Morant First-Team All-American

First MSU Consensus All-American

Editor: The following is part of a press release from goracers.com.

(Murray, KY) – Murray State’s Ja Morant became a consensus All-America Tuesday when he was named to the Associated Press All-America First Team.

To be a consensus All-America by the NCAA standard, points are granted from the All-America selections of the Associated Press, USBWA, NABC and Sporting News. Morant ended up as a first team pick for all but the Sporting News. He’s the third consensus All-America in Ohio Valley Conference history following Clem Haskins in 1967 and Jim McDaniels in 1971, each from Western Kentucky.

Morant becomes the Racers’ fourth All-America selection in the last eight years and he follows Isaiah Canaan (2012), Cameron Payne (2015), Jonathan Stark (2018).

Morant’s stardom rose quickly in the 2018-19 season and he captured the attention of the basketball world by becoming the first player since the NCAA made the assist an official stat in the 1983-84 season to average 20 points and 10 assists.

He was the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and led the Murray State Racers to the NCAA Tournament where they scored their 28^th win of the season with a first round victory over Marquette. Morant posted just the ninth triple-double in NCAA Tournament play with 17 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds.

He finished the season with 331 assists, the sixth-most in NCAA single-season history. His 331 assists and 808 points are both Murray State single-season records and he set the MSU career assist record in only two seasons.

Morant had 15 games this season with 20-plus points and 10-plus assists; no other player nationally had three such games. In January, he became the first NCAA D-I player in 20 years to record a game of 40 points, 11 assists and five steals in a regulation game. His 18 assists in a game against UT Martin are the most this year and the second-most in OVC single-game history.