Category Archives: Awards
Jack Perri wins 2013 Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year Award
LIU Brooklyn’s head coach Jack Perri named 2013 Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year
Congratulations are in order for LIU Brooklyn men’s head basketball coach Jack Perri for being named the 2013 Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year award winner which goes to the nation’s top first-year Division I head coach in college basketball.
Perri beat out a group which consisted of Wagner’s Bashir Mason, Mount St. Mary’s Jamion Christian, FIU’s Richard Pitino and UConn’s Kevin Ollie among others. Read the rest of this entry
Jamal Olasewere named ’12-’13 NEC Player of the Year! Four Blackbirds named to All-NEC teams.
L to R: Jason Brickman, Jamal Olasewere, C.J. Garner and E.J. Reed. All-NEC award recipients
This morning, the Northeast Conference announced on Twitter their All-NEC selections as well as named their major award winners for this season. LIU Brooklyn’s Jamal Olasewere was named 2012-13 NEC Player of the Year. He was also named to the All-NEC first team for the second straight season. Junior point guard Jason Brickman was named to the All-NEC second team for the second straight season. Senior guard C.J. Garner was named to the All-NEC third team for his first All-NEC honor. Freshman forward E.J. Reed was named to the All-NEC rookie team.
The 6’7″ senior forward had a tremendous season. Olasewere played in 28 games this season while averaging 19.2 points per game (tied for 22rd in the nation), 8.4 rebounds per game, and shooting 51% from the field. His 25.3 points per 40 minutes played is ranked 11th in the nation. In the 16 NEC games Olasewere played this season, third in the conference in scoring (19.6 ppg), second in rebounding (9.2 rpg), and fifth in field goal percentage (54.9%). He made and attempted the most free throws of any NEC player this season (163-235). He also finished the regular season as the third best player in the nation in fouls drawn per 40 minutes at 7.9. He help carry this LIU team after Julian Boyd was lost for the season on December 12th to a torn ACL on his knee. He scored 20 or more points twelve times this season and had ten double-doubles. In his final regular-season game on Senior Day, an emotional Olasewere went off for a career-high 33 points against Quinnipiac. Olasewere could finish as LIU all-time men’s basketball leading scorer with 27 more points in the NEC tournament. He has over 1800 points and 900 rebounds for this career at LIU. He is an amazing player that is going to be missed after this season.
This honor for Olasewere gives LIU Brooklyn back-to-back NEC Player of the Year award recipients with Julian Boyd having won the award last season. This is now the third occasion LIU was won back-to-back NEC Player of Year but the first time it has given to two different player. This is the first time LIU Brooklyn has gotten back-to-back NEC Player of the Year awards since scoring machine Charles Jones won it back-to-back himself back in 1997 and 1998. Carey Scurry also won back-to-back NEC Player of the Years back in 1984 and 1985. The last school to win back-to-back NEC Player of the Year was Robert Morris back in 2008 & 2009 when Tony Lee and Jeremy Chappell won it.
Also honored today was freshman E.J. Reed as he was named to the All-NEC Rookie team. Reed was in the running for NEC Rookie of the Year but just missed out to Mount St. Mary’s Shivaughn Wiggins. Reed though had a very good freshman season. Reed played in all 30 games for LIU this season including two starts. He averaged 7.7 points per game and grabbed 4.0 rebounds per game in 19.2 minutes per game this season. He shot 50% from the field and shot a very respectable 37.5% from three. He scored in double digits in ten games this season including in a stretch of five straight games from December 29th to January 12th. His best game came at Mount St. Mary’s where he scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. You could likely see Reed moving into the starting lineup next season with three forward seniors departing.
Senior C.J. Garner was named to the All-NEC third team. The 5’10″ scoring flash has been instrumental to LIU’s success this season. Garner for the season is averaging 14.8 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game and 2.6 assists per game. He is shooting nearly 49% from the field and unraveled a three-point shot which he has made 45% of this season. Garner scored 20 or more points six times this season and all doing NEC play. He scored in double figures in all but two NEC games this season. His 30 points vs Quinnipiac on Senior Day was a career-high. This season he reached the 1000-point plateau for his LIU career. One of the hardest guys in the NEC to stop in the open court.
Junior Jason Brickman was named to the All-NEC second team. I thought he deserved All-NEC first team selection (which went instead to RMU’s Velton Jones). Nevertheless, Brickman had another great year for the Blackbirds. The 6’0″ assist machine from San Antonio started in all 30 games for LIU. He has played the most minutes on this year’s team (36.4 mpg). He averaged for the season 9.6 points per game and is the nation’s assist leader at 8.5 assists per game. He is also shooting 45.6% from the floor including a NEC-third best 45.8% from beyond the arc. Brickman collected ten double-double in points and assists. He matched his career-high of 19 points three times this season and had a season-high 13 assist game vs St. Francis (PA). Brickman was named by ESPN’s Jay Bilas as one of the best passers in the nation and if you want him every game like I have, it is hard to argue. The guy is a great floor general and one of the best passers I have ever seen.
Honorable mention goes to LIU head coach Jack Perri. He didn’t win NEC Coach of the Year as it deservingly went to Bryant’s Tim O’Shea but Perri had to deal with a whole lot in his first year as a Division I head coach. Perri had to deal with his players off the court issues and player suspensions. He had to deal with losing his star player for most of the season and all of the NEC season. He had to deal with two separate long losing streaks yet he got them to finish third in the conference and with a couple of bounces here and there versus Robert Morris and Wagner, this team could have been a one-seed once again. The job him and his staff did to get LIU to 12 conference wins this season was amazing when back in December and early January, this looked like a lost season. Perri got LIU in position to have a decent shot at a run for the NEC three-peat and for that I congratulate him.
Big week for Jamal Olasewere begins with third NEC Player of the Week honor
As the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds prepare for the start of their quest for a third straight NEC championship, today we learned that senior forward Jamal Olasewere was named Choice Hotels/NEC Player of the Week for the third time this season.
Olasewere, in helping LIU goes 2-0 this week and securing a NEC tournament quarterfinal home game on Wednesday, averaged 24.5 points per game and 11.5 rebounds per game. On Senior Day on Saturday, he scored a career-high 33 points on 15 shots. He collected double-doubles in both games last week and finished the regular season with ten double-doubles. Read the rest of this entry
2012-13 BHJ’s NEC MBB Postseason Awards
The regular season has come to an end. The season always seem to go be so fast every year especially if your team is having a successful season. On Tuesday, the NEC will announce their yearly men’s basketball postseason awards and since it being award season, it is time to hand out some fictional hardware.
I’m doing it a little bit different though. Not only am I giving my picks for the NEC Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Most-Improved Player of the Year, Player of the Year and All-NEC rookie, first, second and third teams, I’m also giving some awards for NEC MBB Game of the Year, Play of the Year, best announcers on NEC Front Row, best home crowd, best TV game, and best individual performance of the year. With that, let’s hand out some awards. Let’s begin with the the fun awards first and then get to the major awards at the end.
Best NEC MBB Individual Performance of the Year: Sam Prescott, Mount St. Mary’s.
Prescott scored 44 points on Valentine’s Day, hitting on 10 of 14 three pointers and making 16 of 24 shots in 33 minutes of playing time. Crazy thing is that he only scored 2 of his 44 points from the free throw line. It was an amazing shooting night for the junior guard. Honorable mentions goes: Kyle Vinales of CCSU (42 pts on that same day), Matt Hunter of CCSU (40 pts), Jonathon Williams (33 pts & 17 rebs)
Best Home Crowd: Bryant University
In what was an amazing turnaround season for the Bryant Bulldogs, Bryant had two biggest and best crowds of the season when they hosted two of the biggest NEC games this year when LIU Brooklyn and Robert Morris visited the Chace Athletic Center. The line to get in these games went out the door and the student sections were fire code threatening-packed! Ironically, both games resulted in losses but the Bryant fans and student body should be recognized for giving their team an amazing sixth man for their biggest games this season.
Best Announcers on NEC Front Row: Seth Cantor, Jaden Daly and Jamaal Womack, St. Francis Brooklyn
Both Seth Cantor and Jaden Daly do a great job calling the play-by-play at Terrier home games. Without a doubt, the most entertaining color guy on NEC Front Row is Jamaal Womack. The former Terriers star drops great one-liners, has great energy and does a nice job analyzing the action. For me, this group is on the best listen on NEC Front Row. No doubt, Womack might not be everyone cup of tea but for me, I take him over the loud, overly obnoxious homer guys who can’t get the names of players on the opposing teams right, any day of the week. Those guys know who they are.
Best TV Game: LIU Brooklyn at Wagner, 2/24/13
This game appeared against the Oscars a couple of Sundays ago and it was worthy of an award itself. The nationally televised ESPNU game had it all. High scoring, big defensive plays, the road team getting up double digits, questionable officiating, the home team coming back in the second half, the road team making a furious comeback in the last two minutes to tie it and a last second layup to give the home team the win. In the end, it was a game many people were talking about on social media and was a great showcase for the NEC.
NEC Play of the Year: Who else, Mr. Clutch himself Robert Morris’ Velton Jones hitting game-winner vs LIU Brooklyn 2/2/13
No one else in the NEC is more worthy of the title, Mr. Clutch than RMU’s Velton Jones. He added to that reputation when he hit this game winner vs LIU Brooklyn to give RMU the win in their only meeting this season. He did this just two days after missing most of his previous game where he hurt his shoulder. For most of this game, he was the one-armed man. When it counted the most, he delivered.
NEC Game of the Year: Robert Morris at Bryant 2/28/13
There were three legit candidates for this award. LIU Brooklyn at Wagner on 2/24/13, LIU Brooklyn at Bryant on 1/26/13 but I have to go with the game that meant the most which was RMU at Bryant. The winner would get #1 seed. In front of packed Chace Athletic Center, Bryant would get up by 9 in the first half before RMU would come back. In the final five minutes, RMU would go ahead and not give back the lead as RMU won a close affair 77-75.
Now time to hand out the major hardware:
NEC Defensive Player of the Year: Matt Hunter, CCSU
It may be hard to fathom that any CCSU player could be good enough to be considered for this award much less win it. Just look at his numbers. Hunter is number one in the NEC in steals (2.7 spg), tenth in blocks (0.9 bpg), seventh in rebounds (7.7 rpg). He is second in the NEC in steal rate. Yet, he probably won’t get a sniff at the actual award. Honorable mentions: Kenneth Ortiz of Wagner and Ousmane Drame of Quinnipiac.
NEC Most-Improved Player of the Year: Jalen Cannon, St. Francis Brooklyn
Cannon at one time was looking like the NEC Player of the Year early on. Inconsistency scoring, especially down the stretch of the NEC season hurt his chances of that, but he made major strides to his offensive game from his freshman year to his sophomore year this season. He began developing a three point shot this season and made 55% of his shot for the second straight season. He increased his free throw percentage to nearly 68% and averaged 8.9 rebounds per game and a steal per game. His rebounding numbers stayed steady near the very top of the NEC.
NEC Rookie of the Year: Shivaughn Wiggins, Mount St. Mary’s
In what was a two person battle for most of the season between Wiggins and E.J. Reed of LIU Brooklyn, Wiggins just edges out Reed for the award. Wiggins’ late season surge is what put him over the top. Wiggins since getting inserted into the Mount’s starting lineup has averaged 14.5 points per game over the last 14 games including a career-high 28 points vs FDU in the regular season finale. Reed had a higher points per 40 minutes played and also a slightly better effective field goal percentage than Wiggins. Wiggins had 13 double digit scoring games, Reed had ten. In a close call, to be fair, I have to give the edge to Wiggins although I wouldn’t be surprised if Reed got the award. Both are pretty deserving.
NEC Coach of the Year: Tim O’Shea, Bryant
Bryant completed one of the biggest one-year turnarounds in NCAA history under fifth-year head coach Tim O’Shea. Last season, Bryant won two games and just one in the NEC. This season, the Bulldogs won 19 games and won 12 games in conference. Honorable mentions: Jamion Christian of MSM, Jack Perri of LIU Brooklyn, Andy Toole of RMU.
NEC Player of the Year: Jamal Olasewere, LIU Brooklyn
Olasewere took over the main man role on his LIU Brooklyn team after reigning NEC Player of the Year Julian Boyd went down on December 12th at Rice to a torn ACL. Olasewere is third in the NEC in scoring (19.2 ppg), fourth in rebounding (8.4 rpg), ninth in field goal percentage (51%), tied for eighth in steals (1.5 spg), in the top 10 in blocks, second in points per 40 minutes played (25.3). He was third in the nation in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (7.9), second in the nation in free throws attempted (235) and seventh in the nation in free throws made (163). He is one of the hardest player to matchup against in the NEC. He was simply the best all-around player in the conference this season.
BHJ’s All-NEC Rookie Team:
Shivaughn Wiggins – G – Mount St. Mary’s
E.J. Reed – F – LIU Brooklyn
Brandon Peel – F – Central Connecticut
Eric Fanning – G – Wagner
Ben Millaud-Meunier – G – St. Francis University
BHJ’s All-NEC First Team:
Jamal Olasewere – F – LIU Brooklyn
Alex Francis – F – Bryant
Shane Gibson – G – Sacred Heart
Jason Brickman – G – LIU Brooklyn
Kyle Vinales – G – Central Connecticut
BHJ’s All-NEC Second Team:
Jalen Cannon – F – St. Francis Brooklyn
Jonathon Williams – F – Wagner
Dyami Starks – G – Bryant
C.J. Garner – G – LIU Brooklyn
Lucky Jones – G – Robert Morris
BHJ’s All-NEC Third Team:
Kinu Rochford – F – Fairleigh Dickinson
Ike Azotam – F – Quinnipiac
Frankie Dobbs – G – Bryant
Kenneth Ortiz – G – Wagner
Karvel Anderson – G – Robert Morris
LIU’s Jamal Olasewere amongst finalists for Lou Henson National Player of the Year
This past Monday, the list of finalists for the 2013 Lou Henson National Player of the Year award was announced. Among the finalists named was LIU Brooklyn’s senior forward Jamal Olasewere. The Lou Henson National Player of the Year award is given to the best mid-major player in college basketball. Read the rest of this entry
Jamal Olasewere awarded second NEC Player of the Week honor and more
Two-time NEC Player of the Week Jamal Olasewere (Photo Credit: Bob Dea)
LIU Brooklyn’s Jamal Olasewere on Tuesday was named NEC Player of the Week for the week of February 3rd. In the two games that week, against Central Connecticut and St. Francis Brooklyn, Olasewere averaged 22.5 points per game and nine rebounds per game in 34.5 minutes per game.
In the game at Central Connecticut, Olasewere went 12 for 13 from the field and his only miss was his only three-point attempt of the game. Against SFC, he went to the free throw line 12 times and made nine of his fouls shots while going 50% from the field including a made three.
In NEC play this season, Olasewere is third in the conference in scoring at 19.4 points per game, second in rebounding at 9.7 rebounds per game, fourth in field goal percentage at 58.1%, and twelfth in steals (1.3 spg) and blocks (0.9 bpg).
For the season, Olasewere is currently averaging 19.0 points per game, third among all NEC players who has played at least 75% of their teams’ games. He is fourth in rebounds (8.5 rpg), seventh in field goal percentage (51.5%), seventh in steals (1.59 spg) and twelfth in block shots (0.77 bpg). He is also ninth in the nation in free throw attempted with 183 and eleventh in free throws made with 131.
In terms of tempo-free stats, Olasewere is third in the nation in fouls drawn per 40 minutes at 8.3. He is 16th in the nation in percentage of possession used at 31.6% and 35th in the nation in free throw rate. His 25.2 points per 40 minutes is also thirteenth in the nation.
This is the second time this season Olasewere has been named NEC Player of the Week. Both times have come during NEC play.
Congratulations to Jamal Olasewere.
Also, it was also announced today that Olasewere has been selected as a State Farm “Dark Horse Dunker” nominee. Don’t know what that is? Click on the link here to go to the LIU Athletics page for all the info. Here is the reel of Olasewere dunks.
Olasewere is up against a 5’10″ guard from Indiana Tech named Antonio Cannon who has serious hops. Beating this Cannon kid won’t be easy. He is currently trailing in the voting so it is time to get to it and vote for Olasewere!
Good week so far for LIU’s Jason Brickman
#15 Jason Brickman, number two assist man in the nation. (Photo Credit: Bob Dea)
It is only Tuesday but it has already been a good week for Jason Brickman. The 5’10″ junior point guard from San Antonio, Texas has been getting some well-deserved recognition over the last couple of days following his week where he dished out double-digit assists in back-to-back games.
It started over the weekend when the quiet leader of the LIU Brooklyn men’s basketball team actually had a feature shown on him during halftime of this past weekend’s NEC-TV games. If you missed it, here it is: Read the rest of this entry
