Friday, October 12, 2007

MACON, Ga.. – Campbell forward Jonathan Rodriguez and ETSU's Courtney Pigram have been named to the CollegeHoops.Net pre-season Mid-Major All-America basketball team. Rodriguez was one of 26 athletes selected to the unit, representing teams from 15 “mid-major” conferences.

Rodriguez and Pigram were named as honorable mention choices.

Pigram was named the Atlantic Sun's Player of the Year in 2006-07 following a season in which he averaged 18.1 points per game, second-best in the conference and also ranked in the top 10 in steals (2nd, 2.62 SPG), 3-point field goals per game (3rd, 2.62 3-pt FG per game) and assists (7th, 3.74 APG). He turned in one the league’s virtuoso performances of the season when he dished out a conference-record 18 assists against Mercer on February 24 to go along with 29 points and eight rebounds. The 18 assists set an A-Sun record, were one off the school record and were the second-highest single-game total in Division I in the last two seasons.

As a freshman in 2006-07, Rodriguez was a first-team Atlantic Sun all-conference and all-freshman choice. He was named to the Mid-Major Freshman All-America team by Collegeinsider.com and the Mid-Major All-Freshman Team by Collegehoops.net.

He ranked fifth among the nation’s Division I freshmen scoring leaders and stood among the A-Sun’s leaders in 10 statistical categories -- 3rd in scoring (17.3), 1st in rebounding (8.8), 12th in FG% (.468), 13th in assists (3.03), 15th in FT% (.708), 12th in steals (1.45), 7th in blocks (1.1), 12th in assist/turnover ratio (1.15), 8th in offensive rebounds (2.45) and 1st in defensive boards (6.32).He scored in double figures 28 times in 31 games with 11 outings of 20-plus points. Rodriguez set a school freshman class record for most points scored in a season (during the Division I era since 1977-78) with 536. That mark stands as the third-highest overall in a year in school Division I history, behind only Clarence Grier (739 in 1986-87) and Joe Spinks (584 in 1993-94). In addition, Rodriguez broke Spinks’ school mark for rebounds in a year (272).

2007-08 Preseason
COLLEGEHOOPS.NET MID-MAJOR ALL-AMERICA

FIRST TEAM
A.J. Graves, G, Sr, Butler
Stephen Curry, G, So, Davidson
Reggie Williams, F, Sr, VMI
Jason Thompson, F, Sr, Rider
Kyle Hines, F, Sr, UNC-Greensboro

SECOND TEAM
Giordan Watson, G, Sr, Central Michigan
Alex Harris, G, Sr, UCSB
Courtney Lee, G, Sr, Western Kentucky
Bo McCalebb, G, Sr, New Orleans
Charron Fisher, F, Sr, Niagara

THIRD TEAM
AZ Reid, G, Sr, High Point
Mike Trimboli, G, Jr, Vermont
George Hill, G, Jr, IUPUI
Diamon Simpson, F, Jr, St Mary's
Chris Daniels, C, Sr, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

HONORABLE MENTION
Adrian Banks, G, Sr, Arkansas State
Roy Bright, F, Sr, Delaware State
Gerald Brown, G, Sr, Loyola
Mike Green, G, Sr, Butler
Michael Jenkins, G, Sr, Winthrop
Carlos Monroe, F, Jr, Florida Atlantic
Courtney Pigram, G, Jr, ETSU
Gyno Pomare, F, Jr, San Diego
Drake Reed, F, Jr, Austin Peay
Jonathan Rodriguez, F, So, Campbell
Andrew Strait, F, Sr, Montana