Men's Basketball

Memphis Sweeps Top C-USA Individual Honors

March 12, 2008

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IRVING, Texas - Memphis junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts has been named the Conference USA Player of the Year for the 2007-08 season, while the Tigers' head coach John Calipari has been named the league's Coach of the Year, it was announced today prior to the opening of the 2008 Conference USA Men's Basketball Championship.

Douglas-Roberts was named the USBWA District IV Player of the Year yesterday and is a finalist for the John R. Wooden Award, which has been given to the nation's top collegiate player since 1976.

Douglas-Roberts, a 2007-08 All-Conference USA first team pick, leads Memphis in scoring (17.3 ppg) and three-point field goal percentage (44.2), and is ranked among the conference leaders in scoring (6th), field goal percentage (7th) and three-point field goal percentage (2nd). The Detroit, Mich., native also is in the running for two other National Player of the Year awards in the Naismith Trophy and Oscar Robertson Trophy. He was selected to the NABC All-District 7 first team in earlier this month.

The 6-foot-7 guard became the 43rd Tiger in the program's history to score 1,000 points in a career earlier this year, and is currently in the No. 13 spot on the Memphis all-time scoring list with 1,358 points. He was named Conference USA Player of the Week three times in 2007-08.

Calipari was named the C-USA Coach of the Year for the second time in his career, winning in 2006 as well. In his eighth season at the helm of the Tigers, Calipari led Memphis to its first No. 1 ranking since the 1982-83 season and currently has the Tigers ranked at No. 2 with a nation's-best 30-1 record. It is his fifth 30-win season as a head coach and, with 30-plus wins the last three seasons, became only the second coach besides Kentucky's Adolph Rupp to accomplish that feat.

Earlier this season, Calipari picked up his 400th career and has an overall career record of 404-135. Calipari joins Roy Williams as the only two coaches in NCAA Division I history to get 400 victories in their first 16 years of coaching.

Memphis will face either Tulane or Marshall in its first game at the C-USA Championship on Thursday at 6 p.m. CDT. That game will be televised on CSTV.

2007-08 CONFERENCE USA PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis, G, 6-7, 200, Jr., Detroit, Mich.

2007-08 CONFERENCE USA COACH OF THE YEAR
John Calipari, Memphis (211-64 at Memphis; 404-135 career)