Senior Wes Smith and junior Brian Shelbourne have been selected to the 2011 All-North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Basketball team. Smith earned First Team honors while Shelbourne was an Honorable Mention All-NCAC selection.
Smith, a graduate of Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, received First Team honors for the third straight season after leading the NCAC in scoring with a 22 points-per-game average. He ranks 15th in the nation in scoring and 12th in steals per game with an average of 2.8 per contest, a category where he also lead all conference players with 74 total steals. Smith is sixth in the NCAC in rebounding (6.7 rpg), 10th in field goal shooting (.479), free throw shooting (.714), and blocked shots (0.7 bpg).
Smith scored in double figures in all 26 games for the Little Giants, tallying a season-high 34 points against Otterbein University on the way to earning Pete Thorn Tournament Most Valuable Player honors. He scored 20 or more points 17 times and topped 30 points on three different occasions. Smith grabbed a career-best 15 rebounds against Ohio Wesleyan to go with 17 points, one of four games in which he recorded a double-double.
He finished his Wabash career with 1,804 points, ranking him fifth on the all-time scoring list. His 248 steals rank him first on the Little Giants' all-time list, which also makes him the only Wabash player to record more than 200 steals in a career. He started 106 of the 107 in games in which he played for more starting appearances than any other Wabash player. He also ranks fourth in career rebounds with 680 and in blocked shots with 97.
In addition to being a three-time First Team All-NCAC pick, Smith was named to the D3hoops.com All-Great Lakes Region Third Team in 2010.
Shelbourne received all-conference honors for the first time in his career. He handed out a team-high 101 assists this season, ranking him fourth among NCAC players. Shelbourne committed only 46 turnovers in 26 games, giving him an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.2 to rank third in the NCAC and 40th in the nation in that category.
Shelbourne, an Indianapolis Cathedral High School graduate, averaged 5.6 points a game for the fifth-best average on the team and started 25 of 26 games at guard for the Little Giants. His .535 field goal percentage (54-of-101 shots) led the Wabash team. He also made 41 steals, second among Little Giant players.
Wabash finished 20-6 for the year, marking the first time since the 1999-2000 season the Little Giants recorded 20 victories. Wabash started the season with a 13-0 run, including a win in the Pete Thorn Tournament over the number-two ranked Randolph-Macon team. The Little Giants also defeated number-one ranked and previously undefeated Wooster, helping Wabash earn its first-ever ranking in the weekly D3hoops.com top-25 poll. Wabash ended the regular season ranked 19th in the poll and were ranked sixth in the final NCAA Great Lakes Region poll.