Three Billikens earned Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball All-Conference honors ahead of this week’s A-10 Championship in Washington, D.C., the league announced today.
Guard Yuri Collins was a first-team All-Conference selection and was voted to the five-man All-Defensive team. Gibson Jimerson was named third-team All-Conference and landed on the All-Academic team. Fred Thatch Jr. joined Jimerson on the five-man All-Academic team.
Collins enters the A-10 Championship leading the NCAA in total assists (248) and assists per game (8.0). The two-time A-10 Player of the Week is second on the Billikens with 11 ppg. Collins has been strong defensively as well. His 64 steals are tied for sixth in a single season in school history.
In conference games only, Collins averaged 11.7 points and 8.3 assists. He had 13 games of 10+ points, and he turned in one of the top performances of the season at George Mason with 35 points (including the game winner at the double-overtime buzzer), 13 assists, five steals and five rebounds.
Jimerson is the Billikens’ leading scorer with 16.2 ppg, seventh in the A-10. He is one of the top shooters in the league, ranking eighth in 3-point field goal percentage (.415, 71-171) and eighth in free-throw percentage (.820, 91-111). Jimerson’s 71 treys this season are fifth in school history.
A third-year international business major, Jimerson earned a spot on the league’s All-Academic team for a second consecutive year. He maintains a GPA above 3.9 and is a candidate for CoSIDA Academic All-America.
Thatch has graduated with an undergraduate degree from the Chaifetz School of Business and is enrolled in the SLU MBA program. On the court, he has emerged as one of the Billikens’ most consistent players down the stretch. In A-10 games only, Thatch averaged 11.5 ppg and 6.1 rpg while shooting 45.2 percent from the field.
Thatch has collected three double-doubles the last month, the first three of his career. He matched his career highs of 21 points and 13 rebounds in the Billikens’ win at Rhode Island on March 2.
The Billikens are the No. 5 seed in the A-10 Championship and will play their first game at Capital One Arena on Thursday, March 10, against #12 La Salle or #13 Saint Joseph’s.
