Big South Announces 2021-22 Men's Basketball Preseason Honors
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Winthrop redshirt-junior forward/center D.J. Burns Jr. (Rock Hill, S.C.) has been voted the 2021-22 Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Preseason Player of the Year by the league’s head coaches and media panel, it was announced this morning. Burns is the sixth different Winthrop student-athlete to be voted Preseason Player of the Year.
Burns was an All-Conference Honorable Mention honoree in 2020-21, and earned a spot on the Big South All-Tournament Team after helping the Eagles capture their second consecutive conference championship. The 2019-20 Big South Freshman of the Year averaged 10.1 points in just 15.7 minutes of action last season, and made 58.2 percent of his field goal attempts to lead the team. Burns scored in double-figures 12 times last year -- including a career-high 22 points in 23 minutes of action in an ESPNU nationally-televised win at High Point in February. Burns averaged 13.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 68 percent from the floor during Winthrop’s run to the Big South title in March, and set a Big South Championship game-record for field goal percentage with a 91.7 clip on 11-of-12 shooting en route to a career-high tying 22 points against Campbell. He received 14 first-place votes and 199 total points in the voting to earn the top spot on the preseason All-Conference team.
2021-22 Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team
First-Team, School, Cl., Pos.
D.J. Burns Jr., Winthrop, R-Jr. F/C
John-Michael Wright, High Point, Jr., G
Cedric Henderson Jr., Campbell, Sr.
Tajion Jones, UNC Asheville, R-Sr., G
Rayshon Harrison, Presbyterian College, Soph., G
Second-Team, School, Cl., Pos.
Kameron Langley, North Carolina A&T, Gr., G
Jordan Whitfield, Campbell, Sr., G
LJ Thorpe, UNC Asheville, R-Sr., F
Russell Dean, Hampton, Jr., G
Justin Hill, Longwood, Soph., G
Wright has been an All-Conference honoree in both of his years at High Point, and finished second in the Big South in scoring last season with 20.7 points per game. He had 14 20-point games in 2020-21, and contributed defensively with 35 steals and 5.2 rebounds. Wright led the Panthers last year with 3.2 assists while making a team-high 48 three-point field goals.
Henderson earned Second-Team All-Big South honors last season as well as an All-Tournament Team honor. He finished sixth among the league’s scoring leaders with 15.0 points, and was the Big South’s top field goal shooter at 50.3 percent. Henderson helped the Camels reach the 2021 Big South Championship game with his 15.7 scoring average in three tournament games.
Jones was also a Second-Team All-Conference selection in 2020-21, and was the Big South’s second-leading three-pointer shooter a season ago with a 42.9 success rate. His 68 three-pointers were second-most, but he was tops among all Big South players with 3.4 three-pointers per game -- the league’s lone player to average 3.0. Jones was fifth in the conference with 15.9 points, and is the league’s active career scoring leader with 1,058 points.
Harrison was the Big South Freshman of the Year in 2020-21, and finished fourth in the conference with 17.3 points per game. He also ranked ninth in the league with 5.6 rebounds, second in free throw percentage at 80.0 and tied for sixth with 1.4 steals. Harrison had eight 20-point games last season, including a career-high 31 against Charleston Southern.
The Preseason All-Conference Second-Team features three additional returning All-Conference honorees in Whitfield (Second-Team), Thorpe (Honorable Mention) and Dean (Honorable Mention), an All-Freshman Team member in Hill, and a two-time MEAC Preseason Player of the Year in Langley.