Falkner named SLC basketball student-athlete of year
4/15/2009 2:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Barkley Falkner, Sam Houston State's 6-8 senior center from Oxford, MS, has been named the Capital One Bank/Southland Conference Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year.
The award marks the third year in a row the SLC Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year has been a Bearkat. Ryan Bright received the honor in both 2007 and 2008.
Falkner and his teammate Josten Crow both were named to the 10-man Academic All-Southland Conference honor squad for 2009. During the past four years, seven Sam Houston State players have been named Academic All-SLC a total of 16 times.
Falkner carries a 3.91 grade-point average in accounting. He was an honorable mention All-Southland Conference selection this past season after averaging 8.7 points per game. His 8.1 rebounds per contest ranked fourth in the Southland and his 3.9 offensive rebounds ranked third. He also ranked sixth in the conference in field-goal percentage (.531).
Falkner started all 30 games for the west division championship team that finished with an 18-12 overall record and a 12-4 mark in conference play. The dean's list student scored in double figures 16 times, including a season-high of 22 in a double-overtime victory at UTSA.
A three-time selection to the Commissioner's Honor Roll, he finished the 2008-09 season with double-figure rebound totals in seven games including a season-best 16 boards two different times. Falkner is a member of Sam Houston Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Crow was the sixth man for the 2009 Bearkats. His top offensive games included 17 points in a victory over Texas State-San Marcos and 13 in Sam Houston's win at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He is a Dean's List Student and an SLC Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll member.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 12 member schools, voted for the student-athlete of the year. The student-athlete of the year award is presented to the one male and one female student-athlete who achieve excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees shall have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated achievement in athletics for at least two years at the nominating institution.
The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic/compliance administrators from each Southland university. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for the all-academic squad.
The complete 2009 Academic All-Southland Conference team:
| MEN'S ACADEMIC ALL-SOUTHLAND BASKETBALL | ||||
| First Team | ||||
| Barkley Falkner | Sam Houston State | Sr | 3.91 | Accounting |
| Logan McConathy | Northwestern State | So | 4.00 | Journalism |
| Michael McConathy | Northwestern State | Jr | 3.57 | Engineering Technology |
| Devin Gibson | Texas-San Antonio | So | 3.14 | Finance |
| John Rybak | TX St-San Marcos | Jr | 3.36 | Business Marketing |
| Second Team | ||||
| Josten Crow | Sam Houston State | So | 3.39 | Business |
| Tommy Moffitt | Texas-Arlington | Jr | 3.16 | Criminal Justice |
| Joey Shank | Texas-San Antonio | Sr | 3.11 | Economics |
| Coy Custer | Lamar | Jr | 3.23 | Civil Engineering |
| Deividas Petravicius | Northwestern State | Sr | 3.41 | Business Administration |
