Tigers' Jones snubbed for Player of the Year
Memphis basketball star David Jones scored first-team All-american Athletic Conference honors Tuesday but came up short in his bid for AAC Player of the Year.
That accolade went to FAU'S Johnell Davis and South Florida's Chris Youngblood, who were named CO-AAC Players of the Year. The conference's postseason superlatives, which are voted on by each team's head coach, were announced Tuesday. The AAC tournament begins Wednesday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
Davis was the only unanimous selection for the ALL-AAC first, second or third teams.
The only other player representing the Tigers on the all-aac team this season is point guard Jahvon Quinerly, who picked up a third-team nod. This season marks the first time either Jones (who has also played at Depaul and St. John's) or Quinerly (who has also played at Villanova and Alabama) has been named all-conference.
Jones led the league in scoring (21.7 points per game), was fifth in rebounding (7.6 per game), tied for first in steals (2.1 per game) and ninth in 3-point field goal percentage (37.9%). But Memphis struggled in AAC play, finishing in fifth place with an 11-7 conference record, and Jones also led the conference with 3.0 turnovers a game.
Meanwhile, Davis' 18.2 points per game was fourth-best in the league and his 6.3 rebounding average was 11th. Davis was also second in 3-point field goal percentage (43.8%) and 13th with 3.0 assists per game (while committing 2.5 turnovers a game).
Youngblood led USF to a regular-season AAC title, putting up 15.3 points per game (10th in the league) and connecting on 41.1% of his 3-point attempts (fourth-best in the AAC).
Quinerly was tied for 18th in scoring with 13.7 points per game and fourth in assists per game (4.97).
Rounding out the all-aac First Team were UAB forward Yaxel Lendeborg and North Texas guard Jason Edwards. Lendeborg was also named Defensive Player of the Year.
USF'S Amir Abdur-rahim took home Coach of the Year honors (in unanimous fashion) in his first season with the Bulls. Tulsa guard P.J. Haggerty was a unanimous selection for Freshman of the Year, while USF'S Selton Miguel nabbed Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year. Tulane's Sion James was picked for the Sportsmanship Award.
Memphis (22-9) is set to face the Wichita State-rice winner Thursday (1:30 p.m., ESPNU).
AAC men's basketball awards
Players of the Year Johnell Davis, FAU Chris Youngblood, USF
Coach of the Year
Amir Abdur-rahim, South Florida*
Defensive Player of the Year Yaxel Lendeborg, UAB
Freshman of the Year PJ Haggerty, Tulsa*
Most Improved Player Selton Miguel, USF
Sixth Man of the Year Selton Miguel, USF
Sportsmanship Award Sion James, Tulane
All-conference First Team
Yaxel Lendeborg, Jr., UAB
Johnell Davis, Jr., FAU*
David Jones, Sr., Memphis
Jason Edwards, Soph., North Texas Chris Youngblood, Sr., USF
All-conference Second Team Lu'cye Patterson, Jr., Charlotte
Vladislav Goldin, Jr., FAU Alijah Martin, Jr., FAU Selton Miguel, Sr., USF Zhuric Phelps, Jr., SMU
All-conference Third Team
Igor Milicic Jr, Jr., Charlotte RJ Felton, Jr., ECU
Jahvon Quinerly, Sr., Memphis Kevin Cross, Sr., Tulane PJ Haggerty, Fr., Tulsa
All-freshman Team
Keanu Dawes, Rice*
Jayden Reid, USF*
Zion Stanford, Temple
Tyshawn Archie, Tulsa
PJ Haggerty, Tulsa*
Matt Reed, Tulsa
* denotes unanimous selection
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.