Tyler Cain

Kansas City, Mo. – The National Association of Basketball Coaches named two University of South Dakota men’s basketball players to the 2009-10 NABC Honors Court on Monday.

Forward Tyler Cain (Rochester, Minn.) and guard Kendall Cutler (Brooklyn, N.Y.) were among the honorees. Student-athletes who are a junior or senior academically and have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.2 qualified. Houston Baptist was the only other Great West Conference school to earn the honor.

Cain posted one of the best all-around seasons in USD history during the 2009-10 campaign, leading the Coyotes to a 22-10 overall record to win GWC regular-season and tournament titles. Cain claimed GWC Player of Year, GWC Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-GWC honors by leading USD in points (14.7), rebounds (10.4), blocks (3.0) and steals (1.5). During the course of the season, he became the second player in USD men’s basketball history with 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. In the classroom, Cain earned Academic All-GWC honors the past two seasons and graduated in May with his bachelor’s degree in recreation.

Cutler was just as impressive during his first season with the Coyotes. He started the final 20 games of the season at point guard to help USD craft a 13-game winning streak and post an 11-1 record in conference play. While dishing out a team-high 4.3 assists, he scored in double figures in 14 games, including the last four contests of the season. He notched a season-high 21 points against Houston Baptist in the GWC tournament en route to being named tournament MVP. Cutler is majoring in criminal justice at USD.