Long Beach State junior point guard Casper Ware added to his extraordinary list of achievements this season, except this time, he was honored as one of the best defensive basketball players in the country.
Ware became one of 21 NCAA Division I basketball players to be selected to the 2011 Lefty Driesell Defensive All-America team on Friday, as announced by CollegeInsider.com.
The team — consisted of the top defensive players in the country — was named after coaching legend Lefty Dreisell, who is the only person to ever win 100 games at four different Division I schools.
The 2011 Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year will be announced at the CollegeInsider.com awards banquet on April 1 in Houston — site of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship.
Defensively, Ware anchored an LBSU attack that held its opponents to 60 or fewer points in seven of its 16 conference games.
The Cerritos, Calif. native led the 49ers in scoring (17.2), assists (4.4) and steals (1.6) per game, and was second on the team in 3-pointers made (75) in 34 games this season. In each of the four categories, he ranked among the top-5 in the Big West this season.
The junior also guided the ‘Niners to the 2010-2011 Big West Conference regular season championship and a slot in the National Invitational Tournament before falling to Washington State in the first round.
Ware, who was named Big West Conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year this season, was the first player in program history to win both awards in the same year.
But the LBSU floor general’s accomplishments this year don’t stop there. He became one of 20 finalists for the Bob Cousy award, which recognizes the nation’s best point guard.
If that wasn’t enough, he earned a spot in National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 9 Team, as well as a place on the U.S. Basketball Writers Association All-District IX Team.
2011 Left Dreisell All-America Team
Casper Ware, Long Beach State
Dogus Balbay, Texas
Keith Benson, Oakland
Kent Bazemore, Old Dominion
Norris Cole, Cleveland State
Aaron Craft, Ohio State
Kenneth Faried, Morehead State
John Flowers, West Virginia
Tu Holloway, Xavier
JuJuan Johnson, Purdue
DeAndre Liggins, Kentucky
Sam Muldrow, South Carolina
Ronald Nored, Butler
Damien Saunders, Duquesne
Chris Singleton, Florida State
Nolan Smith Duke
Demontez Stitt, Clemson
Iman Sumpert, GA Tech
Jeffery Taylor, Vanderbilt
Malcolm Thomas San Diego State
Brad Wanamaker, Pittsburgh
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