GREENSBORO, NC – UNC Greensboro forward Kyle Hines added another honor to his mantle on Saturday, earning a spot on CNN-SI’s All-Midmajor second team.
The list was formed by Sports Illustrated’s Bill Trocchi and is made up of all of the conference’s that aren’t considered the traditional power conferences.
Hines, the Southern Conference Player of the Year this season and an NABC All-District second-team selection, was joined on the second team by Creighton guard Nate Funk, Wright State guard DaShaun Wood, Oral Roberts forward Caleb Green and Winthrop guard Michael Jenkins.
The first team was made up of Nevada’s Nick Fazekas, Eastern Washington’s Rodney Stuckey, Marist’s Jared Jordan, Butler’s A.J. Graves, and Southern Illinois’ Jamaal Tatum.
A 6-6 junior from 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 second in the league in scoring and first in rebounding. Although Davidson’s Stephen Curry is still alive in the SoCon Tournament and leads Hines by one-tenth of a point entering Saturday's championship game, 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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