Hummel, Painter honored

Robbie Hummel has been named one of 10 finalists for the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's national player-of-the-year award, the Oscar Robertson Trophy, according to a release issued by the University of Texas.

Texas' D.J. Augustin is also a finalist, as are Kansas State's Michael Beasley, North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, Memphis' Chris Douglas-Roberts, Notre Dame's Luke Harangody, UCLA's Kevin Love, Connecticut's A.J. Price, Vanderbilt's Shan Foster and Indiana's D.J. White.

"I was kind of shocked to see my name on there, and Eric Gordon's not," Hummel said before Thursday's practice. "It's a big honor.

"There's a lot of good players in there and for me to be named with them, it makes you feel good. But I'm just going to try to keep working hard and see what I can do."

As just a freshman, Hummel's been a key ingredient - to say the least - in Purdue's 23-7 season to date.

The versatile 6-foot-8 rookie is Purdue's second-leading scorer at 11.7 points per game and its leading rebounder (six per game). He leads Purdue in field-goal shooting (50.2 percent), three-point percentage (46.3) and free-throw accuracy (85.7) and is third in assists (75) and second in steals (38) and blocked shots (19).

Coach Matt Painter was also named a finalist for the USBWA's Henry Iba Trophy, giving to the nation's top coach.

Keno Davis (Drake), John Calipari (Memphis), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Lon Kruger (UNLV), Sean Miller (Xavier), Bruce Pearl (Tennessee), Rick Pitino (Louisville), Bo Ryan (Wisconsin), Herb Sendek (Arizona State) and Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt) are also finalists.