GWU's Sanders Named Mid-Major All-America By CollegeHoops.net
March 27, 2008 | Men's Basketball
ROCHELLE PARK, N.J. – Gardner-Webb senior Thomas Sanders
was named fourth-team Mid-Major All-America Thursday by
CollegeHoops.net, one of the top basketball websites in the
world.
Sanders, the Atlantic Sun Conference's 2008 Player of the Year,
averaged 18.1 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game as a
senior – leading Gardner-Webb (16-16, 9-7 A-Sun) to a spot in
the A-Sun Tournament semifinals for the third time in four
seasons.
The dynamic 6-foot-4 forward finished the season with a career-high
20 double-doubles, and became the first Gardner-Webb player to
average a double-double (points/rebounds) for an entire season
since center Stan Easterling did so in 1987-1988.
Sanders was joined on the CollegeHoops.net All-America Fourth Team
by Butler guard A.J. Graves, South Alabama's Demetric Bennett,
Miami (OH) star Tim Pillitz and Cal-Santa Barbara guard Alex
Harris.
Davidson's Stephen Curry was named the website's Mid-Major Player
of the Year.
Sanders (Sugarland, Texas) finished the 2007-2008 season with the
fourth-best rebounding total in A-Sun history (345) and broke the
league's single-season record for double-doubles. He finished a
spectacular two-year career at GWU with 555 rebounds and 910 points
– and had career-high game totals in points (30 vs. Kennesaw
State) and rebounds (22 vs. USC Upstate) in his final campaign.
A former high school All-America selection on the home school
circuit (Houston's HCYA Warriors), Sanders is on track to graduate
in May, 2008, and will likely pursue a career in professional
basketball. He was named to the A-Sun's All-Academic Team earlier
this season, and was a first-team ESPN the Magazine Academic
All-District III choice in February after compiling a 3.32 grade
point average in Social Sciences.
Gardner-Webb welcomes back four of its five starters and 10 of 12
letter winners for the 2008-2009 campaign, which will be the
school's first as a full member of the Big South Conference.
