ORLANDO, Fla. – Commissioner Mike Aresco has announced that University of Tulsa guard Shaquille Harrison has been named the 2015-16 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The selection was made by the Conference's Academic Affairs Committee.
A two-time second team all-conference selection from Lees Summit, Missouri, Harrison will receive a $2,000 scholarship, which may be applied to graduate or professional studies.
Harrison has led his team to a 20-10 record this season, its third consecutive 20-win campaign, as the Golden Hurricane finished with a 12-6 record in the final regular-season standings. Tulsa enters the 2016 American Athletic Conference Championship as the tournament's No. 3 seed. Harrison ranks second on his team in scoring this season (14.8 ppg) and leads his squad in rebounding (5.5 rpg) and assists (4.1 apg).
He has started all 131 games during his playing career and is the only player in school history to compile 1,300 points, 400 assists and 200 steals. The 37th Golden Hurricane player to score 1,000 career points, Harrison has 1,443 points, 593 rebounds, 453 assists and 242 steals heading into this week's American Athletic Conference Championship.
Named to the Naismith Early Season Watch List, he has recorded 71 double-doubles during his career, notched 20-plus points on 20 occasions and ranks third all-time in career assists and steals. He is the only player in program history to record 50-plus steals in four consecutive seasons.
Harrison owns a 3.135 grade-point average and has earned Dean's List distinction three times in seven semesters as a management major. Nominated for the NABC Good Works Team earlier this year, he is active in community service efforts including Salvation Army Angel Reading Tree, Kendall-Whittier Reading Partners Program, Feed My Starving Children, Lift Up America, Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma and Big Brothers-Big Sisters.
The American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year award is one of a number of scholarships presented by the conference during the 2015-16 academic year. One male and one female from each of the conference's 11 member institutions may be named as the winners of the conference's Institutional Scholar-Athlete Scholarships. The conference also names male and female Basketball Scholar-Athletes of the Year and a Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The winners of the institutional, basketball and football awards are then eligible for the American Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, which provides an additional postgraduate scholarship to one male and one female student-athlete.
