2016
Jody Lumpkin (Class of '00)
Named Southern Conference Player of the Year in 2001, Lumpkin averaged 17.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game as College of Charleston compiled a 22-7 overall record. It marked the highest scoring average since the Cougars moved to NCAA Division I in 1991-92. Lumpkin was a member of the 1998-99 team which went an undefeated 19-0 in conference play (regular season and postseason combined) and finished No. 16 nationally in the final Associated Press Top 25 Poll. He is one of only seven players on eight occasions in school history to be selected as conference player of the year. Lumpkin led the Cougars to three-consecutive SoCon regular-season championship titles in 1999, 2000 and 2001 and a NCAA Tournament appearance in 1999. An All-SoCon Team selection by the league’s coaches in 2000 and All-SoCon First Team selection by the league’s media in 2000 and 2001, he scored over 1,300 points and grabbed over 700 rebounds for his cumulative four-year career at both Rice and CofC. A dominant player as well as a role model to young people, Lumpkin became the first men’s basketball player in school history to be named an Academic All-American in 1999 (second team) and 2000 (first team). He still ranks 18th all-time in career scoring (1,269 points), ninth all-time in career rebounding (710) and first all-time in career blocks (238). A four-year member of the CofC Honors program, the Columbia, S.C., native, graduated in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and history and a master’s degree in mathematics in 2001.
