Big South Announces 2018-19 Men's Basketball Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Campbell senior guard Chris Clemons and Camels’ head coach Kevin McGeehan have been voted the 2018-19 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 Presbyterian College guard Adam Flagler Freshman of the Year and Radford’s Ed Polite Jr. as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. High Point redshirt-junior guard Jahaad Proctor was voted Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s Sports Information Directors.
Clemons (Raleigh, N.C.) is the first Campbell Camel to be voted Big South Player of the Year since Joe Spinks in 1993-94 and the fourth overall. Now just the sixth player in Big South history to earn All-Conference honors all four years, Clemons leads the nation in scoring with a 30.1 average, which is pacing ahead of the Big South single-season record. He is also averaging 5.1 rebounds, a 45.5 field goal percentage and an 87.0 clip from the free throw line. Clemons has established Big South single-season records for three-pointers made with 129 and free throws made with 221, while his 904 are second-most in a season in league history. He has posted a league-record four 40-point games in 2018-19 -- including a conference-game record 48 against Hampton on Feb. 13 as well as 45 at Georgetown on Nov. 24. Clemons has scored at least 20 points in a game 28 times this season -- 13 of which are 30+ efforts. He was the USBWA Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week Feb. 4 after averaging 39.0 points in two games, and was added to the Atlanta Tipoff Club’s Citizen Naismith Trophy Midseason Team that recognizes the Men’s Player of the Year.
In the Player of the Year voting, Clemons received 29 first-place votes and 481 total points from the panel, ahead of Polite (one first-place vote and 390 points) and Hampton’s Jermaine Marrow (one first-place vote and 384 points).
McGeehan earns his first Coach of the Year honor after leading the Camels -- predicted to finish fourth in the preseason poll -- to a share of the regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed in this week’s Big South Championship tournament -- Campbell’s first-ever top seed. The Camels went a combined 4-2 against the teams seeded 2-5, won 19 regular-season games (7-1 in Big South home contests), matched their most Big South wins with 12, and suffered their four league losses by a combined 16 points. Campbell has posted winning records in three consecutive seasons for the first time in the program’s Division I era (since 1977-78). Campbell ranks second overall in the Big South in free throw percentage (75.4), as well as third in scoring defense (69.6), blocked shots (3.3) and steals (6.9). In league games, the Camels were tops with an 83.0 free throw percentage, as well as second in scoring defense (67.5) and blocks (3.5).
McGeehan received 13 first-place votes and 65 total points, just ahead of Presbyterian’s Dustin Kerns (13 first-place votes and 62 points) and Longwood’s Griff Aldrich (three first-place votes and 20 points).
Flagler (Duluth, Ga.) is the second Blue Hose to be voted Big South Freshman of the Year. He started every game this season and is the league’s top 3-point shooter at 38.7 percent. He is second in the conference in three-pointers made (94) and per game (3.0), while his team-high 15.8 points per game ranks 10th overall in the Big South. He has nine games with at least 20 points -- including a career-high 29 at UCLA, and also finished among the league leaders in field goal percentage at 44.0. Flagler averaged 16.1 points against Big South foes (9th in the conference) with 3.3 threes per game. He finished with 122 total points in the voting (10 first-place votes), just ahead of Gardner-Webb’s Jose Perez (112 points and 11 first-place votes) and UNC Asheville’s DeVon Baker (111 points and 10 first-place votes).
Polite (Lanham, Md.) is the first Highlander to win Big South Defensive Player of the Year honors since Javonte Green in 2014-15. Polite ranks in the conference’s Top 10 in steals per game (1.5), blocks per game (1.2) and is tops with 7.3 defensive rebounds per game. He tallied 45 steals and 35 blocks during the regular-season, and is the Big South’s overall leading rebounder with 9.8. Polite owns a league-high 16 games with 10+ rebounds -- which included a 19-rebound effort against High Point on Feb. 9, and totaled 14 multi-steal games in addition to five games with at least three blocked shots. He was the only player to average double-digit rebounds in conference-games with 10.1, and contributed 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocks against Big South opponents. Polite received 15 first-place votes and 71 total points, ahead of Hampton’s Kalin Fisher (six first-place votes and 42 points) and Campbell’s Andrew Eudy (seven first-place votes and 41 points).
Proctor (Harrisburg, Pa.) is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree and a three-time Big South Presidential Honor Roll member. He is the Big South’s third-leading scorer with 19.3 points, as started all 30 games, and is 12 points away from becoming just the 16th player to reach 1,000 in his first two years in the Big South. Proctor carries a 3.79 GPA as a Sales major.
Joining Clemons on the All-Conference First-Team are Polite, Marrow, Radford’s Carlik Jones and Charleston Southern’s Christian Keeling. The entire 2018-19 All-Conference team is as follows:
2018-19 MEN’S BASKETBALL ALL-CONFERENCE
First-Team All-Conference
Chris Clemons, G, Sr., Campbell
Ed Polite Jr., F, Sr., Radford
Jermaine Marrow, G, Jr., Hampton
Carlik Jones, G, R-Soph., Radford
Christian Keeling, G, Jr., Charleston Southern
Second-Team All-Conference
David Efianayi, G, R-Sr., Gardner-Webb
Jahaad Proctor, G, R-Jr., High Point
Nych Smith, G, Sr., Winthrop
Andrew Eudy, C, Sr., Campbell
Davon Bell, G, Sr., Presbyterian
Honorable Mention All-Conference
Kalin Fisher, G, Sr., Hampton
Francois Lewis, F, Sr., Presbyterian
DJ Laster, F, Sr., Gardner-Webb
Lorenzo Phillips, G, Jr., Longwood
Travis Fields Jr., G, Jr., Radford
All-Freshman Team
Adam Flagler, G, Presbyterian
Jose Perez, G/F, Gardner-Webb
DeVon Baker, G, UNC Asheville
Dontrell Shuler, G, Charleston Southern
Cory Hightower, F, Presbyterian
All-Academic Team
Cory Gensler, G, Jr., Campbell
Christian Keeling, G, Jr., Charleston Southern
Eric Jamison Jr., F, Jr., Gardner-Webb
Trevond Barnes, F, Sr., Hampton
Jahaad Proctor, G, R-Jr., High Point
Jordan Cintron, F, Soph., Longwood
JC Younger, G, Jr., Presbyterian College
Caleb Tanner, G, Sr., Radford
Donovan Gilmore, F, R-Sr., UNC Asheville
Jure Span, G, Sr., USC Upstate
Bjorn Broman, G, Sr., Winthrop
Player of the Year
Chris Clemons, G, Sr., Campbell
Freshman of the Year
Adam Flagler, G, Presbyterian
Defensive Player of the Year
Ed Polite Jr., F, Sr., Radford
Coach of the Year
Kevin McGeehan, Campbell
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Jahaad Proctor, G, R-Jr., High Point