LAKE CHARLES – Fresh off helping guide McNeese to its second-straight Southland Conference Tournament Championship and berth into the NCAA Tournament, Cowboy senior guard Javohn Garcia has been named a finalist for the Lou Henson Award, which is presented by collegeinsider.com and awarded to the top player in mid-major college basketball.
 
The Southland Conference's Player of the Year and tournament MVP, Garcia leads the team in scoring with a 12.9 per game clip. He's the team leader with 23 double-digit scoring games and had a team-high six contests when scoring 20 or more.
 
He's started all 33 games on the season so far and has played 951 minutes while turning the ball over only 31 times and carries a league-best 25.1 efficiency, ranking as one of the top 200 players in all of Division I basketball.
 
The Columbus, Ohio native averaged 13.7 points in conference game and was named to the All-SLC first team in addition to his player of the year honors.
 
It's the second year in a row for a Cowboys player to be named a finalist for the award. Last year Shahada Wells was selected as a finalist.
 
The Lou Henson Award honors the former Illinois and New Mexico State head coach who won 775 games in 41 seasons.
 
Coach Henson is the winningest coach in Illinois basketball history with 423 victories. During his 21 seasons (1975-1996), Henson led the Fighting Illini to 16 postseason appearances, including 12 NCAA tournaments and a Final Four appearance in 1989.
 
Henson, who is also the all-time winningest coach in New Mexico State history with 289 victories, is one of only 11 coaches to take two different schools to the NCAA Final Four. His teams have made 19 NCAA appearances and four NIT appearances.
 
Coach Henson passed away on July 25, 2020.
 
The recipient of the annual award is determined by a 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches, as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com.
 
Lou Henson Award Finalists
Daniel Batcho, Louisiana Tech
Ante Brzovic, Charleston
Adam "Budd" Merrimack
Zach Cleveland, Liberty
Oscar Cluff, South Dakota State
Tayton Conerway, Troy
Mark Freeman, James Madison
Javohn Garcia, McNeese
Kimani Hamilton, High Point
Barrington Hargress, UC Riverside
Jalen Jackson, Purdue Fort Wayne
Nate Johnson, Akron
Jordan Jones, Central Connecticut
Jacari Lane, North Alabama
Bent Leuchten, UC Irvine
Augustas Marciulionis, Saint Mary's
Jordan Marsh, UCN Asheville
Bez Mbeng, Yale
Brian Moore Jr., Norfolk State
Paulius Murauskas, Saint Mary's
Dominick Nelson, Utah Valley
Jacob Ognacevic, Lipscomb
Quimari Peterson, ETSU
Jaron Pierre Jr., Jacksonville State
John Poulakidas, Yale
Matt Rogers, American
PJay Smith Jr., Furman
Bennett Stirtz, Drake
Marquel Sutton, Omaha
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, UC San Diego
Ray'Sean Taylor, SIU Edwardsville
Tyler Tejada, Towson
Malik Thomas, San Francisco
Earl Timberland, Bryant
Nick Townsend, Yale