OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The Senior CLASS Award committee selected Mercer redshirt senior guard Ross Cummings as one of 10 finalists for the prestigious award late Monday morning.
Cummings was named one of 30 NCAA Division I men's basketball players to the initial candidate list on Feb. 8. Two weeks later, he survived the narrowing down of the field and has a chance to add the award to his already impressive lengthy list of accolades.
Nationwide fan voting begins immediately to help select the winner, and fans are encouraged to submit votes online at the Senior CLASS Award website through March 22. Fan votes will be combined with those of the media and Division I head coaches to determine the winners. The Senior CLASS Award recipient will be announced during the 2021 NCAA Men's Final Four®. Fans are encouraged to vote by
clicking here and may vote as many times as they desire.
To be eligible for the award, student-athletes must be classified as NCAA Division I seniors and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their athletic platforms to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Cummings has spent five seasons with the Orange & Black, returning for the 2020-21 campaign after receiving a medical redshirt from the NCAA. This season, he joined an exclusive list of less than 50 individuals who have recorded 1,000 points in a Mercer uniform. Cummings reached the 1,000-point mark in front of a national audience, hitting a layup with 5:45 to go in Mercer's Dec. 29 battle with Wofford on ESPNU. After becoming the 43rd player to hit the milestone, he has steadily moved up the rankings in less than two months. Most recently, he passed former teammate Ethan Stair for 20th all-time. Heading into Monday's Southern Conference contest with The Citadel, Cummings has 1,190 points and has his sights set on passing Scott Bailey (1,197 points) and Jordan Strawberry (1,200 points), who sit 19th and 18th, respectively.
Reaching 1,000 career points was not the only milestone the sharpshooting guard reached in the December matchup with Wofford. Cummings also became the third player in program history to knock down at least 200 career 3-pointers, joining Langston Hall (256 treys) and the program's all-time leading scorer, James Florence (2,286 points, 242 treys) on the list. Since reaching 200 triples, he has knocked down 35 more shots from beyond the arc. With three regular-season games and the Ingles Southern Conference Basketball Championship presented by General Shale left before any NCAA postseason play is factored into the equation, Cummings is eight 3-pointers away from passing Florence for second and needs to make 25 3s to sit atop the Mercer men's basketball record book.
Cummings has appeared in 101 games for the Bears with 66 starts. The Dickson, Tennessee, native has gone 383-of-854 (44.8 percent) from the floor and 235-of-569 (41.3 percent) from beyond the arc in that span. Cummings' best statistical season came as a sophomore in 2017-18, when he knocked down 101 3-pointers, the second-most in a single season in program history. He is averaging better than 15 points per game this season and has an 11.8 career points per game average.
He is currently working toward a master’s degree in higher education leadership and boasts a 3.9 GPA.
2020-21 Senior CLASS Award Candidates
Justin Turner, Bowling Green
Corey Kispert, Gonzaga
Luka Garza, Iowa
Marcus Garrett, Kansas
Cameron Krutwig, Loyola Chicago
Ross Cummings, Mercer
Cam Davis, Navy
Manny Camper, Siena
Oscar da Silva, Stanford
Collin Gillespie, Villanova