Big South Announces 2016-17 Men's Basketball Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Winthrop senior guard Keon Johnson and UNC Asheville head coach Nick McDevitt have been voted the 2016-17 Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively, by the league’s head coaches and media panel, it was announced Monday afternoon by the conference office. The panel voted Asheville guard MaCio Teague Freshman of the Year and UNC Asheville’s Ahmad Thomas as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Asheville senior forward Giacomo Zilli was voted Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s Sports Information Directors.
Johnson (Mansfield, Ohio) is the first Eagle to be voted Big South Player of the Year since Greg Lewis in 2001-02 and is the just the third overall winner. Johnson ranks second overall in the conference with 21.8 points (10th nationally), is first in three-pointers made per game (3.04), first in three-point percentage (39.4) and third in free throw percentage (86.8), as well as seventh in field goal shooting and 10th in assists. He has a league-high five 30-point games and is second with 19 games with 20-or-more points. In 18 Big South games, Johnson upped his scoring average to 23.5 points, shot 44.2 percent from the floor, made 86.0 percent from the charity stripe, buried 43.6 percent from three-point range, and averaged a league-best 3.61 treys per contest in leading Winthrop to a share of the regular-season championship. He finished with 13 more three-pointers than any other player in Big South games, and scored 20 points in 14 of his 18 league appearances. Johnson has made at least four 3-pointers in a game 12 times this season, and was a four-time Big South Player of the Week honoree. He scored 38 points in Winthrop’s overtime win at Illinois on Nov. 21, as well as a career-high 40 points at UNC Asheville on Feb. 9. He scored 20 points in six consecutive games from Dec. 29-Jan. 14, and tallied 79 markers in a two-game span from Feb. 4-9.
In the Player of the Year voting, Johnson received 12 first-place votes and 380 total points from the panel, ahead of teammate Xavier Cooks (two first-place votes and 350 points) and UNC Asheville’s Ahmad Thomas (nine first-place votes and 333 points).
McDevitt earns his first Coach of the Year honor after leading the Bulldogs to the Big South regular-season co-championship with a 15-3 record -- the program’s first since 2011-12. His squad posted 23 overall wins in 2016-17, its most since winning 24 that same 2011-12 season, and tied as the league-leader with four non-conference Division I road wins. McDevitt, who became just the third coach in Big South history to win at least 15 games in each of his first four years in the conference, directed his squad to the second-best overall scoring defense with 67.5 points allowed, and has been consistently ranked in the top five nationally in steals (league-high 294) and steals per game (league-high 9.5). The Bulldogs are also tops in the Big South in turnover margin (+5.10) and turnovers forced (16.7, 11th in the country). Asheville’s offense is just as consistent, as the squad is first in scoring margin (+9.6), first in three-point shooting (39.9) and second in scoring offense (77.1). In Big South games, the Bulldogs finished with a league-best +13.2 scoring margin in addition to being tops in field goal shooting (49.3 percent) and three-point percentage (41.3), as well as second in scoring offense (80.1) and scoring defense (66.9 points).
McDevitt received 14 first-place votes and 58 total points, ahead of Winthrop’s Pat Kelsey (four first-place votes and 38 points) and Gardner-Webb’s Tim Craft (two first-place votes and 37 points).
Teague (Cincinnati, Ohio) is the first Bulldog to be voted Big South Freshman of the Year since 2013-14 and the fourth overall. He is seventh in the conference with 15.5 points per game, ranks second in free throw proficiency (88.0 percent), fifth in field goal percentage (44.7 percent), seventh in 3-pointers per game (2.06), and eighth with 2.8 assists. In Big South action, he increased his averages to 16.4 points, field goal shooting to 48.7 percent, free throw shooting to 89.4 percent, and was second in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.8). Teague had seven 20-point games during the regular-season, including a career-best 30 points with six treys at Longwood on Feb. 11, and 23 points in Asheville’s two-point loss at Ohio State. At Coastal Carolina on Dec. 3, he nearly recorded a triple-double with 15 points, 10 boards and seven assists in the win over the Chanticleers. He also had a string of 29 consecutive free throws made in league play. Teague received 21 first-place votes and 119 total points, ahead of Charleston Southern’s Christian Keeling (four first-place votes and 103 points).
Thomas (Danville, Va.) is the second Bulldog to be bestowed Big South Defensive Player of the Year since the award’s inception in 2005-06. He finished the regular-season tied for first in the Big South with 94 steals and ranks second in the nation in the category. Thomas collected three-or-more steals in 17 of Asheville’s 31 games this season, including a program-record 10 against Warren Wilson on Dec. 10. Just the fourth player in Big South history with back-to-back 70-steal seasons, Thomas also ranks seventh in the league in rebounding (6.5) and sixth with 5.2 defensive boards per contest. Against Big South foes, Thomas ranked seventh with 7.1 rebounds, was third with 5.7 defensive caroms, and averaged 2.8 steals in 18 games. He received 15 first-place votes and 61 total points, ahead of Gardner-Webb’s LaQuincy Rideau (six first-place votes and 47 points) and Winthrop’s Xavier Cooks (two first-place votes and 23 points).
Zilli (Udine, Italy) is now a two-time Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipient after being the 2014-15 honoree. He has appeared in 21 of the Bulldogs’ 31 contests this season with 13 starts and owns averages of 4.3 points and 2.0 rebounds. The senior carries a 3.966 GPA as a double-major in management and economics.
Joining Johnson on the All-Conference First-Team are Cooks, Thomas, Campbell’s Chris Clemons and Asheville’s Teague. The entire 2016-17 All-Conference team is as follows:
2016-17 MEN’S BASKETBALL ALL-CONFERENCE
First-Team All-Conference
Keon Johnson, G, Sr., Winthrop
Xavier Cooks, F, Jr., Winthrop
Ahmad Thomas, G, Jr., UNC Asheville
Chris Clemons, G, Soph., Campbell
MaCio Teague, G, Fr., UNC Asheville
Second-Team All-Conference
LaQuincy Rideau, G, Soph., Gardner-Webb
Miles Bowman Jr., F, R-Sr., High Point
Tyrell Nelson, F, Sr., Gardner-Webb
Ryan Kemrite, G, R-Jr., Liberty
Khris Lane, F, R-Jr., Longwood
Honorable Mention All-Conference
Christian Keeling, G, Fr., Charleston Southern
Ed Polite Jr., F, Soph., Radford
Darrion Allen, G, Sr., Longwood
David Efianayi, G, R-Soph., Gardner-Webb
John Dawson, G, R-Sr., Liberty
All-Freshman Team
MaCio Teague, G, Fr., UNC Asheville
Christian Keeling, G, Fr., Charleston Southern
Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz, G, Fr., Liberty
Myo Baxter-Bell, F, R-Fr., Liberty
Jo’Vontae Millner, G, Fr., Presbyterian College
All-Academic Team
Chris Clemons, G, Soph., Campbell
Patrick Wallace, G, Sr., Charleston Southern
Tyrell Nelson, F, Sr., Gardner-Webb
Austin White, G, Jr., High Point
Ryan Kemrite, G, R-Jr., Liberty
Christian Lutete, F, Soph., Radford
Giacomo Zilli, F, Sr., UNC Asheville
Anders Broman, G, Jr., Winthrop
Player of the Year
Keon Johnson, G, Sr., Winthrop
Freshman of the Year
MaCio Teague, G, Fr., UNC Asheville
Defensive Player of the Year
Ahmad Thomas, G, Jr., UNC Asheville
Coach of the Yea
Nick McDevitt, UNC Asheville
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Giacomo Zilli, F, Sr., UNC Asheville