April 26, 2018
AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn men's basketball team put a bow on its historic season at the 29th annual awards banquet Thursday night inside Auburn Arena.
Junior Bryce Brown and sophomores Jared Harper and Mustapha Heron received the prestigious Paul Lambert/Tommy Joe Eagles Award, given to the team's most valuable player.
Brown, a Naismith Trophy Top 30 honoree, was one 3-pointer away from breaking the single-season program record with 107 makes from downtown. With 241 buckets from behind the arc, he has the most 3-pointers through three seasons in Auburn history.
Harper produced the fourth-most assists in a single season with 185 dimes during the 2017-18 campaign. He scored in double figures in 17 of 18 Southeastern Conference games, which was a team-best.
Heron led the team with 29 games in double figures and became the 37th player in the Tiger record books to score 1,000 career points. He is just the fifth ever to do it in only two seasons.
The Most Improved Player Award was given to Brown after he more than doubled his scoring output from 7.5 points per game last season to 15.9 this season. He held his defensive matchup to shoot just 37 percent from the floor and induced 100 turnovers in 33 games and also reached 1,000 career points.
Freshman Chuma Okeke earned both the Coaches' Award and the Sixth Man Award. He tied for the team-high with three double-doubles, including two in SEC play. Okeke averaged 7.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in just over 21 minutes per game in 34 contests off the bench this season. He finished fourth among SEC freshmen in rebounding.
The Mike Mitchell Courage Award was earned by sophomore Anfernee McLemore. The Warwick, Ga. native was named to the SEC All-Defensive Team and led the league in blocks before suffering a season-ending injury at South Carolina. He produced 73 blocks, the most by any player in the country to play in less than 30 games.
Harper was also honored with the Iron Tigers Award after starting all 34 games and playing 30.5 minutes per tilt. He made a team-best 74 of 86 free throws with under four minutes to go in games this season and produced the most games of seven-plus assists in the SEC with 15.
Desean Murray was given the John Mengelt Free Throw Award after being the team's top free throw shooter at 84 percent, which was third in the SEC. He buried five or more shots from the charity stripe in eight games and was perfect from the free throw line in 12 contests.
Juniors Malik Dunbar and Horace Spencer earned the Sonny Smith Outstanding Teammate Award, presented by the former Auburn head coach himself. Dunbar closed the season shooting 23 of 63 from 3-point land and averaged 10 points and 6.3 rebounds per game in three starts during the season. Spencer improved his free throw shooting by 22 percent - a team-high - and averaged 4.7 points to go along with 4.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.
The Rising Waters Academic Award was given to soon-to-be graduate from the Ginn College of Engineering Patrick Keim, while McLemore earned the Bill Lynn Academic Award. Keim also earned the Letterman's Club Award.
The Head Coach's Award was given to Billy Vaughan and the Tip-Off Club Award went to coordinator of special events Taylor Pair.
Auburn won its third SEC title in program history in 2018, leading the league wire-to-wire. Under head coach Bruce Pearl, the Tigers made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003 and earned a 4 seed.
Auburn won 26 games during the 2017-18 season, the second-most in program history, and broke the record for most home wins in a season with 15.
The Tigers ended the season ranked 19th in the country, marking the first time since 2000 that an Auburn team ended a campaign nationally ranked in the final Associated Press Poll.
The 2017-18 team set single-season records in free throws (647), 3-pointers (324) and blocks (180), while producing the second-best free throw percentage all-time at 77.4 percent.
Auburn had seven sellouts in its home arena, the most in Auburn Arena history and the most since the 2000-01 season.