Perry Ellis named second-team All-American by AP

By Staff     Mar 29, 2016

Nick Krug
Kansas forward Perry Ellis (34) powers home a dunk before the Kansas State defense during the second half, Thursday, March 10, 2016 at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas senior forward Perry Ellis’ productive final season with the Jayhawks garnered him second-team All-America status from the Associated Press.

KU’s leading scorer during a 33-5 campaign, Ellis averaged 16.9 points a game, made 53.1 percent of his shots form the field and connected on 28 of 64 three-pointers (43.8 percent) to cap his four-year career, during which he scored 1,798 points — making him the eighth-leading scorer in program history.

Landing on the first team, ahead of Ellis, were four seniors — Oklahoma guard Buddy Hield, Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine, North Carolina forward Brice Johnson and Virginia guard Malcolm Brogdon — as well as sophomore Kentucky guard Tyler Ulis.

Seven-foot sophomore Jakob Poeltl, of Utah, led the second team with 41 first-team votes. Ellis and Poeltl were joined by LSU freshman Ben Simmons, Providence junior Kris Dunn and Iowa State senior Georges Niang.

The third team consists of Grayson Allen of Duke, Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell of Indiana, Jarrod Uthoff of Iowa, Kay Felder of Oakland and Jamal Murray of Kentucky.

The voting was done before the NCAA Tournament.

Selected by the AP Top 25 panel of media voters, Ellis is appearing on the AP All-America Team for the second-straight season having earned honorable mention honors in 2014-15.

A two-time All-Big 12 First Team selection, Ellis scored 20 or more points in three of his final four games and seven of his last nine contests. The Wichita forward led Kansas in scoring at 16.9 ppg and was second in rebounding at 5.9 rpg. Ellis posted 16 games or 20 or more points this season and averaged 17.7 points and 5.8 rebounds during Big 12 play. His 16.9 points per game rank third in the Big 12 and Ellis also is among the league leaders in field goal percentage (fourth at 53.1), free throw percentage (eighth at 73.5) and rebounds (11th).

Ellis finished 12th on the KU career rebounding list at 834. His 16 career double-doubles tied for 13th all-time in Kansas history. Ellis is only the fifth player in KU history to rank in the top 12 in both scoring and rebounding, joining Danny Manning (2,951 points/1,187 rebounds), Nick Collison (2,097 / 1,143), Raef LaFrentz (2,066 / 1,186) and Clyde Lovellette (1,979 / 839).

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48636Perry Ellis named second-team All-American by AP