July 9, 2008

IRVING, Texas - Even after moving on to his professional career, University of Memphis' Chris Douglas-Roberts is still pulling in the hardware for his outstanding 2007-08 campaign. The former Tiger was honored as Conference USA's Male Athlete of the Year, league Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced Wednesday.

Houston softball pitcher Angel Shamblin was honored as C-USA's Female Athlete of the Year.

Douglas-Roberts is the first C-USA basketball player to receive the league's Male Athlete of the Year award. He is the second Tiger to be so honored, as former football standout DeAngelo Williams shared the C-USA Male Athlete of the Year award with Houston's Brad Lincoln for the 2005-06 year. The C-USA Male and Female Athlete of the Year awards were first given in 2003-04.

The 6-foot-7 guard recently began his professional playing career in the NBA summer league with the New Jersey Nets. Douglas-Roberts was a second round pick (No. 40 overall) of the Nets' organization in the June 26 NBA Draft.

Douglas-Roberts, a consensus 2007-08 All-America first team pick, helped lead Memphis to a "season for the ages" for Tiger fans everywhere. The Detroit, Mich., native led the Tigers in scoring (18.1 ppg) and shot 54.1 percent from the field and 71.2 percent from the free throw line. He averaged 4.1 rebounds and tied for the team lead with 49 steals.

A finalist for three National Player of the Year awards (Wooden, Naismith, Oscar Robertson), Douglas-Roberts was named to the NCAA Tournament All-Final Four Team and All-South Region Team. He also picked up Conference USA Player of the Year, U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) District 4 Player of the Year and Tennessee Sports Writers Association (TSWA) Player of the Year honors. Douglas-Roberts was named to the All-Conference USA first team, National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District 7 team, Conference USA All-Tournament Team and 2k Sports College Hoops Classic All-Tournament Team (MVP).

Douglas-Roberts helped direct the Tigers on an incredible ride in 2007-08. Memphis won an NCAA record 38 games (38-2 record) and advanced to the NCAA Tournament title game. En route to the NCAA championship game, Memphis swept the Conference USA regular season and tournament titles and won the NCAA Tournament South Region crown.

In his career (2006-08), Douglas-Roberts was a part of the winningest era not only in Tiger basketball history but also NCAA history. Douglas-Roberts played on Tiger teams that won an NCAA-record tying 104 games (104-10 record) in three seasons. During those three campaigns, Memphis won the C-USA regular season and tournament championships and made deep runs in the NCAA Tournament (2006 Elite Eight/2007 Elite Eight/2008 NCAA title game).

Over those three years, the Tigers posted a 45-1 regular season record in C-USA play, including back-to-back 16-0 marks in 2006-07 and 2007-08. The 2006-07 Memphis squad became the first in C-USA history to record a perfect regular season mark and also win the league's postseason tournament. The Tigers repeated that feat in 2007-08.