February 20, 2003
Texas A&M senior guard Bernard King has been named first-team All-District 9 and freshman forward Antoine Wright has been named to the second team, the National Association of Basketball Coaches announced Thursday.
The NABC Division I All-District Teams recognize the country's best men's collegiate basketball student-athletes. Selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC, these student-athletes represent the finest basketball players across the country. The 150 student-athletes, from 15 districts, are now eligible for the NABC Division I All-American Team to be announced at the conclusion of the 2002-2003 NCAA men's basketball season.
A candidate for Big 12 Player of the Year, King has become the career scoring leader in A&M and Big 12 history and is on pace to become on the eighth Div. I player to score 2,000 career points with 500 rebounds and 500 assists. Going into this week's games, he was the only player in the country to average 17.0 points with at least 6.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds. King had been named second-team all-district the last three years.
Wright, a four-time Big 12 Rookie of the Week pick, is one of just four freshmen nationally to average at least 16.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game and has made 41.4 percent from three-point range.
The last A&M player to make first-team all-district by the NABC was Joe Wilbert in 1995. Wright is only the second A&M freshman to make the all-district squad, joining Rudy Woods, who was named to the first team in 1978-79. The last time A&M had two players named was in 1994, when Wilbert and David Edwards each were named second team.
DISTRICT 9 FIRST TEAM: T.J. Ford, Texas; Andre Emmett, Texas Tech; Bernard King, Texas A&M; James Thomas, Texas; Lawrence Roberts, Baylor.
SECOND TEAM: Louis Truscott, Houston; Quinton Ross, SMU; Kasib Powell, Texas Tech; Brandon Mouton, Texas; Antoine Wright, Texas A&M.