Oct. 31, 2013
CHICAGO, Ill. - Penn State graduate guard Tim Frazier (Houston, Texas) has been named to the Preseason All-Big Ten Team by a panel of conference media, announced Thursday by the conference office at Big Ten media day. Frazier is attending with third-year Nittany Lion head coach Patrick Chambers and junior D.J. Newbill (Philadelphia, Pa.).
Frazier, who was a preseason All-Big Ten selection last season, is joined on the Preseason All-Big Ten Team by Preseason Player of the Year Gary Harris (Michigan State), Mitch McGary (Michigan), Glenn Robinson III (Michigan), Adreian Payne (Michigan State) and Aaron Craft (Ohio State). Michigan State was picked as the favorite to win the Big Ten by the media while 2012-13 national runner-up, Michigan, and Ohio State were picked to finish second and third in the league, respectively.
Before going down with a season-ending injury last year, Frazier was posting 21.7 ppg and 5.8 apg with assists on 45.3 percent of available possessions (the second highest rate in the nation at the time). He entered the year as a preseason All-Big Ten selection after earning first-team honors as a junior and was named to the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 and Naismith Award preseason watch list.
In his last full season of competition in 2011-12, Frazier became just the sixth Nittany Lion to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors and the first in program history to be selected to the Big Ten All-Defensive team. The Big Ten leader in assists (6.2 apg) and second-leading scorer (18.8 ppg) earned Basketball Times' Northeast All-District honorees and was a second-team NABC All-District pick after posting one of the best statistical seasons in Penn State history.
Currently standing 24th (1,035) on PSU's all-time scoring charts and sixth (459) in assists, he brings 20 career 20-point or better scoring games into his final campaign. He is the program's record holder in single-season assists (198) and sits in sixth in program history with 459, just 142 shy of the all-time record at Penn State.
The Nittany Lions will take the floor on Sunday for an exhibition game vs. Northwood (Fla.) at 2 p.m. before officially opening the 2013-14 campaign on Saturday, Nov. 9 in a 4:00 p.m. contest vs. Wagner at the Bryce Jordan Center. Tickets for both contests, and for all home games this season, are available by calling the Jordan Center ticket office at 1-800-NITTANY.
For updates from media day in Chicago, follow @PennStateMBB and @GoPSUAlissaC on Twitter.