March 5, 2009
TULSA, Okla. (UCFAthletics.com) - UCF men's basketball senior guard Jermaine Taylor (Tavares, Fla.) has earned the first of what should be a slew of accolades as he has been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 11 First Team. Taylor currently ranks third nationally in scoring at 26.2 points per game.
He is now eligible to garner NABC All-America honors, which will be announced at the Final Four in Detroit in April. The all-district teams are selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC.
Taylor was joined on the first team by fellow Conference USA standouts Tyreke Evans (Memphis), Jerome Jordan (Tulsa), Aubrey Coleman (Houston) and Robert Dozier (Memphis). Stefon Jackson (UTEP), Paul Delaney (UAB), Antonio Anderson (Memphis), Robert Vaden (UAB) and Ben Uzoh (Tulsa) earned second-team recognition.
Taylor has recorded one of the best seasons in UCF and C-USA history in 2008-09. He has paced the Knights in scoring in 28 of the squad's 29 contests and has posted eight 30-point showings and one 40-point performance.
Taylor is averaging 28.7 points in league play. His 430 points in C-USA games are a conference single-season record. In February, he became UCF's all-time leading scorer at the Division I level. His 1,928 points also rank fifth on the C-USA career scoring register.
On five occasions this season, he has received C-USA Player of the Week honors. The five awards for Taylor are the most in a single campaign for a league player since the 2002-03 season when Dwyane Wade of Marquette was recognized five times.
UCF fans will have their last chance to watch Taylor play at the UCF Arena on Saturday when the Knights host East Carolina at 7 p.m. The UCF baseball team hosts Monmouth at 4 p.m. that day and fans who attend the game at Jay Bergman Field can bring their ticket stub to the UCF Arena and purchase a special $5 ticket to watch the Knights face the Pirates.
For the latest news on the Knights, log on to UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site, which also contains ticket and Golden Knights Club donor information, is also the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.