Islanders Trio Named to Southland Conference 2000s All-Decade Team

CORPUS CHRISTI – Former Texas A&M – Corpus Christi men’s basketball players Chris Daniels (2004-08), Josh Washington (2005-07) and Kevin Palmer (2008-10) have been named to the Southland Conference Conference 2000s All-Decade Team, the league announced today. The honor is part of the Southland’s celebration of its 50^th anniversary this year.

Washington played just one season in the conference, but it was a historic one, as the Islanders burst onto the league scene by capturing both the regular-season and conference championships in their Southland debut. The sharpshooter averaged 12.8 points, shot 47.6 percent from beyond the arc (90-for-189) and 87.0 percent at the line (60-for-69) en route to his First Team selection.

Daniels was named Southland Player of the Year in 2006-07 in addition to earning Third Team honors in 2007-08. The big man averaged 15.3 points per game to go along with 6.7 boards and 53 blocks on the ‘06-07 season, leading the Islanders in each category. He added 12.4 points and 6.2 rebounds in his senior campaign of 2007-08, shooting .506 from the field (130-for-257).

Palmer carried the Islanders to back-to-back Southland Tournament semifinals appearances, earning First Team All-Southland laurels each year. He averaged 18.2 points per game as a junior in 2008-09, combining that with 5.2 rebounds and a school-record 86 steals on the year. In his senior campaign, he one-upped himself, scoring 19.7 points per game in playing a school-record 1,053 minutes. He also dished out 88 assists and garnered 77 steals. His career average of 18.9 points per game is second only to Michael Hicks (1999-01) in Islanders lore.

The Southland Conference has previously announced the All-Decade Teams in the 1960, 1970, 1980s and 1990s. Only those Islanders who played during the Southland Conference era (2006-present) were under consideration for the honor.

To best assess the candidate pool for the all-decade team, the Southland Conference developed a metric that analyzed numerous elements of a student-athlete’s performance and value within the league at the time. Most notably, the conference honored “real-time” factors such as all-conference selection by coaches and a player’s statistical performance among his peers at the time. Further, other components of selection including a player’s effort toward helping his team win a championship or finish near the top of the conference, whether he earned individual honors from the league, if he participated in postseason tournaments, and if he was drafted by the NBA or ABA at the time. 

Southland Conference 2000s All-Decade Men’s Basketball Team

Co-Players of the Decade:

Ricky Woods             Southeastern La.         2004-06
Leroy Hurd               Texas-San Antonio       2002-04

Coach of the Decade:

Bob Marlin                Sam Houston State