FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Junior Cameron Jones was named the recipient of the Joe Rolle Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive season, Head Coach Mike Adras announced Saturday at the team awards presentation at Jotini’s on the Green.

Jones is the eighth player in program history to win the award two times and first since Troy Hudson won the award after the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons. No player has won the award three times in school history.

Jones was one of three unanimous selections to the All-Big Sky first team. He was the only player in the Big Sky Conference to rank among the top 15 in points, rebounds, assists and field goal percentage. He finished the season ranked among the Big Sky leaders in points (19.3, 2nd), rebounds (4.6, 16th), assists (2.8, 11th), field-goal percentage (50.2, 9th), free throw percentage (74.3, 13th) and three-point percentage (42.3, 7th).

Senior Nick Larson garnered two awards, receiving the Coaches Award and the Most Improved Award. Larson, who improved his scoring average from 3.1 to 7.0 per game, saw action in 116 career games, tied for the fourth-best total in school history, with 44 career starts. Larson led NAU to three Big Sky Tournament appearances, helped NAU tie for the Big Sky regular season title as a freshman and make two Big Sky Tournament Championship game appearances. He scored 401 points in his career and grabbed 377 rebounds. He reset his single-game career-high for rebounds two times in the last five games, grabbing 12 boards at Idaho State and 15 against Portland State.

Redshirt freshman Gabe Rogers was chosen as the Newcomer of the Year. He ranked fourth on the team in scoring at 9.1 points per game. Junior Shane Johannsen was selected for the Mike Nesbitt Award.

Seven men’s basketball student-athletes were chosen for the Golden Eagle Scholar Athlete Award on March 25, recognizing a 3.0 or better grade point average.  Juniors Johannsen and Jones led the Golden Eagle recipients along with junior Eric Platt and freshmen Luis Flores, Casey Ommen, Stallon Saldivar and Reid Wallace.

2009-10 NAU Men’s Basketball Awards

Mike Nesbitt Award – Shane Johannsen

Newcomer of the Year – Gabe Rogers

Most Improved Award – Nick Larson

Coaches Award – Nick Larson

Joe Rolle MVP Award – Cameron Jones

Golden Eagle Recipients

Luis Flores, FR, Biomedical Science, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Shane Johannsen, JR, Civil Engineering, Phoenix, Ariz.

Cameron Jones, JR, History, Los Angeles, Calif.

Casey Ommen, FR, Undeclared, Rapid City, S.D

Eric Platt, JR, Secondary Ed-History, Casper, Wyo.

Stallon Saldivar, FR, Management, Salt Lake City, Utah

Reid Wallace, FR, History, Spring, Texas

DID YOU KNOW…The Northern Arizona University athletics department recorded its highest cumulative grade point average since 1997, recording a 3.16 GPA among its more than 300 student-athletes at the completion of the fall of 2009 semester.