BOSTON/DAYTON – Wright State men’s basketball junior guard Tanner Holden has been named to the Lou Henson Award Preseason Watch List, announced on Thursday night. The award is presented annually to the nation’s top Division I mid-major player.
 
The full preseason watch list can be seen here.
 
Holden averaged a team-high 34 minutes per game last season and tallied 15.8 points per game, second-most on the roster. He recorded 21 double digit scoring games, including 18 games with 15 or more points, while shooting 52 percent from the floor, the sixth-best mark in the Horizon League, and was an 80 percent free throw shooter, seventh in the League. Holden added 7.3 rebounds per game, the second-most on the Raider roster and eighth in the League overall last season, on the way to being named to a first team Horizon League selection. He earned second team HL preseason honors last month.
 
The Lou Henson Award honors Henson, the former Illinois and New Mexico State coach who won 775 games in 41 seasons.  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.
 
Players on teams from the following conferences are eligible for the award: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Great West, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast.

COURTESY WSU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS