Both Valleys Land Players on Henson List

(Boston, MA) – The 2020-21 Lou Henson Award preseason watch list was announced on Tuesday.

The Lou Henson National Player of the Year Award, which is presented annually to the top mid-major player in division I college basketball, honors the former Illinois and New Mexico State head coach who won 775 games in 41 seasons.

The award is named after Lou Henson who is the winningest coach in Illinois basketball history with 423 victories. During his 21 seasons (1975-1996), Henson led the Fighting Illini to 16 postseason appearances, including 12 NCAA tournaments and a Final Four appearance in 1989.

Henson, who is also the all-time winningest coach in New Mexico State history with 289 victories, is one of

only 11 coaches to take two different schools to the NCAA Final Four. His teams have made 19 NCAA appearances and four NIT appearances.

Players on teams from the following conferences are eligible for the award: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast.

Editor: Missouri Valley Conference players on the Henson watch list are Bradley’s Elijah Childs, Northern Iowa’s A.J. Green and Austin Phyfe, Indiana State’s Tyreke Key, Loyola Chicago’s Cameron Krutwig and Drake’s Roman Penn.

Ohio Valley Conference nominees are Austin Peay’s Jordyn Adams and Terry Taylor, Eastern Kentucky’s Jomaru Brown, Murray State’s Tevin Brown, Belmont’s Grayson Murphy and Nick Muszynski.