Jan. 7, 2008
NASHVILLE – Vanderbilt senior swing man Shan Foster and freshman center A.J. Ogilvy were honored as the SEC Player and Freshman of the Week, respectively, for their play in three games last week by the SEC Office in Birmingham. Foster and Ogilvy became the third duo to sweep the awards, joining Chris Lofton and Duke Crews of Tennessee, who won Christmas week of 2006, and LSU’s Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas, who captured the awards for the week of February 20, 2006.
Foster, who won his third Player of the Week award of the 2007-08 season, averaged 25.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game in games against Iona, Rice, and Massachusetts last week. Foster led the Commodores in scoring with a season-high 32 points against UMass, one off his career high of 33, and he nailed eight three-pointers, a career high and the most by a Commodore in a game since Mario Moore made nine against Wichita State on March 21, 2005. The eight threes made by Foster now ties him with Ronnie McMahan for the school record for most three-point field goals made in a career. Foster also became the first Commodore to score 20-plus points in three consecutive games since Moore accomplished the feat in March 2005.
Foster also becomes the first Vanderbilt player to win three SEC Player of the Week awards in one season and the first SEC player since Chris Lofton won the award three times in the 2006-07 season. The SEC has had the Player of the Week awards since 1985.
Nationally, Foster was named the collegehoops.net Player of the Week and Andy Katz of ESPN.com named him his co-player of the week in his weekly column, the Weekly Watch.
Ogilvy, from Sydney, Australia, won his third Freshman of the Week honor from the SEC and his second consecutive award for his play last week when he averaged 20.0 points and 9.7 rebounds per game against the Gaels, Owls, and Minutemen. Ogilvy tallied his second double-double of the year with 25 points and 11 rebounds against UMass, with all 11 rebounds coming in the second half. Ogilvy also posted a 20-point, 9-rebound effort versus Iona and 14 points and nine boards in 20 minutes against Rice. Ogilvy is the nation’s leading international scorer at 19.3 points per game, and is also in the top five in the nation for freshman scorers.
Vanderbilt opens the SEC portion of their schedule when they play host to South Carolina Wednesday night. Tip off is at 7 p.m. CT from Memorial Gym.