March 28, 2007
University of Iowa all-America guard Adam Haluska is a finalist for yet another prestigious collegiate basketball award. He is one of four in the running for the Chip Hilton Award. Also, there are four collegiate basketball coaches that are finalists for the Clair Bee Award.
Four of the nation’s premier basketball players and four outstanding coaches have been named finalists for this award, to be presented by Chip Hilton Sports and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at the Final Four in Atlanta, April 2.
Chip Hilton Sports and the Basketball Hall of Fame began presenting the awards in 1997 as a way to honor outstanding excellence and character in college basketball.
The Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award honors a senior Division I men’s player for demonstrating outstanding character, leadership, and talent.
The Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award honors a Division I men’s basketball coach who through his actions on and off the court, makes an outstanding contribution to the sport of college basketball.
The Selection Committee is composed of: Jay Bilas, Dave Gavitt, Bob Hammel, Bob Knight, Pete Newell, Billy Packer, Dean Smith, Dick Vitale, and Kevin Weiberg.
Joining Haluska as a finalist for the Chip Hilton Award are: Tre’ Kelley, South Carolina; Acie Law IV, Texas A&M and Alando Tucker, Wisconsin.
The list of coaching finalists for the Clair Bee Award are: Tony Bennett, Washington State; Bo Ryan, Wisconsin; Scott Sutton, Oral Roberts and John Thompson III, Georgetown.
Last season’s Chip Hilton Award winner was of Gerry McNamara of Syracuse. Jim Larranaga of George Mason was the 2006 Clair Bee Award winner.
Earlier this week Haluska was named to the Associated Press honorable mention all-America team. Haluska earned first team all-Big Ten honors this season. The native of Carroll, IA is also a first team academic all-American and was named the Academic all-American of the Year for Division I men’s basketball. He is also one of 10 finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award.
Haluska led the Big Ten Conference in scoring, averaging 20.5 points in all games and 21.3 in league games. He started all 98 games at Iowa (three seasons) and is seventh in career scoring with 1,578 points. He is Iowa’s scoring leader among those who played just three seasons.
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