Robertson racks up at annual b-ball banquet

Sophomore Quantez Robertson was named Most Valuable Player and garnered four other honors at the 18th annual Auburn Basketball Awards Banquet Tuesday at the Hotel at Auburn University.

Robertson was also selected as the Outstanding Defensive Player and won the Playmaker Award as well as the Iron Man and Iron Tiger Awards. The Cincinnati, Ohio, native averaged 8.2 points, 5.1 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals while shooting 44 percent from the field and 73 percent from the foul line.

Robertson, who was the only Tiger to start all 32 games, dished out more assists in his first two seasons at Auburn than any other Tiger in history with 293. Ranking fourth in the SEC with 5.1 assists and seventh with 1.7 steals, Robertson scored a career-high 17 points vs. No. 1 Florida and had a career-high 10 assists in the win vs. No. 12 Alabama.

Junior Frank Tolbert received the Lambert/Eagles Award, which is given in memory of Auburn's 15th head basketball coach, Paul Lambert, who died in a hotel fire June 6, 1978, in Columbus, Ga., and Tommy Joe Eagles, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack July 30, 1994, two months after becoming the head coach at New Orleans.

Tolbert averaged 11.8 points and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 48 percent from the field, 38 percent from 3-point range and 72 percent from the foul line. The River Falls, Ala., native had 70 floor burns on the season compared to 79 for rest of the entire Auburn team. He recorded his first career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds vs. Arkansas and had 24 points in the win vs. No. 22 Tennessee.

Sophomore Korvotney Barber received four awards including Outstanding Rebounder, Field Goal Pct. Leader (.607) and was twice named SEC Player of the Week. He recorded back-to-back double-doubles in leading the Tigers to a pair of wins over Arkansas and at No. 25 Alabama (Feb. 26-Mar. 4). He was named the first SEC Player of the Week of the season on Nov. 13 with his first career double-double with 13 points and a career-high 16 rebounds in Auburn's win over Troy.

Barber, who had six double-doubles on the season, is the first Tiger to be named SEC Player of the Week twice in the same season since All-American Chris Porter in 1998-99 and just the fourth ever along with All-American Chuck Person in 1984-85 and first-team All-SEC Chris Morris in 1987-88.

Junior Quan Prowell collected three awards as he was the Free Throw Pct. Leader (.762) and received the Iron Man and Iron Tiger Awards for never missing a day of practice and for excellent work in the weight room. Prowell averaged 12.0 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field and 43 percent from 3-point range. The Columbus, Ga., native scored a career-high 26 points, including 20 in the second half, at Ole Miss. He also had 21 points and eight rebounds in the win over No. 22 Tennessee and 17 points in the win at No. 25 Alabama.

Sophomore Josh Dollard received the Outstanding Rebounder Award after averaging team-highs of 12.5 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 49 percent from the field. He had four double-doubles on the season including 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists at Ole Miss, 14 points and 12 boards vs. No. 2 Pittsburgh and 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds vs. Georgia in the SEC Tournament.

DeWayne Reed was named to the Coaches Freshman All-SEC team by averaging 5.4 points and 3.0 assists, fourth most among SEC freshmen. He ranked 12th in the SEC with 1.32 steals per game while started 13 of 31 games on the season. The Houston, Texas, native totaled a career-high 17 points, seven assists, three rebounds and two steals vs. No. 7 Wisconsin. He scored an SEC-high 13 points at Georgia and had 12 points and six assists vs. LSU.

Sophomore Drew Smith received the Academic Achievement Award with a 3.83 GPA in pre-medicine and scored the first two points of his career vs. Winston-Salem State.

Auburn recorded its first winning season four years with a 17-15 record, and its 7-9 SEC record were the most league wins since going 8-8 in 2002-03. The Tigers came within 40 seconds of winning the SEC Western Division title as it had the ball and was up by three points at Ole Miss in the regular season finale to finish tied for third.

Auburn swept Alabama for the first time since 1999 and for the first time in history when Alabama was nationally-ranked both times. The 86-77 win in Tuscaloosa was the Tigers' second in the last 23 years.

The Tigers snapped their 15-game losing streak to nationally-ranked teams with their 83-80 upset over No. 22 Tennessee and followed that up with an 81-57 victory over No. 12 Alabama, marking the first time in 12 seasons that Auburn defeated ranked teams two-straight times.