Big South Announces 2020-21 Men's Basketball Annual Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Winthrop redshirt-senior guard Chandler Vaudrin and Eagles’ head coach Pat Kelsey have been voted the 2020-21 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 Friday afternoon by the conference office. The panel voted Presbyterian College guard Rayshon Harrison Freshman of the Year and Charleston Southern’s Phlandrous Fleming Jr. as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. USC Upstate junior center Nevin Zink was voted Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s Sports Information Directors.
Vaudrin (Uniontown, Ohio) is the first Winthrop Eagle to be voted Big South Player of the Year since Xavier Cooks in 2017-18 and the fifth overall. A Second-Team All-Big South honoree in 2019-20, as well as a preseason First-Team selection this year, Vaudrin leads the Big South and ranks seventh nationally with 6.7 assists per game -- the highest average in the league since 2014-15. He is third in rebounds per game at 6.8 and sits 12th overall in the conference with a team-high 12.3 points per game. He is one of just two players in the Big South to rank in the Top 12 in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals (7th – 1.4), and is tied for first in assist/turnover ratio (2.0). Vaudrin became just the second player in Big South history to record two triple-doubles in the same season when he tallied 13 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists at USC Upstate on Dec. 13, and posted 10 points, 13 boards and 10 helpers vs. Campbell on Dec. 31. Named to the Collegeinsider.com Lou Henson Award Watch List in the midseason, Vaudrin was a three-time Big South Player of the Week honoree in 2020-21, finished second overall in the conference with 6.3 defensive rebounds per game, and finished the regular-season with 142 rebounds and 141 assists. In Big South games, Vaudrin averaged 12.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and a league-high 6.6 handouts.
In the Player of the Year voting, Vaudrin received 11 first-place votes and 322 total points from the panel, ahead of Hampton’s Davion Warren (seven first-place votes and 292 points) and Fleming (five first-place votes and 292 points).
Kelsey earns his first Coach of the Year honor after leading the Eagles to a record-setting campaign in 2020-21 in which Winthrop won its first outright Big South regular-season championship since 2006-07 and became the league’s first outright champion since 2017-18. The Eagles’ 17-1 Big South record secured the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Hercules Tires Men’s Basketball Championship, while the 17 league victories established an all-time league mark. Winthrop capped the season with a conference-record 10 Big South road wins (10-0 in 2020-21), and stretched its Big South road win streak to 12 -- another record. Earlier this season, the Eagles established the Big South record for best start to a season at 16-0 overall, became the first squad in conference annals to start a Big South season 12-0 in consecutive years, had a 21-game win streak that was the second-longest in Big South history, and has received national Top 25 votes for the last seven consecutive weeks. Winthrop has been ranked in the Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll all season -- reaching as high as No. 2 for six weeks from Dec. 21-Jan. 25 -- and is currently No. 5. On the court, Winthrop led the Big South in 10 categories during the conference season, including scoring (79.0), scoring margin (+11.1), rebounds (41.1), rebound margin (+11.2), assists (14.7), steals (7.6) and offensive rebounds (14.2).
Kelsey received 14 first-place votes and 50 total points, ahead of Radford’s Mike Jones (four first-place votes and 35 points) and Campbell’s Kevin McGeehan (three first-place votes and 34 points).
Harrison (Greenville, S.C.) is the second Blue Hose to be voted Big South Freshman of the Year in three seasons and third overall. The Big South’s leading freshman scorer ranked fourth overall in the Big South with 17.5 points per game, and was eighth among the rebounding leaders with 5.6 -- also most among conference freshmen. Harrison scored in double-figures in all 19 games, was PC’s leading scorer 13 times and had seven 20-point efforts -- tied for fourth-most in the Big South. He is the top overall free throw shooter in the league at 81.2 percent, ranks 10th with 1.4 steals per game, and averaged 2.1 three-pointers per contest. Harrison averaged 17.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 83.8 percent from the charity stripe in conference action. He capped the regular-season with his first career double-double with career-highs of 31 points and 13 rebounds on Feb. 22 vs. Charleston Southern. Harrison finished with 102 total points in the voting (15 first-place votes), ahead of Radford’s Fah’Mir Ali (77 points and five first-place votes) and Longwood’s Justin Hill (68 points and two first-place votes).
Fleming (Athens, Ga.) is the fifth player to earn back-to-back Big South Defensive Player of the Year honors. He was second overall in the conference with 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals, and averaged just under 1.0 blocked shots per contest. The Big South co-leader with seven 10-rebound games, Fleming paced the circuit with 6.5 defensive rebounds per outing. In conference play, Fleming grabbed 7.6 rebounds -- including a league-best 6.7 defensive boards, and swiped 1.8 steals along with 1.0 blocks. He had four multi-block performances in league action which featured a season-high four at High Point. He recorded a steal in 16 games, and had nine multi-steal efforts -- including three games with at least four. Fleming received five first-place votes and 30 total points, just ahead of Winthrop’s Chase Claxton (six first-place votes and 27 points) and Hampton’s Warren (five first-place votes and 22 points).
Zink (Newtown, Conn.) carries a 4.0 GPA as an economics/finance major and is Upstate’s first Big South Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipient. A member of the league’s 2019-20 men’s basketball All-Academic Team, Zink has started 83 of the 86 games he has played in, and averaged 8.6 points and 5.4 rebounds during the 2020-21 regular-season.
Joining Vaudrin on the All-Conference First-Team are Warren, Fleming, High Point’s John-Michael Wright and Gardner-Webb’s Jaheam Cornwall. The entire 2020-21 All-Conference team is as follows:
2020-21 MEN’S BASKETBALL ALL-CONFERENCE
First-Team All-Conference
Chandler Vaudrin, G, R-Sr., Winthrop
Davion Warren, G/F, Sr., Hampton
Phlandrous Fleming Jr., G/F, Sr., Charleston Southern
John-Michael Wright, G, Soph., High Point
Jaheam Cornwall, G, Sr., Gardner-Webb
Second-Team All-Conference
Cedric Henderson Jr., F, Jr., Campbell
Tajion Jones, G, R-Jr., UNC Asheville
Juan Munoz, G, R-Jr., Longwood
Rayshon Harrison, G, Fr., Presbyterian College
Jordan Whitfield, G, Sr., Campbell
Honorable Mention All-Conference
DJ Burns Jr., C, R-Soph., Winthrop
Tommy Bruner, G, Soph., USC Upstate
LJ Thorpe, G, R-Jr., UNC Asheville
Russell Dean, G, Soph., Hampton
Charles Falden, G, Sr., Winthrop
All-Freshman Team
Rayshon Harrison, G, Presbyterian College
Fah’Mir Ali, G, Radford
Justin Hill, G, Longwood
D’Maurian Williams, F, Gardner-Webb
Ahmil Flowers, G, High Point
All-Academic Team
Austin McCullough, G, Sr., Campbell
Kareem Reid, F, Soph., Gardner-Webb
Emmanuel Izunabor, C, Soph., High Point
DeShaun Wade, G, Jr., Longwood
Owen McCormack, F, Soph., Presbyterian College
Jordan Hemphill, G, Jr., Radford
Coty Jude, F, Jr., UNC Asheville
Nevin Zink, C, Jr., USC Upstate
Kyle Zunic, G, Sr., Winthrop
Player of the Year
Chandler Vaudrin, G, R-Sr., Winthrop
Freshman of the Year
Rayshon Harrison, G, Presbyterian College
Defensive Player of the Year
Phlandrous Fleming Jr., G/F, Sr., Charleston Southern
Coach of the Year
Pat Kelsey, Winthrop
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Nevin Zink, C, Jr., USC Upstate