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Jay C. Upchurch
3/7/2006, 01:46 PM
NORMAN — The Oklahoma men's basketball program held its annual awards banquet on the Bruce Drake Practice Court at Lloyd Noble Center Monday evening. The two-hour event featured the presentation of 13 individual player awards by head coach Kelvin Sampson and his staff, and a team highlight video.

Approximately 600 fans crowded the practice gym to celebrate Oklahoma's ninth straight 20-win season.

As of Monday, only two NCAA Division I coaches besides Sampson have posted at least 20 wins in each of the last nine seasons (Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Connecticut's Jim Calhoun).

OU's seniors dominated the awards ceremony with Kevin Bookout taking home five honors, Taj Gray four and Terrell Everett two. Junior Michael Neal earned was presented with three awards and sophomores Michael Ott and Kellen Sampson garnered two awards each. A list of awards and their winners are as follows:

Student-Athlete Award: Michael Ott
Community Service Award: Kevin Bookout, Michael Ott, Kellen Sampson
Leadership Award: Kevin Bookout
Mr. Hustle Award: Michael Neal
Best Defensive Player Award: Michael Neal
Most Improved Player Award: Nate Carter, Taylor Griffin
Plus/Minus Award: Taj Gray
Tight White (Scout Team) Award: Kellen Sampson
Best Rebounder Award: Taj Gray
Roy Marler Most Inspirational Award: Kevin Bookout, Michael Neal
Academic Achievement Award: Kevin Bookout
Senior Award: Kevin Bookout, Terrell Everett, Taj Gray
Outstanding Player Award: Terrell Everett, Taj Gray

Oklahoma (20-7 overall, 11-5 Big 12) is the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship and will play its first game Friday at 8:20 p.m. CST in the quarterfinals against either Nebraska (No. 6 seed) or Missouri (No. 11 seed).

If OU wins on Friday it would play Saturday in a 3:20 p.m. semifinals contest. Sunday's championship game is scheduled for 2 p.m. All games will take place American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.

OU SID