MBA Named Pac-10’s MIP & All First Team

University of Washington senior and GB forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning was named the Pac-10’s Most Improved player and also earned first team All-Pac-10 honors, Commissioner Larry Scott announced Monday.

Bryan-Amaning entered the season averaging just 6.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in his career, and was labelled by many as a perennial underachiever. He upped his averages of 8.8 points per game during the 2009/2010 season by 7.2 points, to 16.0 points per game — among the top five jumps in scoring from last year among all Pac-10 players.

Speaking exclusively to Hoopsfix, MBA was asked whether that criticism was his motivation:

“Definitely. I want to go out with a bang and I never settle, always want to get better. My best and expectations of myself are a lot higher than anyone elses’ so what they said I kinda gave the cold shoulder. I want to make them bite their lip about their past words.”

Bryan-Amaning leads the Huskies in rebounds (8.3 rpg), field goal percentage (56.4%) and blocks (50) and is second on the team in scoring (16.0 ppg). He ranks fourth in the conference in rebounding, sixth in scoring, second in blocks per game (1.7) and sixth in field goal percentage.

He is honoured to have recieved the recognition, he said:

“I’m just thankful first and foremost to God for blessing me and putting me in the position to succeed, also thankful for my coaches and teammates, none of this would have been possible without them. I just feel a lot of hard work and dedication has been put in in the last four years and these awards are something to show for it.”

Bryan-Amaning was also named honorable mention on the All-Defensive Team.

The 6-foot-9 forward is second all-time in UW shot blocking history (154) and tied a school record with 7 at Arizona. He is just the second Husky to ever record 100 blocks and 100 steals in his career.

And as Bryan-Amaning and UW approach the post-season, he is feeling confident of their chances to make a statement:

“We’re so close to breaking out from being a solid/good team to being a great team. I think if we remain focused we will have a successful and memorable postseason. We have the talent to do it and the way our regular season ended, I think we have the motivation to do it too.”