UC San Diego guard Bryce Pope and the Tritons are heading to Daytona Beach as the second seed in the Ro College Basketball Invitational, while the senior has garnered another honor.
Pope has been named a finalist for the Lou Henson Award, presented to the top player in mid-major college basketball. On Tuesday, he also received All-District recognition by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).
And last week, he became the first Triton to be named All-Big West First Team.
During conference play, Pope ranked third in the Big West in scoring at 19.3 points per contest while leading the league at 36.5 minutes per game. A three-time Big West Player of the Week this season, Pope has started 103 consecutive games and currently sits fourth all-time in scoring in UC San Diego history with 1,611 career points.
The recipient of the annual award is determined by a 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches, as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com.
The winner of the Lou Henson Award will be announced at the Men’s Basketball Final Four next month in Phoenix.
The award honors the former Illinois and New Mexico State head coach who won 775 games in 41 seasons. Henson is the winningest coach in Illinois basketball history with 423 victories. During 21 seasons (1975-1996), Henson led the Fighting Illini to 16 postseason appearances, including 12 NCAA tournaments and a Final Four appearance in 1989.
Henson, who is also the all-time winningest coach in New Mexico State history with 289 victories, is one of only 11 coaches to take two different schools to the NCAA Final Four. His teams have made 19 NCAA appearances and four NIT appearances. He died in 2020.
The Ro College Basketball Invitational begins Saturday afternoon.
