USC AIKEN TRIO HONORED AMONG DISTRICT'S BEST BY NABC
ALEXANDER DISTRICT'S TOP COACH; COMMONS AND FEARS ON FIRST-TEAM

AIKEN, S.C. -- While the season may have come to an end, the accolades continue after a record-setting men’s basketball season at USC Aiken. The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) announced Tuesday that Vince Alexander has been named the South Atlantic District Coach of the Year while juniors Chris Commons and Jeremy Fears were voted to the All-South Atlantic First-Team. (PHOTO BY: Scott Webster)

Selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC, the 88 student-athletes, from eight districts, are now eligible for the State Farm Division II All-America teams. Each district selected six players to the first-team while five more players were placed on the second-team.

After engineering the sixth-ranked Pacers to a 27-4 record and the 2007-08 Peach Belt Conference regular season title, Alexander becomes the first USC Aiken coach to ever win NABC Coach of the Year honors. Alexander’s squad led the conference standings wire-to-wire in winning the program’s first PBC regular season title since 1992-93. The Pacers broke school records for wins (27), Peach Belt wins (19), home wins (14), consecutive wins (14), and were ranked nationally for the first time in the program’s history.

“It is an honor to be named Coach of the Year but I always remember to give credit where credit is due and number one I would like to thank God, I would like to thank my assistant coach, and I would like to thank my players who came out and worked hard and made this year rewarding,” the third-year head coach said.

Commons and Fears become just the third and fourth NABC All-District players in the program’s history and the first to be named to the first-team. The players were the second-highest scoring duo in the PBC this season, combining for 50 double-figure scoring outputs. Both players were also named Daktronics All-South Atlantic Region, with Commons a first-team selection and Fears placed on the second-team.

“I think it says a lot to have two guys named to the first-team, but I think the biggest thing that it says to me is that they had some great teammates that sacrificed a lot to make them the players that they are,” Alexander said. “I am very proud of them, but I am equally as proud of the team for their sacrifice.”

Also named the co-Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year, Commons was second nationally in scoring at 21.8 points per game while also puling down 6.4 rebounds per game and shooting 54.3 percent from the field. The 6’8” junior from Toledo, Ohio, was named PBC Player of the Week a record five times during the season and scored 20-plus points 21 times.

Commons scored 38 points in his USC Aiken debut and finished the season with 675 points, the second-most ever and just 16 points shy of the school’s single-season record of 691, set by Clint Keown in 2001-02.

Fears was named also named to the Peach Belt All-Conference team in his first season with the Pacers. The 6’5” junior guard from Chicago, Illinois, averaged 17.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game. Fears scored in double figures in 24 of 27 games played, including 10 games with 20 or more points.

Joining Commons and Fears on the first-team were Augusta State’s Tyrekus Bowman, Sean Barnette of Wingate, Anthony Hilliard of Elizabeth City State, and Virginia Union’s Brad Byerson. The members of the second-team are Garret Siler and Ben Madgen of Augusta State, Reggie Bratton of Lenior Rhyne, Georgia College & State’s Aaron Clark, and Jerry Hollis of Johnson C. Smith. Six of the 11 honorees were from Peach Belt Conference schools.

2008 NABC Men’s All-South Atlantic District Team
First-Team
Chris Commons, USC Aiken
Jeremy Fears, USC Aiken
Sean Barnette, Wingate
Anthony Hilliard, Elizabeth City State
Tyrekus “AJ” Bowman, Augusta State
Brad Byerson, Virginia Union

Second-Team
Garret Siler, Augusta State
Reggie Bratton, Lenoir-Rhyne
Aaron Clark, GCSU
Jerry Hollis, Johnson C. Smith
Ben Madgen, Augusta State

2008 South Atlantic Coach of the Year
Vince Alexander, USC Aiken