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The Student News Site of University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Badger Herald

The Student News Site of University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Badger Herald

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Men’s basketball: Kaminsky named AP All-American after stellar senior season

Mens+basketball%3A+Kaminsky+named+AP+All-American+after+stellar+senior+season
Jenna Freeman

The awards keep rolling in for National Player of the Year candidate and Wisconsin men’s basketball forward Frank Kaminsky.

Kaminsky was announced as a unanimous selection to the 2014-15 Associated Press All-American team Monday. He is currently averaging a team-high 18.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, shooting 54.9 percent overall and 41.5 percent from beyond the arc. Kaminsky’s 99 assists and 54 blocks lead the team as well.

“It’s cool to be named first-team All-American. It’s something you dream of as a kid,” Kaminsky said in a statement. “To finally be able to do so, it’s a good thing and it shows how hard I’ve worked in my career. To be up there with Alando Tucker is a pretty cool thing.”

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The seven-footer, who was previously named the Big Ten Player of the Year, has started all but one of Wisconsin’s game this season, scoring in double figures in 36 of his 37 games. Kaminsky scored 20 or more points 15 times this season, including 29 against Arizona in the Elite Eight Saturday in Los Angeles. He has logged 12 double-doubles in his 37 games.

Guiding the Badgers to a second-consecutive Final Four, Kaminsky is averaging 22.8 points and 8.3 rebounds in four NCAA tournament games.

Kaminsky is just the second Wisconsin player to be named to the AP All-American team, joining Alando Tucker who made the team in 2007.

“Not to be overly patriotic, but we’re an American story, that you can do that in this kind of a system,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said in a statement. “Sometimes where it looks like the privileged, the ones that are identified as being great players and can’t-miss-type guys, where there can always come that guy from behind in the race and then cross the tape first.

“Frank is that guy who got a little bit later start as far as people noticing his abilities, but that’s just a great accomplishment on his part. … He took advantage of a chance and has made the most of it.”

Kaminsky is joined on the All-American team by Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant, Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell and Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein – whom the Badgers will face in the Final Four Saturday.

Kaminsky and Wisconsin will face-off against Cauley-Stein and Kentucky for the second-straight season in the Final Four. Saturday’s game will tip-off at 7:49 central time from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

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