Brewer Named SEC Preseason Player of the Year by Blue Ribbon and Appointed to NCAA SAAC Position

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Practice does not begin for another month, but Arkansas guard Ronnie Brewer is already picking up preseason honors.

The top returning scorer in the Southeastern Conference this year (16.2 ppg) has been named the preseason conference Player of the Year by Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.

The 6-7 junior is also the top returning field goal percentage leader in the league (.475) after ranking fifth in 2005, when he was also second in steals (2.53), fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.66) and eight in scoring.

The only first-team All-SEC pick back from last year, he is also on Blue Ribbon’s preseason all-conference first unit. Earlier this year, he was named to the preseason watch list for the Wooden Award, which annually goes to the top player in the country.

Brewer has also been named a member of the NCAA Division I Elite Student-Athlete Advisory Group. In recognition of the impact recruiting, amateurism and financial aid conditions may have on elite student-athletes, the NCAA’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) established a group to represent the concerns of student-athletes and to serve as an advisory group.

Blue Ribbon also announced its predictions and picked Arkansas to finish second in the SEC’s Western Division behind Alabama and ahead of LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Auburn. In the Eastern Division, Blue Ribbon picked Kentucky first, followed by Vanderbilt, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.

Joining Brewer on the preseason all-conference team are guards C.J. Watson of Tennessee and Rajon Rondo of Kentucky, and forwards Chuck Davis of Alabama and Glen Davis of LSU.