March 26, 2007

FSU Sports Info.

SEMINOLES' THORNTON EARNS ALL-AMERICA SECOND TEAM HONORS BY RIVALS.COM

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ? Al Thornton, who led the Florida State basketball team to the quarterfinal round of the 2007 NIT, has earned All-America Second-Team honors as selected by Rivals.com. Thornton led the Seminoles with a career-high 19.7 points per game average and a career-high 7.2 rebounds per game average during his outstanding senior season. Thornton leads the ACC in overall scoring with his 19.7 points per game average and led the conference in ACC games only scoring with his 23.5 points per game average.

Thornton finished his career ranked seventh in school history with 1,515 career points. He scored his career-high of 45 points against Miami in the 2007 regular season finale on March 3 ? the second-highest single-game total in school history. He came within one point of tying Ron King's 36-year old school record of 46 points on Feb. 11, 1971 against Georgia Southern.

Thornton was one of three players unanimously voted to the 2007 All-ACC First-Team. He has also been named to the ACC All-Tournament Second-Team and Second-Team All-America by SportsIllustrated.com. In addition, Thornton a finalist for the 2006-2007 Wooden Award All-American Team and Wooden Award Player of the Year, presented annually to the nation's top collegiate basketball player.

Thornton was joined on the Rivals.com All-America Second-Team by Oregon's Aaron Brooks, Tennessee's Chris Lofton, Vanderbilt's Derrick Byars and Florida's Al Horford.

The Rivals.com All-America First-Team honored Texas A&M's Acie Law, Wisconsin's Alando Tucker, Texas' Kevin Durant, North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and Ohio State's Greg Oden as the top five players in college basketball.

Thornton led Florida State to 43 wins over the past two seasons -- the best two-year total since the 1991-92 (22) and 1992-93 (25) earned 47 wins in a two-year span. Thornton's 19.7 points per game average was the highest by a Seminole since Bob Sura averaged 21.2 points per game average during the 1993-94 season. In addition, Thornton's 690 total points scored rank as the second highest single-season point total -- second all-time to Jim Oler's 742 points during the 1955-56 season.

Florida State University senior forward Al Thornton, a unanimous All-ACC First-Team selection and runner-up for ACC Player of the Year honors, has been named to the All-America Third-Team by the Associated Press. He is the first player in school history to earn either first, second or third team AP All-America honors and the first player since 1989 to earn All-America honors of third team or higher by any voting panel since George McCloud was an All-America Third-Team selection by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

THORNTON EARNS ALL-AMERICA THIRD-TEAM HONORS BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thornton leads the ACC with a career-high 19.7 points per game average and ranks seventh in the ACC in rebounding with a career-high 7.2 rebounds per game average. He is bidding to become only the second Seminole in school history to lead the ACC in scoring (Bob Sura led the league with a 21.4 ppg average in 1994). Thornton led the ACC in conference games only with a 23.2 points per game average in 16 league games.

Thornton led the Seminoles to the third round of the NIT with a 22-13 record as a senior. He also led Florida State in most statistical categories including scoring (19.7 ppg), rebounding (7.2 rpg), field goal shooting percentage (.530), steals (53 / 1.5 spg), blocked shots (40 / 1.1 bpg) and minutes played (1,092 / 31.2 mpg). Thornton played in a career-high 35 games as a senior and in 124 games for his career - the second highest career total in school history.

Thornton scored a near school-record 690 total points as a senior. He came within 53 points of establishing a single-season school record for points scored in a season. Thornton's incredible versatility allowed him to become the only player in school history to score 1,500 or more points (1,521), pull down 600 or more rebounds (640 / 5.2 rpg), earn 100 or more steals (103), block 70 or more shots (74) and make more than 60 3-point shots (63)

Thornton was named to the Division I All-District 6 men's basketball team by the National Association of Basketball Coaches earlier this season and was a two-time national Player of the Week as selected by ESPN's Dick Vitale. It is the second consecutive season Thornton has earned All-District 6 First-Team honors.

Florida State won 22 games this season. It marked the most wins in a single-season for the Seminoles since the 1992-93 season when they had a 25-10 record and advanced to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament. The Seminoles also tied the school record for games played in a single season with 35.

Associated Press First-Team   Associated Press Second-Team   Associated Press Third-Team
Kevin Durant, Texas           Nick Fazekas, Nevada           Jeff Green, Georgetown
Alando Tucker, Wisconsin      Tyler Hansbrough, N. Carolina  Al Horford, Florida
Acie Law IV, Texas A&M        Chris Lofton, Tennessee        Aaron Brooks, Oregon
Arron Afflalo, UCLA           Jared Dudley, Boston College   Al Thornton, Florida State
Greg Oden, Ohio State         Joakim Noah, Florida           Aaron Gray, Pittsburgh

Florida State University senior forward Al Thornton, who led the ACC in scoring with a 19.7 points per game average, has been named to the All-America Third-Team by Collegehoops.net. He is the second Seminole player and first since Bobby Sura during the 1993-94 season to lead the ACC in scoring. Thornton led the nation's top rated conference in overall scoring with his career-high 19.7 points per game average and led the conference in ACC games only scoring with a 23.5 points per game scoring average.

Thornton scored a near school-record 690 points in a school-record tying 35 games to earn his career-high average of 19.7 points per game. He scored double-figures in all 35 games for the Seminoles and was the only player in the ACC who scored in double figures in each of his teams' games during the 2006-07 season. Thornton also led the league in 20+ points scoring games (18) and scored a league high of 45 points against Miami on March 3. His 45 point performance against the Hurricanes ranks as the second-highest scoring effort in school history behind only Ron King's 46-point performance against Georgia Southern on Feb. 11, 1971.

Thornton scored at least 30 points twice during the season - his career-high 45 point performance against Miami and a 30-point scoring total on the road at Virginia on Feb. 17. He was one of only five ACC players who scored at least 30 points twice during the season and one of only two league players (also Zabian Dowdell of Virginia Tech) who scored at least 30 points in two games against another ACC team.

Thornton scored 376 of his 690 points on the season and averaged a league-high 23.5 points in the Seminoles' 16 ACC games. He scored nearly 55 percent of his points for the season in 16 ACC games (376 of 690) as compared to just over 45 percent of his point total in 19 non-ACC regular season games (314 of 690). He was the only player in the league who averaged more than 20 points per game in conference play during the 2006-07 season.

Thornton pulled down a career-high 7.2 rebounds per game to rank eighth among all conference players in rebounding. He ranked tied for ninth in the league with six games of 10 rebounds or more and he had six double-doubles to tie for eighth among all league players. Thornton led the league in conference games only rebounding with an 8.8 per game average. He pulled down a season-high 15 rebounds against Maryland on Feb. 21.

Thornton also finished his record breaking season ranked fifth in the league in field goal shooting percentage (.530), seventh in free throw shooting percentage (.790), eighth in blocked shots (1.14), 10th in steals (1.51) and fifth in offensive rebounds per game (3.03).

CollegeHoops.Net First-Team  CollegeHoops.Net Second-Team    CollegeHoops.Net Third-Team
Acie Law, IV (Texas A&M)     Arron Afflalo (UCLA)            Aaron Brooks (Oregon)
Alando Tucker (Wisconsin)    Chris Lofton (Tennessee)        Sean Singletary (Virginia)
Kevin Durant (Texas)         Jared Dudley (Boston College)   Al Thornton (Florida State)
Nick Fazekas (Nevada)        Tyler Hansbrough (N. Carolina)  Al Horford (Florida)
Greg Oden (Ohio State)       Aaron Gray (Pitt)               Joakim Noah (Florida)