Whitfield garners second consecutive NABC all-district first team honor
Published 11:36 am Monday, March 22, 2021
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Redshirt senior guard one of nation’s most prolific three-point shooters, scorers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – For the second time in as many seasons, Lincoln Memorial University redshirt senior Devin Whitfield has been named National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-Southeast District First Team, the coaches association announced Monday morning. The 6-foot-5 guard is one of the nation’s most prolific scorers and three-point shooters and leads the 13th-ranked Railsplitters in several offensive categories.
Ranked 10th in the country in three-pointers made (63), Whitfield’s 380 points scored in 2020-21 are the 25th-most among all NCAA Division II men’s basketball players. The Lipscomb, Alabama (McAdory HS), native is averaging 3.2 made threes a game, the 19th-most nationally, and ranks 29th in the land in made field goals (136), 30th in three-point field goal percentage (43.2) and 18th in three-point attempts (146). Averaging a team-high 19 points per game, Whitfield led the 13-team South Atlantic Conference in shooting during the regular season and is 56 percent from the field on 243 attempts. He is tied for third on the team in rebounding (4.9 RPG) and is averaging 2.0 assists per contest.
Scoring in double figures in all but three games he has competed in after missing the season opener and playing a limited role in the second game of the year at Coker University (Nov. 24), Whitfield put together an astonishing run of 10-straight 20-point showings from Dec. 13 to Jan. 23. With a pair of 30-point outings under his belt this season, Whitfield became LMU’s 32nd 1,000-point scorer with a driving layup early in the second half of the Railsplitters’ Division II Southeast Regional Championship semifinal victory over Tusculum (March 14). Reaching the coveted scoring mark in only 52 games donning the Blue and Gray, the wing has scored 1,921 career points after arriving in Harrogate with 907 points scored at fellow Division II Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville.
Whitfield has played an integral part in LMU’s success this year, helping lead the Railsplitters to a third Division II Southeast Regional Championship title and Elite Eight appearance in six years.
About the National Association of Basketball Coaches
Located in Kansas City, Missouri, the NABC was founded in 1927 by Forrest “Phog” Allen, the legendary basketball coach at the University of Kansas. Allen, a student of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, organized coaches into this collective group to serve as Guardians of the Game. The NABC currently has nearly 5,000 members consisting primarily of university and college men’s basketball coaches. All members of the NABC are expected to uphold the core values of being a Guardian of the Game by bringing attention to the positive aspects of the sport of basketball and the role coaches play in the academic and athletic lives of today’s student-athletes. The four core values of being a Guardian of the Game are advocacy, leadership, service, education, and inclusion. Additional information about the NABC, its programs and membership, can be found at www.NABC.com.