KANSAS CITY, MO – UNC Greensboro junior forward Kyle Hines was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District second team this week.
Hines, who was named the Southern Conference Sports Media Association’s Men's Basketball Player of the Year on Thursday in a vote of the region’s media professionals and the SoCon’s Player of the Year in a ballot by the coaches on Wednesday, was joined on the District 5 (North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia) second team by High Point’s Arizona Reid, College of Charleston’s Dontaye Draper, Clemson’s James Maye and Davidson’s Stephen Curry.
Five ACC players were named to the first team and are now eligible for All-American honors. North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough and Brandon Wright were joined on the team by Duke’s Josh McRoberts, Virginia’s duo of J.R. Reynolds and Sean Singletary.
A 6-6 native of Sicklerville, NJ, Hines is one of four players nationally to be averaging 20 points and nine rebounds per game. He finished the season averaging 20.9 ppg and 9.0 rpg, ranking him tops in the league in scoring and rebounding and making him one of three players currently holding both top spots in a conference. Although Davidson’s Curry is still alive in the SoCon Tournament and trails Hines by two-tenths of a point, a player has not finished the season leading the Southern Conference in both scoring and rebounding since Aron Stewart of Richmond in the 1972-73 season. Hines 20.9 ppg was also the first time a Spartan averaged better than 20 points per game since Marvin Dawson did it in 1990-91.
Hines led the Southern Conference in scoring for the first 100 days this season and currently has a streak of 50 consecutive games scoring 10 or more points going back to December 2005. That streak is the fifth-longest active streak in the nation, trailing Trey Johnson of Jackson State (63), Caleb Green of Oral Roberts (59), Nick Fazekas of Nevada (57) and Brandon Heath of San Diego State (53). Green and Fazekas are the other two players currently leading their respective conferences in points and rebounds.
Hines, who also leads the league in blocked shots, had 33 points in UNCG’s Southern Conference Tournament quarterfinal loss to Furman on Thursday. It was his fifth 30-point game this season. No Spartan had ever had more than three 30-point games in a season. He also had a 38-point game to open the season at Marshall, the most by a Spartan since 1986. He scored 20 or more points 13 times this season and has now recorded 31 games of 20-plus points in his career.
In addition, Hines’ 33-point game Thursday gave him 605 points for the season, breaking his own Division I era single-season record set last year. Robert Bryant’s 657 points in 1985-86 is the school’s all-time standard. Hines is also the first player in school history to record 500 points in two seasons, consecutive or otherwise.
This season, Hines wound up ranked in the top 10 on several UNCG single-season lists. He was in the Top 10 in points (second), field goals (fourth), field goal attempts (third), free throws (second), free throw attempts (first), rebounds (fourth) and blocks (fourth). He also had 10 double-doubles this season to give him 31 for his career, also a UNCG record.
The only active player in Division I with career totals exceeding 1000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 blocks and 100 steals, Hines currently sits second on the UNCG career scoring list with 1,591 points in 89 career games. Hines has scored in double figures in 82 of those 89 games and has led the Spartans in scoring 46 of his 89 career contests.
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