University Southern California Trojans
Scalabrine Announced As Naismith Candidate
September 26, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 26, 2000
LOS ANGELES - USC senior forward/center Brian Scalabrine is among 30 official preseason candidates for the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year Award, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced today.
Scalabrine, the Pacific-10 Conference's leading returning scorer (17.8), is also among the top 25 candidates on the Wooden Award preseason list.
Scalabrine highlights a Trojan squad that returns all five starters and three other lettermen from a team that went 16-14 last year but missed the postseason largely due to midseason foot injuries to forwards Sam Clancy and Jarvis Turner.
Scalabrine earned 2000 The Sporting News All-American honorable mention, All-Pac-10 and NABC All-District 15 first team honors as a 2000 junior, finishing as the Pac-10's second-leading and USC's top scorer.
He led the Trojans in field goal percentage (.531, fifth in the conference), tied for the best three-point percentage (.403), was second in assists (2.83) and was fourth in rebounds (6.0). His 19.4 scoring average in Pac-10 games was second in the league.
He scored in double figures in 26 of 30 games, scoring at least 20 points 12 times and at least 25 points six times. Scalabrine's 534 points on the season were the eighth most ever by a Trojan.
Scalabrine has started all 58 games of his USC career. He enters 2001 ninth on USC's career scoring average chart at 16.2 points per game. His .5314 career shooting percentage is fourth best in school history and his 50 blocked shots are 11th best.
