Big South Announces 2019-20 Men's Basketball Annual Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Radford redshirt-junior guard Carlik Jones and Highlanders’ head coach Mike Jones have been voted the 2019-20 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 Winthrop center DJ Burns Jr. Freshman of the Year and Charleston Southern’s Phlandrous Fleming Jr. as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Campbell senior guard/forward Cory Gensler was voted Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s Sports Information Directors.
Carlik Jones (Cincinnati, Ohio) is the first Radford Highlander to be voted Big South Player of the Year since Art Parakhouski in 2009-10 and the fourth overall. Now a three-time All-Conference honoree during his career, Jones is the third-leading scorer in the Big South with 19.6 points per game overall, while ranking third with 5.5 assists and 17th with 5.0 rebounds -- the league’s lone player averaging at least 10 points with 5.0 rebounds and assists this season. He also ranks fifth in field goal percentage at 48.8 percent, third in free throw percentage at 80.8 percent, and is making 41.1 percent from beyond the three-point arc. Jones has accumulated 16 games with 20-plus points -- third-most in the conference and includes two 30-point efforts. A five-time Big South Player of the Week selection, Jones has tallied four double-doubles this season -- three of which have been point-assist outputs, and has been Radford’s leading scorer 20 times. His overall season totals include 1.4 steals per game (9th in the league) and a 51.5 clip on two-point field goals. In Big South games. Jones averaged 20.4 points (fourth), 5.6 assists (third), 5.4 rebounds (16th), 49.0 percent from the field (third), 85.8 percent from the charity stripe (third), 1.2 steals (T-seventh) and was third in assist-turnover ratio (2.6). Jones is the seventh player in Big South history to reach 1,000 career points, 400 career rebounds and 400 career assists, and enters the Hercules Tires Big South Men’s Basketball Championship needing two points to become just the second in league annals with 1,500 points (1,498), 450 rebounds (453) and 450 assists (460).
In the Player of the Year voting, Jones received 18 first-place votes and 402 total points from the panel, ahead of Hampton’s Jermaine Marrow (four first-place votes and 353 points) and Hampton’s Ben Stanley (two first-place votes and 346 points).
Mike Jones earns his second Coach of the Year honor in three seasons after leading the Highlanders to a second consecutive regular-season co-championship in addition to the No. 1 seed in this week’s Hercules Tires Men’s Basketball Championship -- the program’s first since 2009. The Highlanders went a combined 5-2 against the teams seeded 2-5, won 20 regular-season games (8-1 in Big South road contests), matched their most Big South wins with 15, and defeated Northwestern and Richmond during the nonconference. Radford is one of six programs nationally leading its conference in field goal percentage (46.7) and field goal defense (41.7), in addition to ranking first in the Big South in scoring defense (66.0), fewest rebounds allowed (32.7), and assist-turnover ratio (1.3). In the 18-game Big South season, the Highlanders finished first in scoring defense (67.3), field goal percentage (48.3) and field goal defense (41.7). Radford has won at least 12 Big South games in three consecutive seasons for the first time, and reached 20 overall wins for the three-straight year.
Jones received 11 first-place votes and 44 total points, ahead of Gardner-Webb’s Tim Craft (four first-place votes and 33 points), Winthrop’s Pat Kelsey (four first-place votes and 30 points) and Longwood’s Griff Aldrich (five first-place votes and 27 points).
Burns (Rock Hill, S.C.) is the first Eagle to be voted Big South Freshman of the Year since Tyrone Walker in 2000-01 and third overall. Burns is the league leader for both overall field goal percentage (58.5) and in conference games (59.8), and ranked second on the squad in overall scoring with 12.2 points in just 17.8 minutes per game. He averaged 13.4 points in 16 starts and 10.9 in 14 games off the bench. A five-time Big South Freshman of the Week honoree, Burns averaged 13.2 points against league foes in 18.4 minutes of action. He posted a career-high 23 points in a road win at Charleston Southern, keyed Winthrop’s win at Radford with 19 points and leads the Eagles with a +9.13 in all games -- which increased to +11.18 in the Big South season. Burns finished with 112 total points in the voting (12 first-place votes), just ahead of High Point’s John-Michael Wright (106 points and eight first-place votes) and USC Upstate’s Tommy Bruner (86 points and five first-place votes).
Fleming (Athens, Ga.) is the first Buccaneer to win Big South Defensive Player of the Year honors since two-time winner Kelvin Martin from 2010-12. Fleming paced the league with 8.5 rebounds -- the lone player above 8.0, in addition to ranking fourth in blocked shots per game (1.3) and tied for 13th with 1.3 steals per contest. He averaged a league-best 7.0 defensive rebounds -- 2.0 more than the next player, while contributing a career-high 40 blocks and 38 steals. Fleming recorded multiple blocks in nine games, had a blocked shot in six-straight games three different times, had 11 multiple-steal efforts, had a career-high six rejections along with four swipes in a win at Gardner-Webb, and tallied five takeaways at Dayton. In Big South action, Fleming was tops with 9.2 rebounds and 7.8 defensive boards, while adding 1.5 blocks and 1.2 steals. Fleming received seven first-place votes and 34 total points, just ahead of Gardner-Webb’s Ludovic Dufeal (four first-place votes and 32 points) and UNC Asheville’s Lavar Batts (six first-place votes and 28 points).
Gensler (Cary, N.C.) is now a three-time Big South All-Academic Team honoree. He is averaging career-bests of 10.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.5 steals, which ranks eighth in the conference. Campbell’s all-time leader in games played with 132, Gensler carries a 3.735 GPA as a business administration major.
Joining Jones on the All-Conference First-Team are Marrow, Stanley, Fleming and Radford’s Travis Fields Jr. The entire 2019-20 All-Conference team is as follows:
2019-20 MEN’S BASKETBALL ALL-CONFERENCE
First-Team All-Conference
Carlik Jones, G, R-Jr., Radford
Jermaine Marrow, G, Sr., Hampton
Ben Stanley, F, R-Soph., Hampton
Phlandrous Fleming Jr., G/F, Jr., Charleston Southern
Travis Fields Jr., G, Sr., Radford
Second-Team All-Conference
DeVon Baker, G, Soph., UNC Asheville
Nate Johnson, G, R-Jr., Gardner-Webb
Chandler Vaudrin, G, R-Jr., Winthrop
DJ Burns Jr., C, R-Fr., Winthrop
Eric Jamison Jr., G, R-Sr., Gardner-Webb
Honorable Mention All-Conference
Hunter Hale, G, Gr., Winthrop
LJ Thorpe, F., R-Soph., UNC Asheville
Cory Hightower, F, Soph., Presbyterian
Jaheam Cornwall, G, Jr., Gardner-Webb
John-Michael Wright, G, Fr., High Point
All-Freshman Team
DJ Burns Jr., C, Winthrop
John-Michael Wright, G, High Point
Tommy Bruner, G, USC Upstate
Kareem Reid, F, Gardner-Webb
Travis Anderson, G, Charleston Southern
All-Academic Team
Cory Gensler, G, Sr., Campbell
Eric Jamison Jr., F, R-Sr., Gardner-Webb
Caden Sanchez, F, R-Soph., High Point
Sean Flood, G, Sr., Longwood
JC Younger, G, Sr., Presbyterian College
Chyree Walker, F, R-Soph., Radford
Jax Levitch, F, R-Jr., UNC Asheville
Nevin Zink, C, Soph., USC Upstate
Kyle Zunic, F, Jr., Winthrop
Player of the Year
Carlik Jones, G, R-Jr., Radford
Freshman of the Year
DJ Burns Jr., C, R-Fr., Winthrop
Defensive Player of the Year
Phlandrous Fleming Jr., G/F, Jr., Charleston Southern
Coach of the Year
Mike Jones, Radford
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Cory Gensler, G, Sr., Campbell