University of North Carolina Athletics
McCants Named A Lowe's Senior CLASS Award Candidate
December 22, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2008
Kansas City, Mo. - Thirty senior male and female NCAA college basketball players, including North Carolina's Rashanda McCants, were announced today as candidates for the 2008-09 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, presented annually to an NCAA Division I student-athlete in nine sports. Based on criteria focusing on the "Four C's" of classroom, character, community and competition, the award winners will be selected by national balloting of head basketball coaches, national media and college basketball fans.
Lowe's, an official corporate partner of the NCAA, will present the winners with trophies during the weekends of the respective NCAA Men's and Women's Final Four.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the award was launched during the 2001-02 season to honor the attributes of college basketball seniors who remain committed to their university and pursue the many rewards that a senior season and complete college education brings.
The list of 2008-09 basketball candidates (complete roster attached) includes a range of universities and conferences across the country. Male award candidates represent 27 different schools; the University of Memphis, University of North Carolina (at Chapel Hill) and University of Texas (at Austin) each have two candidates. Players from 14 different conferences are among the men's nominees. The Big 12 Conference leads the way with five candidates.
All 30 female award candidates hail from a different university. While 18 conferences are included among the list of nominees, the Big 12 Conference again landed the most with five female candidates.
Schools that placed both a male and female student-athlete on the roster of candidates include Duke University, Marquette University, University of North Carolina, and the University of Pittsburgh.
"At Lowe's, we take pride in acknowledging hard work and outstanding accomplishments both on and off the court," said Bob Gfeller, Lowe's senior vice president of marketing and advertising.
"That commitment extends beyond our employees and customers and into the communities we serve where these student-athletes become real-life mentors. We're thrilled to honor each candidate's contributions and look forward to recognizing the award recipients at the men's and women's Final Four."
From each of the two lists of 30 nominees, a national media committee will select 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award in February 2009. Those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot for a nationwide vote. In addition to voting by Division I head basketball coaches and national media, college basketball fans will also be able to submit ballots by text voting or on-line at www.seniorclassaward.com.
