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It's been a good week or so for UB Basketball. Well aside from missing the post season. Javon McCrea was named an AP All-America Honorable Mention, and nominated for the Lou Henson Award. UB Coach Bobby Hurley was nominated for the Joe B. Hall Award given to new head coaches. And now Shannon Evans has been nominated as a potential member of the Kyle Macy freshman All America Team.
Evans was one of 25 freshmen nationally named a finalist for Award. Despite not winning the conferences award for outstanding freshman of the year. Evans was the only player from the Mid-American Conference listed.
In his first season with the Bulls, Evans served as one of the top sixth men in the entire league, entering all 29 contests off the bench. Evans finished tied for fourth on the team in scoring at 8.5 points per game and he was second on the team with 95 assists and third on the team with 40 steals. Evans hit double figures in scoring nine times this season, including a career-high 20 points against Manhattan. He also finished with 19 points in a road victory at Central Michigan and 17 points in a home win over Western Michigan.
The Kyle Macy award is presented annually to the top freshman in Division I college basketball. The 1975 Indiana "Mr. Basketball" played his freshman season at Purdue University. Macy averaged 13.8 points a game as a freshman, while leading the Boilermakers in free throws, shooting .859 percent from the line on the season. He started in 25 of 27 games, helping them to a 16-11 season record.
The winner of the 2014 Macy award will be announced at the CollegeInsider.com Awards Banquet on April 4 in Dallas, site of the Division I Men's Basketball Championship.
Evans committed last winter to Reggie Witherspoon and quickly reopened his options when the long time Buffalo Coach was fired after the 2013 MAC tournament. When Bobby Hurley was named the new coach at Buffalo one of his first moves was to contact Evans about re-committing.
The honor to Evans comes at a time when Coach Hurley will have to rebuild in the wake of losing Javon McCrea, Joshua Freelove, and a host of other key seniors. Having this kind of talent in young player gives the second year coach something around which he can begin building his team.
