Burke Earns USBWA All-America First Team Honors
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- University of Michigan sophomore guard Trey Burke (Columbus, Ohio/Northland HS) was selected to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association All-America first team today (Monday, March 18). He is the first Wolverine to earn USBWA All-America honors since 1994 (Jalen Rose) and just the 15th in Michigan's history.
Burke was joined by Creighton's Doug McDermott, Indiana's Victor Oladipo, Gonzaga's Kelly Olynyk and Georgetown's Otto Porter as first team selections. The second team includes Kansas' Ben McLemore and Jeff Withey, Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart, Duke's Mason Plumlee and Indiana's Cody Zeller.
Burke, who was recently named to the Sports News All-America first team, helped U-M to a 26-7 overall record and to its third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. He is averaging a career best for points (19.2), assists (6.73), field-goal percentage (47.9), three-point percentage (40.1), free-throw percentage (79.3) and steals (1.6).
During the Big Ten Tournament, Burke became just the 14th Wolverine to score 600-plus points in a single season. He is the only U-M player to score in double figures in all 33 games and was the only Big Ten player to score 15-plus points in every conference game. This season, he became the 47th U-M player with 1,000 career points and just the seventh U-M sophomore to reach the 1,000 point milestone.
In addition to his scoring, Burke leads the Big Ten with 6.72 assists per game, which is 11th in the nation (as of March 17). With his 222 assists this season, he needs just 14 more to set the U-M single season record as well as the U-M sophomore record. Burke is just the fourth Wolverine to record 200-plus assists in a season.
This season, Burke has been named the Big Ten's Player of the Year and earned unanimous All-Big Ten first team honors. He was also honored by the USBWA as the District V Player of the Year as well as All-District Team. He is a finalist for several national awards including Oscar Robertson National Player of the Year Award, John R. Wooden National Player of the Year Award, Bob Cousy Award for Nation's Top Point Guard, Naismith National Player of the Year Award and John R. Wooden All-America Team.
The Wolverines are the No. 4 seed in the South Region and will face No. 13 seed South Dakota State in the second round at 7:15 p.m. Thursday (March 21) at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Mich. The game will be televised by CBS. The Michigan-South Dakota State winner will advance to the third round to face the winner of No. 5 seed VCU and No. 12 seed Akron on Saturday (March 23) for a spot in the South Region semifinals in Arlington, Texas, at Cowboys Stadium. Third-round game times are TBA.
USBWA All-America Teams
FIRST TEAM
Trey Burke, Michigan
Doug McDermott, Creighton
Victor Oladipo, Indiana
Kelly Olynyk, Gonzaga
Otto Porter, Georgetown
SECOND TEAM
Ben McLemore, Kansas
Mason Plumlee, Duke
Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State
Jeff Withey, Kansas
Cody Zeller, Indiana
