USC Upstate Photo
Ty Greene, a senior with the University of South Carolina Upstate, is named the Lou Henson National Mid-Major Player of the Year Award winner at the CollegeInsider.com Awards Banquet.
Greene led USC Upstate to a single-season school record for wins during the Division I era with 24, which included victories over Georgia Tech and Mississippi State to make it back-to-back seasons with wins over the ACC and SEC. The Spartans knocked off Virginia Tech and South Carolina during the 2013-14 season.
“I am so honored to receive this tremendous award, and I give all the glory to my savior Jesus Christ,” Greene said. “It is a program award and everyone worked so hard to make it happen. I am very blessed to be around such an amazing group of teammates, coaches, trainers and support staff.”
Upstate earned the program’s first-ever ranking in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll.
“On behalf of our program and our university, we are extremely proud of this prestigious award that Ty has received,” USC Upstate head coach Eddie Payne said. “He certainly deserves this award, and we couldn’t be more excited about the recognition for him and for our program.”
Greene finished the season first in the A-Sun and 11th in the NCAA in scoring with 20.3 points per game, leading the conference with 21 games of at least 20 points. The Knoxville, Tenn., native delivered seven straight 20-point games towards the end of the season to become the first A-Sun player to accomplish that feat since the 2009-10 season.
Greene ended the season with 709 points to become only the third player in school history and fifth in league history with 700 points in a season. In addition, his 709 points are the seventh-most in the NCAA this season. Greene, who was selected as the 2015 A-Sun Player of the Year, also featured two 30-point games, which included the third-highest scoring output in school history when he poured in a career-high 39 points Jan. 31 at North Florida.
An Associated Press All-America honorable mention, Greene led the Atlantic Sun with 2.9 three-pointers per game and set a career-high with eight against North Florida. He finished the season with 103 triples to set a single-season school record while becoming only the ninth player in A-Sun history with 100 three-pointers in a season.
Along with all of his offensive numbers, Greene also proved to be one of the top defenders in the league. In fact, Greene led the A-Sun and ranks 18th in the nation with 2.1 steals per game. His 74 steals rank 15th in the NCAA and are the 10th-most in a single season in school history.
Greene turned in five games with at least four steals and registered a career-high six Dec. 17 at Memphis. His performance on the defensive end helped the Spartans lead the A-Sun in steals for the length of the season and rank 23rd in the nation with 7.9 per game.
In addition to being named the Lou Henson National Player of the Year and the 2015 A-Sun Player of the Year, Greene was tabbed a CollegeInsider.com All-American, a National Association of Basketball Coaches Division I All-District 3 first team selection, an All-Atlantic Sun first team member and a four-time A-Sun Player of the Week recipient during the course of the season.
Greene and the Spartans finished the regular season third in the Atlantic Sun Conference and reached the finals of the A-Sun Tournament for the first time in school history. In fact, Greene hit the game-winning free throws in the final seconds of the semifinals at Florida Gulf Coast to help the Spartans snap a six-game losing streak to the Eagles and put Upstate in position for an opportunity to earn an NCAA Tournament berth. The Spartans would ultimately fall in the finals against top-seeded North Florida, but Upstate would go on to accept an invitation to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament for the third time in the past four seasons.
The Lou Henson Award is presented annually to the Division I Mid-Major Player of the Year. The award is named in honor of Henson, who retired after a spectacular coaching career that lasted 41 years. When he left the game in 2005 he was sixth all-time in career Division I wins with 779. He is the winningest coach at both Illinois and New Mexico State. He is one of only 12 coaches in the history of the game to take two schools to the Final Four.