Senior G Jeryl Sasser received SMU's "Lank" Majors Most Valuable Player Award at the Mustangs' annual men's basketball banquet Wednesday night. Sasser, who won the award as a freshman and sophomore, became just the third Mustang to earn team MVP honors three times - Jay Poerner(1995-98) and Tim Mason (1990-93).

Sasser averaged a team leading 17.0 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists, along with 1.4 steals per game. The Dallas native also won the SMU Rebounder Award. He is just the second player (Jon Koncak) to win the award three times. Sasser finished his career as the Mustangs' all-time leading scorer with 1,992 points and is also tops in free throw (720) and field goal attempts (1,710) - while ranking in the top five in seven other categories.

Sophomore G Quinton Ross also earned two awards at the banquet. The Dallas Kimball product earned the Best Field Goal Percentage Award after leading the Mustangs with a .476 percentage on 146-of-307 shooting, and also picked up the Top Defensive Player Award - leading the team with 22 shot blocks while averaging 1.1 steals per game. He averaged 14.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game and was the only SMU player to appear and start in all 30 games.

Junior G Damon Hancock received the Doc Hayes Most Improved Player Award for the second straight season and ranked second on the team with 16.7 points and 3.3 assists per game from the point guard position. Freshman G Lavardicus Atkins earned the Jim Krebs Most Valuable Newcomer Award and led the Mustangs with a .457 shooting percentage from behind the three-point line, and junior C Jon Forinash received the Bobby James Scholarship Award.

SMU's other award winners were freshman G Kris Lowe (Best Free Throw Percentage Award), freshman walk-on F David Willson (Lettermen's "Mr. Hustle" Award), sophomore F Jibran Kelley (Sixth Man Award) and junior F Mike Niemi (Charges Drawn Award). Niemi drew 13 charges in 2000-01, and has now won the award twice.

SMU finished the 2000-01 season with an 18-12 overall record, 8-8 in the Western Athletic Conference. The Mustangs have won 15 or more games each of the last five seasons and will return 10 letterwinners next season.

2000-01 SMU Men's Basketball Award Winners