Sophomore Kyle Austin was awarded the UC Riverside Male Athlete of the Year award last week by the UC Riverside Athletics department.
Austin transferred over to UCR from the University of Southern California, where he had played sparingly on a team loaded with players like Nick Young and O.J. Mayo.
The sophomore forward sat out the first seven games of the Highlanders' season due to NCAA transfer rules and made his debut against the Loyola Marymount Lions on Dec. 15.
In his debut he had 20 points and seven rebounds on 8-15 shooting in 27 minutes. From his impressive start, Austin never lost ground as he went onto lead the Highlanders in scoring with 16.8 points a game. His 16.8 points a game were second to CSU Fullerton's Josh Akognon for the Big West Conference lead. Austin also averaged 6.2 rebounds a game which were second to senior Aaron Scott for the team lead.
The Highlanders won a school Division I record 17 games during the 2008-2009 campaign. They also set school Division I records for the longest home winning streak, and most conference wins.
A lot of that had to do with Austin's presence on the court. Austin led the Highlanders in scoring in the first eight games in which he played. His streak broke Larry Cunningham's streak of seven games of leading the Highlanders in scoring. In those games, the Highlanders achieved an even 4-4 record. During the entire season, Austin led the Highlanders in scoring in 14 of the 23 games he participated in. The Highlanders went 7-7 in those 14 games.
But the streak gave the Highlanders the faith that they had a go-to scorer late in games.
The time when the Highlanders needed Austin most was when Scott injured his knee and tore his meniscus in pregame warmups against the San Jose State Spartans in the ESPNU Bracketbuster game. The injury came at the worst possible time for the Highlanders because the Highlanders needed him in the midst of their playoff push.
Scott had proven to be one of the most reliable Highlander players all season long, and he was projected to be out at least two weeks following his injury. Scott went on and missed the Highlanders' next four games.
In the first two games of that four game span, Austin boosted his play as he averaged 22.5 points and 10 rebounds. In the next game of that span, Austin had a lesser impressive game against the UCSB Gauchos. Still, he led the team with 14 points and grabbed four rebounds in that game. The Gauchos seemingly swarmed Austin all night long. With their playoff seeding decided, Austin took a back seat against the lowly Cal Poly Mustangs in game four of that span. He scored 11 points, grabbed four rebounds and handed out four assists in 33 minutes.
However, Austin had a poor performance by his standards in the Highlanders' first round matchup with CSU Fullerton Titans in the Big West Conference Tournament. The Highlanders were obliterated by Akognon who had a tournament record 37 points in the game. Austin, meanwhile, shot a miserable 2-13 from the field and scored four points and grabbed four rebounds. In the game, Austin took a hard fall on his back and never appeared to get back to his original self.
The fall of the Highlanders may have come due to an overreliance on Austin on the offensive end. To solve that problem, coach Jim Wooldridge recruited one of the top junior college scoring guards in the state of California in Dwight Gordon after the season ended. With Gordon in the lineup, Austin may just have enough help for a deep playoff run next year.
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