Kotzur Awarded Heartland Player of Week Honor

SAN ANTONIO — Selected by Basketball Times as a Preseason All-American earlier this year, St. Mary’s senior Kevin Kotzur’s final year with the Rattlers continues to be what everyone expected.

For the second time this season, Kotzur (La Vernia, Texas) was named the Heartland Conference Player of the Week, the league announced this week.

Kotzur, who is nicknamed “All Day” by St. Mary’s spirit group the Rowdy Rattlers, helped the Rattlers to a 2-0 record in the Holiday Hoops Classic in Las Vegas, picking up his sixth double-double on the season against the No.1 4 nationally ranked Drury University. The center averaged 17 points and seven rebounds over the two-game week, peaking against Drury with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

Kotzur’s second Player of the Week award is the third such honor for St. Mary’s this season, as Daryell Taylor (Sr., Houston) also picked up the award the second week of the season.

The Rattlers are now on a six-game winning streak after this week’s wins over West Florida University and Drury University, boasting an 8-1 record in their best start since the 1997-1998 season in which St. Mary’s opened the season with a 14-1 record.

St. Mary’s is currently holding the second-best record in the Heartland Conference, just behind Newman University’s 9-1 overall stance. The Jets are ranked No. 18 in the nation with the Rattlers looking to possibly join them in the upcoming weeks after their powerful win over Drury.

Kotzur and the Rattlers start league play Thurs., Jan. 3 against the University of Texas-Permian Basin at 7:30 p.m. in Bill Greehey Arena.

St. Mary’s University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men’s basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men’s golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men’s golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary’s also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary’s student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.stmarytx.edu/athletics.