Penn Honored as AP Third Team All-American – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/14/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 14, 2000
Cincinnati center Kenyon Martin, who will miss the NCAA tournament because of a broken leg, received the most votes Monday for the AP All-America basketball team.
Iowa State forward Marcus Fizer was second in the balloting. Also selected to the first team were Indiana guard A.J. Guyton, Texas center Chris Mihm and Notre Dame forward Troy Murphy.
Ohio State senior guard Scoonie Penn was a third-team selection for the second straight season, and he was joined by seniors Pepe Sanchez of Temple, Mark Madsen of Stanford and Eduardo Najera of Oklahoma, and LSU sophomore Stromile Swift.
Martin, just one vote shy of being a unanimous selection, also was the Conference USA player of the year after averaging 18.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.4 blocked shots. The 6-foot-8 senior broke his leg three minutes into the Bearcats’ tournament quarterfinal matchup with Saint Louis.
The loss caused Cincinnati, ranked No. 1 at the time, to be selected as second seed for the NCAA Tournament.
Martin was selected to the first team on all but one of the ballots from the 68-member national media panel, and had 336 points in the 5-3-1 system.
Fizer, the Big 12 player of the year and the conference’s leading scorer the last two seasons, led the Cyclones to their first league title since 1945 and is their first All-American since Gary Thompson in 1957.
The 6-8 junior averaged 23.2 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 57 percent from the field, including 43 percent from 3-point range. He received 57 first-team votes and 313 points.
Guyton, the Big Ten player of the year and the fourth-leading scorer in Indiana history with 2,097 points, was on 33 first-team ballots and had 226 points.
The 6-1 senior averaged 20.3 points this season while shooting 42 percent from 3-point range. He is Indiana’s career leader with 280 3-pointers, and was the first Hoosier to be an All-American since Calbert Cheaney in 1993. Mihm received just 17 first-team votes, but his 200 points were one more than Murphy, who was on 27 first-team ballots.
Mihm, a 7-foot junior, averaged 17.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.4 blocks while shooting 53 percent for the Longhorns. He is Texas’ first All-American since the AP began selecting a team in 1948. In 1935, Jack Gray was a consensus All-America selection.
Murphy, the Big East player of the year, was the first player to lead the conference in scoring and rebounding in the same season. The 6-9 sophomore averaged 22.8 points and 10.8 rebounds, and is Notre Dame’s first All-American since Adrian Dantley repeated in 1976.
Two players from Duke and Michigan State led the second team.
Duke senior guard Chris Carrawell, who finished one point behind Murphy in the voting, and teammate Shane Battier, a junior forward, were selected to the second team. Michigan State senior guard Mateen Cleaves, a first-team selection last season and a second-team pick in 1998 who missed the first 10 weeks this season with a broken foot, and teammate Morris Peterson, a senior forward, also were on the second team.
The final member of the second team was Fresno State senior guard Courtney Alexander, the nation’s leading scorer at 25.3 points per game.
None of the players selected for the preseason All-America team made the first team. Joining Penn and Cleaves on that team were Chris Porter of Auburn, Quentin Richardson of DePaul and Terence Morris of Maryland.
