Former Southeast Missouri State basketball player Winans to be inducted into IBCA Hall of Fame

~ The former Southeast basketball standout will be honored Saturday

When former Southeast Missouri State basketball player Derek Winans received a letter in the mail in December saying he was going to be inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, it was something he described as being unbelievable.

It still hasn't quite sunk in for the former guard, who will be inducted Saturday at a ceremony at Illinois State University.

"I never envisioned myself being worthy of being in the hall of fame or anything like that," Winans said. "We found out in December that I was inducted. My wife and another gentleman were kind of working behind the scenes to pull the strings and get me nominated without me knowing. When it was official, it came as quite a shock. ... It's an unbelievable honor."

Winans, a graduate of Shawnee High School in Shawnee, Ill., redshirted the 2000-2001 season at Southeast.He led the team in scoring the three seasons after that, and was named the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year in 2002.

Winans also excelled in the classroom during his time at Southeast. He was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America basketball team two years in a row. He earned first-team honors as a senior and was second-team his junior season.

He held school records in multiple categories, and still remains high on the list in several.

His 219 career 3-pointers made was a record that Marland Smith broke in 2013. Lucas Nutt broke his record for career starts (101) last year.

He's fifth all-time in scoring with 1,505 points, third in field goals made, second in 3-pointers made as well as second in steals.

"To me this is not an individual award," Winans said. "To me this is just a culmination of all the great people, great coaches, great teammates and friends and family that supported me. I mean, this is just a reflection of all of those great people in my life, because to get something like this you can't just have something happen for one year -- it's multiple years put together to be able to be put into the hall of fame of anything.

"To me it ranks up there, probably top of the list, just because I don't look at the numbers, I look at all the people and support that I've had to get me to this point to have something like this."

Winans will be inducted alongside six former NBA players, including former Tennessee and current University of California-Berkeley coach Cuonzo Martin.

Winans doesn't know anyone in his hall-of-fame class personally, but did recall Eastern Illinois' Henry Domercant, who was inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame two years ago.

"He was one of the best college basketball players I ever played against -- one of the best shooters, I should say," Winans said. "He was just a great scorer and a great player. With him going in [two years ago] it's really cool to see my name going in this year.

"But the main thing for me is my high school coach is going to be there with me this weekend and several of my teammates that played with me are going to come, so we'll get to reconnect and talk and hang out, and that's going to be just as special to me as getting this award."

His high school coach at Shawnee was Mike Hanson, and former high school teammates Cory Barker, Chad Otten and Casey Otten also will be in attendance.

Winans and Barker still play basketball together, and Winans' name still can be found near the top of the Cape Parks and Rec scoring leaders list -- not unlike his time at Southeast.

"We try to stay in shape and stay competitive and keep those juices going," Winans said with a laugh. "So we do that still, and other than that it's pick-up games and working, and that's about it."