Iowa State awards Melvin Ejim with Male Athlete of the Year

Iowa State have honored former men’s basketball player Melvin Ejim with the Male Athlete of the Year Award for 2013-14.

From the Cyclones’ official athletic website:

"Ejim, an All-American by five organizations, was the Big 12’s Player and Scholar-Athlete of the Year after helping the Cyclones to a 28-8 record, a Big 12 Tournament championship and an appearance in the Sweet 16.His accomplishments on the court make him the first men’s basketball player to earn the award since Jake Sullivan shared it with wrestling’s Zach Roberson in 2004."

Recently, the male athlete of the year has been dominated by the men’s golf team. Both Nate McCoy and Scott Fernandez won it in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Covering the golf team personally for one semester with the Iowa State Daily, I’ll be the first one to tell you that both of them deserved the honor.

More from Men's Basketball

• Iowa State basketball: Comeback over Iowa receives wrong attention
• Iowa State men’s basketball: Thank you, Fred Hoiberg
• Iowa State basketball: Never doubt Hilton Magic
• Iowa State Basketball: Cyclones gearing up for end of season
• Iowa State basketball: Cyclones destroy Texas Tech in Jameel McKay’s first start

This is the first nationally recognized player that has received the award in quite a while. The last one arguably was Seneca Wallace back in 2003 on the football team.

Other men’s basketball players to receive the award (besides Sullivan who was already mentioned) are Jamaal Tinsley, Marcus Fizer, and Fred Hoiberg. That’s quite the list.

It’s well deserved for Ejim. He didn’t finish at the top of the Big 12 in rebounding this year, but was second with 8.4 rebounds per game and finished third in scoring with 17.8 points per game.