BOSTON, MA -- Indiana State junior Jordan Barnes and Illinois State senior Milik Yarbrough have been named to the 2018-19 Lou Henson Award Mid-Season Watch List which was announced on Wednesday (Jan. 9). A total of 50 players were named to the list.
The Lou Henson Award is presented annually to the nation's top mid-major player in Division I College Basketball.
Barnes leads the Sycamores with an 18.2 points per game average and is adding 4.4 rebounds as well. He also owns 52 assists and 21 steals this season. Barnes has connected on 39 treys so far this season and is hitting 45.9 percent of his attempts from distance. Heading into Saturday's game at Evansville, Barnes has scored 998 career points in 76 played and with his next two points will be the 39th member of the Indiana State Basketball 1,000 Point Club and the fifth fastest Sycamore to reach that mark -- doing so in 77 games. He scored a career-high 29 points earlier this season in the road win over Green Bay. Barnes' 18.2 ppg average leads the Missouri Valley Conference. His 3.7 assists per game rank sixth in the league while his 88.9 free throw percentage is also sixth. Earlier this season, Barnes hit 30 consecutive free throws which is a new school-best during the MVC era and the 20th-best mark in league history. His 1.5 steals per game ranks third in the league, while his 45.9 percent mark from 3-point range is seventh. Barnes leads the league by making 2.8 3-pointers per game.
Yarbrough currently leads Illinois State in scoring (16.7), rebounding (8.1), and assists (3.9), and is one of just five players in the country to rank inside of his conference’s top five in all three categories. The 2018 MVC First Team honoree and Newcomer of the Year is one of 15 men’s basketball student-athletes in the NCAA since 1992-93 to average the numbers that he is putting up this season. He is also closing in on 1,000 career points at Illinois State, having scored 798 during his one and a half seasons with the Redbirds.
Lou Henson coached 41 years. When he left the game in 2005 he was sixth all-time in career Division I wins with 779. He is the winningest coach at both Illinois and New Mexico State. He is one of only 12 coaches in the history of the game to take two schools to the Final Four. The 2019 Lou Henson Award will be presented at the College Insider awards event in April at the site of the men's division I national championship in Minneapolis, Minnesota.