Men’s Basketball: Mitchell and Southall Named to All-Sun Belt Team

Men’s Basketball: Mitchell and Southall Named to All-Sun Belt Team

Chris Whitehead, Sports Information –

LAFAYETTE – Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team placed two players on the 2006 All-Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball team which was released Wednesday by the league office.

Seniors Dwayne Mitchell and Michael Southall were the Ragin’ Cajuns’ honorees. Mitchell, the team’s leader averaging 17.3 points per game, was named to the first team. Southall, the nation’s No. 6 shot blocker, earned second team status.

Southall collected his third career All-Sun Belt award – was named first team member as a freshman in 2001-02 and as a sophomore in 2002-03.

Mitchell garnered an All-Sun Belt honor for the first time in his career and his selection marked the second straight season that a Cajuns player was named to the first team.

Mitchell started the season as the nation’s top rebounder from the guard position through the end of January and spent the first 11 weeks of the campaign ranked in the Top 10 in the NCAA stats for rebounds per game.

The New Orleans native scored in double figures in 24 of the 26 games he played in and reached 20 points in a game eight times. He registered nine (9) double-doubles starting the season with six double-doubles before the month of January.

Mitchell set his career-high in scoring three times scoring 25 against Charlotte (Dec. 3), 27 points at LSU (Dec. 17) and topping the mark again with 28 points at UNO (Feb. 16) in his final homecoming to New Orleans. In the Nov. 22 game at Tennessee, his 20 rebounds were one shy of the Thompson-Boling Arena record.

Southall participated in his first season since the 2002-03 campaign. Returning from a two-year absence from the game, the Wisconsin native dominated the inside game once more. He currently ranks sixth in the nation for blocks per game with 89 blocks in 26 games played.

Southall is closing in on first place in the Sun Belt record books for career blocked shots. With 254 career blocks he is four shy of surpassing South Florida’s Curtis Kitchen (257) for second place and only 12 shy of tying UAB’s Alan Ogg for the all-time Sun Belt lead.

Southall is eight blocked shots shy of tying his school single-season record of 97 set as a freshman. He has reached at least four blocked shots 13 times and pulled down at least eight rebounds in 15 games.

Both of the Ragin’ Cajuns’ honorees will depart Cajun Country as members of the school’s 1,000-Point Club. Southall became the 36th player in program history to accomplish the feat doing so on Jan. 26 at Western Kentucky. Mitchell followed Southall into the club after his outing in the regular season finale at UALR on Saturday, Feb. 25.

This year’s selection gives UL a total of five All-Sun Belt selections under head coach Robert Lee and 27 selections since the program joined the Sun Belt Conference prior to the 1991-92 season.

Louisiana-Lafayette’s men’s basketball team will open the 2006 Aeropostale Sun Belt Conference Tournament against the winner of Arkansas State-Troy game on Sunday, March 5 at 8:30 p.m., from the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on the Middle Tennessee campus.

2005-06 ALL-SUN BELT MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM

1ST TEAM POS YR SCHOOL

Bobby Dixon G Sr. Troy

Courtney Lee G/F So. Western Kentucky

Dwayne Mitchell G Sr. Louisiana-Lafayette

Yemi Nicholson C Sr. Denver

Anthony Winchester G Sr. Western Kentucky

2ND TEAM

Ivan Almonte F Sr. Florida International

Kendrick Davis G Jr. North Texas

Mario Jointer G Sr. South Alabama

Michael Southall C Sr. Louisiana-Lafayette

Dereke Tipler G Sr. Arkansas State

3RD TEAM

Rashad Jones-Jennings F Jr. Arkansas-Little Rock

Richard Law F Sr. South Alabama

Jaime McNeilly G Jr. New Orleans

Zack Wright G Jr. Arkansas-Little Rock

Adam Vogelsberg G Jr. Middle Tennessee

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Anthony Winchester, Western Kentucky

DEF. PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Yemi Nicholson, Denver

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: Kendrick Davis, North Texas

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Lekheythan Malone, UALR

COACH OF THE YEAR: John Pelphrey, South Alabama