Velander Among Nominees for Senior CLASS Award

Nebraska senior guard Paul Velander was recently announced among 30 candidates for the 2008-09Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, presented annually to an NCAA Division I student-athlete in nine sports. 

Based on criteria including character, achievements in the classroom and community and competition on the court, the award winners will be selected by national balloting of head basketball coaches, national media and college basketball fans.

From each of the two lists of 30 nominees, a national media committee will select 10 finalists for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award in February 2009.  Those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot for a nationwide vote.  Fans can vote for Velander by submitting ballots on-line at www.seniorclassaward.com. Lowe’s, an official corporate partner of the NCAA, will present the winners with trophies during the weekends of the respective NCAA Men’s and Women’s Final Four.

Velander is a two-year letterwinner under Coach Doc Sadler and is currently second on the Husker squad in scoring at 8.8 points per game. The Blacksburg, Va., native has averaged nearly three 3-pointers per game, as he paces the squad with 24 treys in nine contests. Velander has hit 24-of-47 (51.1 percent) from 3-point range this season to lead the Big 12 Conference in 3-point percentage and rank among the top 20 in the country.  He is one of only three players in the league hitting better than 50 percent from long range.

Velander is a two-time first-team academic All-Big 12 performer in the classroom and has earned Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll accolades four times. Last season he was also named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court for his achievements in the classroom.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the CLASS Award was launched during the 2001-02 season to honor the attributes of college basketball seniors who remain committed to their university and pursue the many rewards that a senior season and complete college education brings.

The list of 2008-09 basketball candidates includes a range of universities and conferences across the country.  There are 30 male award candidates representing 27 schools and 14 conferences. The Big 12 Conference leads the way with five candidates. The women’s award list includes 30 candidates from 18 conferences and the Big 12 Conference also landed the most candidates with five.

The Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award is in its eighth year for men’s and women’s basketball. Previous winners of the men’s award include Juan Dixon of Maryland (2002), David West of Xavier (2003), Jameer Nelson of St. Joseph’s (2004), Wayne Simien of Kansas (2005), J.J. Reddick of Duke (2006),Alando Tucker of Wisconsin (2007) and Shan Foster of Vanderbilt (2008).