Kaman named to AP All-American team
Lynn Wloszek
Junior center Chris Kaman’s dominating inside play was rewarded Tuesday,
with his naming to the Associated Press Honorable Mention All American team.
“It’s a real nice honor for Chris, our university and our team,” Smith said. “Chris had a big part in our success, and we got noticed.”
Kaman made tremendous improvement from his 2001-2002 season, where he averaged 11.8 points and 8.3 rebounds. He posted averages of 22.4 points, 12 rebounds and 3.2 blocks this season.
“In our early conversations, we talked about consistency,” Smith said. “We knew we would have a good team, but Chris became very consistent. consistency and maturity were the big things.”
A December victory over Michigan was the turning point of Kaman and the team’s season.
As the Chippewas burst onto the national scene with the 85-78, Kaman also had a coming out party. Kaman scored 30 points and 21 rebounds against the Wolverines, and people began to take notice.
“It was a big game for him,” said Head Coach Jay Smith. “He kind of said to everybody, ‘here I come.’ I think that was kind of the game that really springboarded some things for him.”
CMU went on to win a school-record 25 and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Kaman went on to set CMU records in both rebounds and blocked shots.
In addition to the Michigan performance, Kaman had a career-high 43 points in a home victory against Ball State.
Although he is ranked as high as the No. 5 NBA prospect for the upcoming NBA Draft on draft websites, Kaman is unsure about his future.
“He still has to review his options,” Smith said. “We’re slowly crawling through it right now. He needs to make the right decision.”
