March 28, 2007
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara University senior Sean Denison was selected to play in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) DiGiorno All-Star Game that takes place Friday, March 30 in Atlanta, Ga. as part of the Final Four festivities. The game will be played at 7:30 p.m. ET at Phillips Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks and will include the top 21 seniors in college basketball.
"It is going to be a great experience," said Denison. "I am excited to get down there and play in a game with so many great players and see where I fit in with them. I will also get to watch some great basketball being played. It should be a lot of fun and I happy that I was selected to play."
John Brady, head coach at Louisiana State University, will coach the American team while George Mason University coach Jim Larranaga will lead the National team. Denison will play for the American team under Brady.
The American team has a top scorer in guard Trey Johnson of Jackson State, who averaged 27.1 points per game this season. Joining Johnson in the backcourt are Texas Tech's Jarrius Jackson, Aaron Brooks of Oregon, Maryland's DJ Strawberry and Jamaal Tatum of Southern Illinois. Kyle Visser of Wake Forest along with Denison lead the frontcourt along with forwards Justin Doellman of Xavier, Carl Landry of Purdue, Dan Nwaele of Air Force and Caleb Green of Oral Roberts.
Larranaga's National team has a pair of 20-plus points per game scorers in Bobby Brown of Cal State Fullerton and Iowa's Adam Haluska. Blake Schilb of Loyola-Chicago, Coby Karl of Boise State, Torrell Martin of Winthrop and Zabian Dowdell of Virginia Tech round out the backcourt. Arizona's Ivan Radenovic and Courtney Sims of Michigan, both 6-10, anchor the front line with forwards Rashad Jones-Jennings of Arkansas-Little Rock and Cartier Martin of Kansas State.
Denison shared WCC Player of the Year honors with Gonzaga's Derek Raivio and was also named to the All-WCC First Team for the first time in his career. The last Bronco WCC Player of the Year was in Marlon Garnett in 1997. Denison, a starter in all 29 of the Bronco regular season games, led the team with 10.9 points per game and shot a league-leading .598 from the field. He also had 22 blocks for the season and averaged a career high 6.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game, while posting five double-doubles. In conference games, Denison was even more impressive, scoring 11.8 points and averaging 7.6 rebounds per game. He shot 64 percent from the floor in those games to lead the league. The Broncos finished the season 21-10 and 10-4 in the WCC, good for second place. The 21 wins rank fifth all-time in school history. In the WCC Tournament, Denison helped lead the Broncos to the championship game, but SCU fell 77-68 to Gonzaga with Denison scoring 10 points. Denison is expected to graduate with a degree in physics this spring.
He was the only player in the Bay Area to receive AP All-American Honorable Mention accolades and one of two players in the WCC to earn the distinction. 48 players across the country earned honorable mention status. Denison was also named to the United States Basketball Writer's Association (USBWA) All-District IX team. The forward from Nelson, British Columbia was one of nine players recognized by the USBWA in the district. District IX includes California, Oregon, Washington, Hawai'i, Arizona and Alaska. His other honors include being named Collegeinsider.com's West Coast Conference Player of the Year.