Chris Lofton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chris Lofton
College	University of Tennessee
Conference	SEC
Sport	Basketball
Position	Shooting guard
Class	Alumni
Nickname	C-Lo
Career	2004 – 2008
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight	200 lb (91 kg)
Nationality	USA
Born	March 27, 1986 (1986-03-27) (age 22) Maysville, Kentucky
High school	Mason County High School, Maysville, Kentucky
Former school(s)	Mason County High School
Awards
All-American SEC Player of the Year, 2007 (AP)

Christopher Franklin Lofton (born March 27, 1986) is an American basketball player who recently completed his collegiate career at the University of Tennessee, best known for his three-point shooting.

Contents 1 High school 2 College 3 Cancer 4 Notes and references 5 External links

[edit] High school

Chris Lofton is from Maysville, Kentucky, where he led the Mason County Royals (his high school basketball team) to a victory in the 2003 State Championships and led the Royals back to the state championship game the next year. Despite being named Mr. Basketball his senior year, Lofton was not recruited by Louisville or Kentucky. He was recruited by University of Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson and subsequently chose to play for the Vols.

[edit] College

As a freshman, Lofton was outstanding, breaking several school and league records. Chris made third team All-America as a Freshman at Tennessee. Against the University of Georgia on February 11, 2006, he made a school record 9 three-point shots. On December 23, 2006, he scored a career high 35 points in an overtime victory against the University of Texas. For the 2005-2006 season, Lofton was selected as a second team All-American.

In the 2006-07 season, Lofton led the conference in scoring, with 20.8 points per game, and was named the SEC Player of the Year by the Associated Press.^[1] He led the Tennessee Volunteers to the Sweet 16 in the 2007 NCAA Basketball Tournament. He was again named Second-team All-American for the 2006-07 season. During the summer after the 06-07 season, Lofton went to Kobe Bryant camp and tried out for the Pan Am USA team.

Instead of declaring for the 2007 NBA Draft, Lofton announced that he would return to Knoxville for his senior season. Lofton was featured on the cover of the November 21, 2007 Sports Illustrated^[2] issue, holding a basketball away from Chris Douglas-Roberts of the University of Memphis. Sports Illustrated picked Tennessee 3rd in the country and Lofton as a 1st Team All-American. On December 19, 2007, Lofton passed Allan Houston to become first on Tennessee's list for most three point field goals made. Houston had held the record with 346 three pointers made. On January 22, 2008, Lofton passed Pat Bradley of the University of Arkansas to capture the record for the most career three pointers in the Southeastern Conference with 367.His final three pointer came vs. Louisville in the Sweet 16 of the 2008 NCAA Tournament, a game which Tennessee lost 79-60. Lofton was also selected to Third Team All-America for his senior season.

[edit] Cancer

Following the end of the 2007 season, Lofton was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which he kept a secret to all but Bruce Pearl, teammate Jordan Howell, his parents, and a small number of university officials.^[3]. He was diagnosed after failing a random drug screen during the 2007 NCAA tournament. The failed test turned out to be the result of a tumor marker.^[4] Afterwards, he underwent successful radiation treatments and surgery and is now considered cancer-free.^[5]

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Tennessee Volunteers official profile
• ESPN player profile

Preceded by Glen Davis

AP SEC Men's Basketball Player of the Year (Coaches: Derrick Byars) 2007

Succeeded by Shan Foster