Georgia State sophomore D’Marcus Simonds was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, the league announced Monday. This marks the third time in the last five seasons a Panther has earned the league’s top honor.
The guard from Gainesville leads the conference in scoring averaging 21.5 points per game. He enters the Sun Belt Tournament just 20 points shy of R.J. Hunter’s school-record of 688 points in a season. Hunter won the other two Player of the Year awards. Simonds is also the league leader in minutes played (35.2), third in steals (1.7), fourth in assists (4.5) and fifth in field goal percentage (46.2).
To no one’s surprise, the 2017 Sun Belt Freshman of the Year was also named to the All-Sun Belt First Team. His teammate junior Devin Mitchell received All-Sun Belt Third Team honors. Mitchell is shooting 44.9 percent from 3-point range which ranks first in the Sun Belt and No. 15 in the nation
“It is great to see D’Marcus earn the top award in the league and for Devin to be recognized as well,” head coach Ron Hunter said in a press release. “It is remarkable to think that Georgia State has had the Sun Belt’s Player of the Year in three of the last five years. The future is bright for both of D’Marcus and Devin and I doubt this will be the last awards that they receive.”
Georgia State went 21-10 this season to grab the second seed in the Sun Belt Tournament, which begins for Panthers on Friday.
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