A day after being named to the SoCon All-Conference team by the coaches, Donald Sims was named the Southern Conference Malcolm U. Pitt Player of the Year by the media this week. The league's leading scorer at 20.4 points per game, Sims scored in double figures in 30 of the Mountaineers' 31 games in the regular season. Heading into this weekend's tournament, he is the national leader in free throw percentage (95.0) and three-pointers made (102). The junior became the first Mountaineer to win SoCon Player of the Week honors three times in a season and joins Charles Payton(1981) and Tyson Patterson(2000) as the third student-athlete in program history to win player of the year honors. He is also just the third player in school history to score 600 points in a season and currently ranks second on ASU's single season list with 631 on the season. He is just one three-pointer shy of Appalachian's single-season record and 11 away from the career record. Sims' top performance of the season came at Davidson on January 9, when the guard set a Belk Arena record with 44 points on 13-of-19 shooting and a 13-of-13 mark at the charity stripe. Also in 2009-10, he became the 29th player in program history to score 1,000 points and finished the regular season ranked 13th with 1410 points through three seasons. The Mountaineers begin their second goal to become SoCon champs on Saturday at 7pm at Bojangles Coliseum against one of the Bulldog teams, either the Citadel or Samford. The Lady Apps, meanwhile, begin their journey on Saturday as well at 11:30am against the winner of the No. 6 Davidson and No. 11 Furman game.