MEMPHIS, Tenn. - University of Memphis freshman Dedric Lawson was recently named to the Wayman Tisdale Award watch list, an award given to the top freshman in the country by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).
The late Wayman Tisdale was a three-time USBWA All-American at the University of Oklahoma. Following a stint on the 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team, he played 12 seasons in the NBA before retiring in 1997 to focus on a blossoming jazz music career. In March 2007, he was diagnosed with cancer and, following a courageous and difficult battle that included the amputation of his right leg in 2008, he passed away in May 2009.