voted on by the Big South Conference coaches, sports information directors and selected media representatives from each school.

Butler, also a First-Team All-Big South honoree, led the league in scoring at 18.8 points a game and ranked sixth in the Big South in rebounding at 6.5 rebounds a contest. He also ranks in the top-10 in the league in field-goal percentage (7th, .473), free-throw percentage (8th, .804), three-point field-goal percentage (7th, .360), three-point field goals made (7th, 1.48 per game), offensive rebounds (2nd, 2.85 per game) and defensive rebounds (t-10th, 3.59 per game).He has tallied double digits in the scoring column in all but three games this season, including the streak of 17 consecutive games. He has led the Chants in scoring in 18 games, including tying a career-high with 33 points at UNC Asheville, Jan. 30. He also has four double-doubles on the year, while leading the Chanticleers to the most wins since the 1993-94 season.

Earlier this season, Butler became just the 11th Chanticleer in history to reach the career 1,000-point plateau and currently is sixth in career scoring at Coastal with 1,453 points. He also ranks in the top 10 for his career in scoring average (6th, 14.5), field goals made (6th, 530), field goals attempted (7th, 1070), field goal percentage (8th, .495), free throws made (5th, 286), and free throws attempted (5th, 405).

Butler was the 2000-01 Player of the Year, but was a medical redshirt last season with a foot injury. He joins Tony Dunkin of Coastal Carolina (the nation’s only four-time Player of the Year) and UNC Asheville’s Josh Pittman as the only multiple winners of the Big Souths’s top honor.

Sophomore Clint Nagel (Loveland, Ohio-Moeller) was also honored on the Big South’s All-Academic Team. Nagel, a 6-7 marketing major, carries a 3.4 grade point average and has played in 24 games this season, eight of them as a starter and averaging 1.3 points and 2.5 rebounds a game.