Larra'aga, Larkin Earn All-District Honors

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -The regular season is over and Miami basketball’s trophy case continues to fillup.

Canes point guard Shane Larkin and Miami head coach JimLarrañaga each received honors from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association onTuesday.

Larkin was named to one of the U.S. Basketball WritersAssociation’s All-District Teams while Larranaga was selected as the DistrictCoach of the Year. The selections are based on voting from theUSBWA’s national membership of 900-plus. There are nine regions from coast tocoast and a player and coach of the year are selected in each.

Larkin is a member of the District IV teamwhich consists of players from schools in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi,Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

The Orlando, Fla., native has already earnedfirst team All-ACC honors, a spot on the ACC All-Defensive team and third teamAll-America honors by The Sporting News thisyear. He also finished second to teammate Durand Scott in the ACC DefensivePlayer of the Year voting and finished second in ACC Player of the Year votingbehind Virginia tech’s Erick Green.

Larkin led the Canes in scoring (13.7 ppg), assists (131), steals(59) and 3-point percentage (.403). He recorded a steal in 26 games thisseason, including 20 straight games from Nov. 13 through Feb. 5. He also madeat least one 3-pointer in 26 of his 30 games played this season.

Thelightning quick guard played a pivotal role Miami’s success this season,starting 29 of Miami’s 30 games. Larkin stepped up against the bestcompetition, scoring 18 points in each of Miami’s home wins over perennialpowers Duke and North Carolina. The sophomore scored in double figures in 24 ofhis 30 games and scored 20 or more points five times.

Larkin becomes the third Miami player toearn USBWA All-District honors since the 2004-2005 season. Jack McClinton wasselected All-District in 2008-09 and Guillermo Diaz earned the distinctiontwice in his career (2004-05, 2005-06).

Larrañaga was selected the District IVCoach of the Year after leading the Hurricanes to unprecedented success. In his second year at Miami, Larrañaga led Miamito a 24-6 record and the ACC Regular Season Championship. Coach L and the Caneswere ranked as high as No. 2 in the country, defeated No. 1 Duke and hostedfive capacity crowds at the BankUnited Center this season, all firsts inprogram history. 

Larrañaga, 63, is in hissecond season as Miami’s 12th head coach. Prior to joining the Hurricanes, Larrañagaspent 14 seasons at George Mason University, where he led the Patriots to the2006 Final Four. He also spent 11 seasons at Bowling Green and two seasons atAmerican International. In 29 seasons as a head coach, the 1971 ProvidenceCollege graduate has a career record of 514-353.

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association wasformed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers.Today, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball.

DISTRICT IV (KY, TN, MS, AL, GA,FL)
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia
COACH OF THE YEAR: Jim Larrañaga, Miami

ALL-DISTRICT TEAM
Kenny Boynton, Florida
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia
Isaiah Canaan, Murray State
Marshall Henderson, Ole Miss
Joe Jackson, Memphis
Shane Larkin, Miami
Jordan McRae, Tennessee
Nerlens Noel, Kentucky
Trevor Releford, Alabama
Russ Smith, Louisville