That includes the MVP award, where departing guard J'Covan Brown won a vote of his peers following a season where he finished first in the Big 12 in scoring with 20.1 points per game, while also leading the Longhorns in minute and placing second in assists and steals. Brown was also a first-team All-Big 12 selection, as well as a first-team Academic All-Big 12 pick.
His haul Monday night included four awards: MVP, the Athletic Director's Scholarship Award, the Earlene Fulmer 3-point Attack Award and the Free Throw Percentage Award.
A trio of freshmen brought home the team's Most Improved Player award, with Jonathan Holmes and Sheldon McClellan sharing the honor with Sterling Gibbs, who is leaving the program. Gibbs said he didn't have a specific transfer destination in mind, but planned to head back east.
And senior Alexis Wangmene was named team captain. In his remarks on Wangmene, Texas head coach Rick Barnes said that the Longhorns would have beaten Cincinnati had they been able to utilize the bruising forward. Without naming him, Barnes essentially said that Wangmene would have helped with Cincinnati star Yancy Gates, because the strength of Wangmene was that the Texas staff could put him on an opposing team's star post player and he would "take care of it." Wangmene missed the last part of the season with an injury.
Barnes also said that this season had been unusual, because the team only had three returning scholarship players going through spring workouts before the talented freshman class arrived. But Barnes said the Longhorns were able to continue their 20-win and NCAA Tournament streaks largely because each of those three players — Brown, Wangmene and senior Clint Chapman — had the best seasons of their Texas careers.
The awards, and their recipients included:
Slater Martin Award — Rob Lazare, Texas equipment manager
Mike Wacker Comeback Award — Clint Chapman
Coca-Cola Solid Citizen Award — Andrew Dick
Jack Gray Award sponsored by the Texas Exes — Alexis Wangmene
Athletic Director's Scholar-Athlete Award — Dick, J'Covan Brown
Jay Arnette Award — Julien Lewis
Hard Hat Award — Jaylen Bond
Earlene Fulmer 3-Point Attack Award — Brown
Assists Award — Myck Kabongo
Blocked Shots Award — Chapman
Field Goal Percentage Award — Bond
Free Throw Percentage Award — Brown
Rebounding Award — Chapman
Hustlin' Horns Award — Kabongo
Spirit Award — Gibbs, Dean Melchionni
Outstanding Defensive Player — Kabongo
Most Improved Player — Gibbs, Jonathan Holmes, Sheldon McClellan
Most Valuable Player sponsored by the Texas Exes — Brown
Team Captain — Wangmene
Senior Awards — Chapman, Wangmene