Wichita State’s Tyson Etienne is the American Athletic Conference Co-Player of the Year and Isaac Brown was a runaway choice for Coach of the Year, the league announced Wednesday.
In addition, WSU’s Alterique Gilbert earned third team all-conference status and Ricky Council IV was named to the all-freshman team.
Both Brown and Etienne went from unlikely to unanimous choices over a span of just four months. All 10 ballots cast by opposing head coaches included Brown as coach of the year and Etienne as first team all-league.
Brown was thrust into an interim role on Nov. 17 – just eight days before the start of the college basketball season – and earned the job on a permanent basis after leading a WSU team picked seventh to its first American regular season title.
Brown becomes WSU’s eighth coach-of-the-year winner and its first of The American era. Notably, he’s the third in Shocker history to win as a rookie head coach, joining Gary Thompson (1965) and Eddie Fogler (1987).
Etienne – a 6-2 shooting guard from Englewood, N.J. -- wasn’t picked for either of the preseason all-conference teams but averaged 17.1 points and 3.1 threes-per-game on 40 percent accuracy during the regular season. He scored at least 20 points in seven of the Shockers’ 13 conference games.
Etienne (who shares the top honor with Houston’s Quentin Grimes) is just the fifth Shocker individual to win a conference player of the year award, joining a star-studded list that also includes Antoine Carr (1983), Xavier McDaniel (1984 and 1985), Paul Miller (2006) and Fred VanVleet (2014 and 2016).
Gilbert’s all-conference nod continues one of college basketball’s best feel-good stories. After four injury-plagued seasons at UConn, the former McDonald’s All-American has found success as Wichita State’s starting point guard.
The 6-foot senior from Atlanta is averaging 10.1 points and leads the team in both assists (4.2) and steals (1.5). In conference play, his 4.8 assists-per-game ranked second on the league leaderboard. Gilbert’s 12 assists in the Mar. 3 win at Tulane were the most by a Shocker in more than 30 years.
Council – a 6-6 guard from Durham, N.C. -- has been an important weapon for the Shockers off the bench, averaging 7.5 points and 3.9 rebounds in 16.4 minutes.
Council becomes the second Shocker to make The American’s All-Freshman team. Teammate Dexter Dennis earned that honor in 2019.
--goshockers.com--