Bader, Perry Among Senior CLASS Award Nominees

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Oakland senior guard Travis Bader and Youngstown State senior guard Kendrick Perry are among the 30 men's basketball nominees for the Senior CLASS Award, the organization announced today.

Both players were selected preseason First Team All-Horizon League. The duo were also tabbed as CollegeInsider.com Lou Henson Award nominees in the offseason.

To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition. The complete list of candidates follows this release.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

Of the 60 candidates, 20 have grade point averages of 3.5 or higher. There are eight CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-Americans® and seven returning All-Americans. Twenty-four of the 32 NCAA Division I basketball-playing conferences are represented as well.

The Senior CLASS Award winners will be announced during the 2014 NCAA Men's Final Four® and NCAA Women's Final Four®.

Each of the 30 candidate classes will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one male candidate and one female candidate who best exemplify excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.

Perry, the 2013-14 Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year, is a two-time Horizon League First-Team pick and a two-time Bob Cousy Award Watch List selection. Perry averagd 17.3 points per game last season and ranks 17th all-time at Youngstown State with 1,309 career points.

Bader enters his first season in the Horizon League with 1,670 career points, 13th in school history; Bader’s 886 3-point attempts sit 307 from the NCAA all-time record, and the marksman needs 101 3-pointers to break J.J. Redick’s NCAA career record of 457. Bader has converted at least one 3-pointer in 53 consecutive games, the longest streak in the country entering the 2013-14 season.

For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.

Men's Basketball Candidates
Travis Bader, Oakland
Joe Jackson, Memphis
Jerrelle Benimon, Towson
Walt Lemon Jr., Bradley
Kyle Boswell, UC Santa Barbara
J.J. Mann, Belmont
Allan Chaney, High Point
Doug McDermott, Creighton
Aaron Craft, Ohio State
Sean McGonagill, Brown
Jordan Dykstra, South Dakota State
Travis McKie, Wake Forest
Melvin Ejim, Iowa State
Jordan McRae, Tennessee
Dwayne Evans, Saint Louis
Shabazz Napier, Connecticut
Chris Eversley, Cal Poly
Dennis Ogbe, Tennessee Tech
C.J. Fair, Syracuse
Kendrick Perry, Youngstown State
Tim Frazier, Penn State
Dwight Powell, Stanford
Jakob Gollon, Mercer
Augustine Rubit, South Alabama
Joe Harris, Virginia
Russ Smith, Louisville
Holton Hunsaker, Utah Valley
Chris Udofia, Denver
Anthony Ireland, Loyola Marymount
Patric Young, Florida