Fredette leads AP All-America team

Seniors dominated The Associated Press All-America team for the first time in five years.

Jimmer Fredette of BYU, Nolan Smith of Duke and JuJuan Johnson of Purdue, all seniors, were joined on the team Monday by junior Kemba Walker of Connecticut and freshman Jared Sullinger of Ohio State.

It's the most seniors since four made the 2006 team.

Fredette led the nation in scoring at 28.5 points per game while shooting 40.4 percent from 3-point range, a number more impressive because of the shots he lets fly from well behind the line.

He received all but one vote from the 65-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. The voting was done before the NCAA tournament.

Fredette became one of the most popular players in recent memory as teams that lost to BYU were "jimmered."

"I think that it's a great accomplishment. Unbelievable," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "It shows how good his work ethic is. He's a player who has worked his way into an All-American. What he's meant to our program over the last four years - it's really kind of immeasurable."

He is BYU's first All-America since Danny Ainge in 1981.

"If you go out and play your game and have confidence in yourself, you can accomplish great things," Fredette said. "That's what I've always said in my head, and it's worked out."

Smith, who received 61 votes, averaged 21.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists in leading the Blue Devils to the top of the polls for 10 weeks this season. He assumed most of the ball-handling for Duke after star freshman Kyrie Irving went down early in the season with a toe injury and was responsible for defending the other team's top perimeter player.

Smith is the fifth Duke player to be an All-America since 2000; two of them - Jason Williams and J.J. Redick - were selected twice.

For full list of All-Americans, see Scoreboard.