Venson Hamilton Season 1995-96

Hamilton's Honors
Big 12 Player of the Year (AP, Coaches)
USBWA District 6 Player of the Year
AP Honorable-Mention All-American
NABC All-District 12 Team
First-Team All-Big 12 (AP, Coaches)
Basketball Times All-Midwest Team
1998 & 1999 Big 12 All-Defensive Team
Back-to-Back Big 12 Player of the Week (Jan. 18 and Jan. 25)

Hamilton's Career Highs
Points: 26, vs. Washington State, 11/21/98
Rebounds: 18, vs. Old Dominion, 12/30/96
Assists: 6, vs. Missouri, 2/6/99
Steals: 8, vs. Texas Tech, 3/4/99
Blocks: 6, at UMKC, 12/10/96

Senior (1998-99)
Venson Hamilton capped his Nebraska career with one of the finest seasons in school history in 1998-99. Hamilton's efforts did not go unnoticed as he became one of the most decorated players in Husker history. The 6-10 native of Forest City, N.C., was named the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year, was a first-team All-Big 12 selection, and an Associated Press honorable-mention All-American. Hamilton was also named the United States Basketball Writers District 6 Player of the Year, was named to the NABC's All-District 12 squad, Basketball Timers' All-Midwest Team and was a member of the Big 12 All-Defensive and All-Improved teams.

Hamilton's league player-of-the-year award was the second in school history, joining Andre Smith who won the award in 1981. Hamilton was also Nebraska's first AP honorable-mention All-American since Eric Piatkowski in 1994.

Hamilton averaged 15.7 points and 10.2 rebounds as a senior to become the first Husker to average a double-double in 27 seasons. In conference play, Hamilton was even better, averaging 18.3 points and 11.0 rebounds and recording double-doubles in 12 of 16 league games. Overall, Hamilton had 18 double-doubles as a senior and 46 in his career, both Husker records.

Hamilton's name is very prominent in the Nebraska record books. He holds the Nebraska single season (335) and career (1,080) rebounding records, as well as the career blocked shot (241) and games played (129 - since eclipsed by Cookie Belcher's 131) standards. Overall, he ranks in the top 10 in 11 of 19 career statistical categories and is one of just 23 players in school history to score 1,000 points. Hamilton ranks 10th on the scoring list with 1,416 career points.

Hamilton became just the fourth player all-time among Big 12 schools with 1,000 career points, 1,000 career rebounds and 200 career blocked shots. He joined Kansas' Danny Manning, Oklahoma's Wayman Tisdale and Oklahoma State's Byron Houston in the elite class. Hamilton was a second-round draft pick of the NBA's Houston Rockets.

Junior (1997-98)
Hamilton averaged 11.2 points and 9.8 rebounds as a junior and recorded 17 double-doubles, giving him 28 in his career...for his efforts Hamilton was an honorable-mention All-Big 12 selection and also a member of the league's all-defensive team...Hamilton narrowly missed being the first Nebraska player to average a double-double since Chuck Jura in 1972...he reached double figures in scoring 20 times with a season-high 19 points against New Orleans, one point off of his career high...opened the season with 11 straight games in double figures...his 11.2 points per game were second for Nebraska and ranked 28th in the Big 12...his season high in rebounding was 15 boards against Minnesota and Tulsa, the third-best total of his career...his 315 rebounds on the year broke Jura's 26-year-old Nebraska school record and gave Hamilton two of the top five single-season totals at Nebraska...he has pulled down five or more rebounds in 73 of 96 career games and has grabbed eight or more rebounds 49 times, including 26 times as a junior...Hamilton's 9.8 boards per game were second in the Big 12 behind Kansas' Raef LaFrentz, while his 9.6 rebounds in league games ranked first...he posted double-doubles in eight of the season's first 10 games and averaged 14.4 points and 11.4 rebounds in that period...Hamilton had seven double-doubles in conference action...also had a double-double in the NCAA Tournament against Arkansas with 14 points and 10 rebounds off the bench...in his only other game off the bench, Hamilton had 19 points and 12 rebounds against New Orleans...he is third on NU's career blocked shot list with 161, including 66 as a junior, which ranked sixth on the NU single-season list...he had 12 games with three or more blocks, with a season high four in four games and owns three of the top 11 single-season blocked shot totals at Nebraska...ranked third in the league in blocked shots at 2.1 per contest...set career highs with six steals and five assists against New Orleans...shot 52 percent from the floor, tops on the team.

Sophomore (1996-97)
Hamilton finished his sophomore season averaging 10.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game...he began the season as NU's sixth man, but broke into the starting lineup in early December and stayed there for the remainder of the season...Hamilton established a career scoring high with 20 points against Missouri in Lincoln and matched the total at home against Texas...he had 11 double-doubles on the season, including five in the season's final 10 games...his 8.4 rebounds per game ranked him fifth on the Big 12 charts and his 269 rebounds is the fifth-best single season total in NU history...Hamilton's career-high 18 rebounds against Old Dominion were the most by a Husker since 1992...he also topped the 15-rebound mark at Northern Iowa with 17 boards...he had a double-double before halftime against the Panthers, and finished with 16 points...scored in double figures 19 times as a sophomore...Hamilton had 14 double-figure rebounding games as a sophomore, including six of the last nine games of the season...Hamilton had eight or more rebounds 17 times in 1996-97...he grabbed five or more rebounds 28 times as a sophomore...Hamilton rejected 56 opponent shots in 1996-97, the seventh-highest season total in school history...his 1.8 blocked shots per game ranked fifth in the Big 12...recorded a career-high six rejections against UMKC and had five versus Weber State...Hamilton was second on the team in field goal percentage at 57.7 percent and would have been among the league leaders, but did not have the required number of field goals made...Hamilton greatly improved his free-throw shooting as a sophomore, hitting 65 percent from the line, after hitting just 54 percent as a freshman...Hamilton was named to the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic all-tournament team with 31 points and 27 rebounds in three games...Hamilton played on a People-to-People Sports all-star team that toured in Italy the summer of 1997.

Freshman (1995-96)
Hamilton had an immediate impact on the Husker program, averaging 6.1 points and 5.0 rebounds in his rookie season in Lincoln...he appeared in 32 of 35 games and drew one start...Hamilton averaged 7.4 points and 6.2 rebounds in the 1996 NIT, including a 13-point, nine-rebound effort in the semifinal win over Tulane...scored six points and grabbed a season-high 12 rebounds in the second-round win over Washington State and netted 12 points in the quarterfinal win over Fresno State...made his only start of the season against Oklahoma in Lincoln...had a career day in the first meeting with Iowa State, setting the school record for most field goals without missing a shot, going 9-9 from the floor...had career highs in points (19) and blocks (4) against ISU and added nine rebounds...scored 13 points and had eight rebounds in win over Oregon in Hawaii, just Hamilton's second game in a Husker uniform...scored 10 points and had eight rebounds in his Big Eight debut against Colorado...played in all but three games with a season-high 31 minutes against Oregon in the Big Island Invitational...had a field goal percentage of at least .500 in 17 of 32 games...second on team in blocked shots with an NU freshman-record 39, was eighth in scoring (6.2), fourth in field-goal percentage (.546) and third in rebounding (5.0)...was perfect from the floor in four games, including a school-record 9-9 effort against ISU...in conference games, Hamilton averaged 7.1 points and 4.8 rebounds...Hamilton scored in double figures eight times on the season and pulled down five or more rebounds in 17 of 32 games...grabbed eight or more rebounds seven times...averaged 14.6 minutes per game...had the most rebounds (161) of any non-starter.

Hamilton's Career Stats

Season	G-GS	Min.	FG-FGA	Pct.	3FG-FGA	Pct.	FT-FTA	Pct.	Reb-Avg	A	Blk	Stl	Pts-Avg
1995-96	32-1	467	71-130	.546	0-1	.000	54-100	.540	161-5.0	19	39	20	196-6.1
1996-97	32-25	851	124-215	.577	0-0	.000	96-148	.649	269-8.4	33	56	46	344-10.8
1997-98	32-30	938	139-269	.517	0-0	.000	80-144	.556	315-9.8	58	66	53	358-11.2
1998-99	33-32	1074	194-388	.500	0-1	.000	130-198	.657	335-10.2	54	80	67	518-15.7
Career	129-88	3330	528-1002	.527	0-2	.000	360-590	.610	1080-8.4	164	241	186	1416-11.0