Big South Announces 2021-22 Men's Basketball Annual Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Winthrop redshirt-junior forward DJ Burns Jr. and Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich have been voted the 2021-22 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 Tuesday morning by the conference office. The panel voted High Point guard Zack Austin and USC Upstate guard Jordan Gainey Co-Freshman of the Year and UNC Asheville junior Drew Pember as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Presbyterian College junior forward Owen McCormack was voted Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s Sports Information Directors.
Burns becomes the sixth different Eagle to receive Big South Player of the Year honors and fourth in the last six years. The Rock Hill, S.C., native led Winthrop at 15.3 points per game and shot a conference-leading 63.5 percent from the field in 2021-22. This season, he became just the fifth Eagle to reach the 1,000-point plateau before his senior season, as he shined in Winthrop’s road win over Pac-12 opponent Washington with 24 points and nine rebounds. Against conference opponents, Burns averaged 13.8 points per game and shot 64.1 percent from the floor. Burns received five first-place votes and 318 total points from the panel, ahead of Asheville’s Pember (311 points, seven first-place votes) and Longwood’s Justin Hill (297 points, 12 first-place votes).
Aldrich earns his first Coach of the Year honor -- and becomes the first Longwood coach to claim the yearly award. After being projected to finish second in the North Division in the annual preseason poll, Aldrich led the Lancers to the North Division championship and outright Big South regular-season title -- the program’s first since joining the conference prior to the start of the 2012-13 season. Longwood closed the regular season with a 15-1 conference mark and tallied the program’s longest winning streak since 1993-94 with 11-straight wins from Jan. 5-Feb. 10. Longwood led the conference in scoring offense (76.1), scoring margin (+11.0) and rebounding (37.3). Aldrich received 23 first-place votes and 75 total points in the voting, ahead of USC Upstate’s Dave Dickerson (three first-place votes, 38 points).
Pember becomes the first Bulldog since the 2017-18 season to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors. The junior from Knoxville, Tenn., closed the regular season ranked second in the Big South in rebounding with a 6.6 clip and paced the league with 3.0 blocks per contest. Pember’s 84 blocks on the season is the most by a Big South player since the 2013-14 season and ranks fourth all-time in program history. He shined on the defensive glass, as he ranked second in the conference with 4.7 defensive boards per game. In Defensive Player of the Year voting, Pember received six first-place votes and 33 total points, ahead of Winthrop’s Chase Claxton (27 points, six first-place votes) and Longwood’s DeShaun Wade (24 points, three first-place votes)
Austin (Winston-Salem, N.C.) becomes the first Panther to earn Freshman of the Year honors since 2012-13 and third overall. The forward ended the regular season ranked seventh in the conference in scoring (14.5 points per game) and paced the league in rebounds (7.8). Against conference opponents, Austin averaged 15.1 points per game and was the only player to average more than eight rebounds per contest with an 8.1 clip. He led all freshmen with seven 20-point efforts on the season, headlined by a season-high 26-point effort against UNC Asheville on Feb. 5. Austin claimed a Big South-record eight Freshman of the Week honors this season.
Gainey (Tucson, Ariz.) becomes the first Spartan to earn the Freshman of the Year award. Against Big South opponents, the guard tied for seventh in scoring at 16.3 points per game and was the only player to shoot over 50 percent from 3-point range at 54.1 percent. The seven-time Freshman of the Week honoree also ranked sixth in field-goal percentage (49.4 percent) and eighth in free-throw percentage (81.2). He closed the regular season with 21 double-figure scoring games and scored 15 or more in 14 of his 16 conference games.
Austin and Gainey received 104 points each, while Austin received 13 first-place votes and Gainey collected seven. It marks the first time since the 1992-93 season the Freshman/Rookie of the Year award has been split.
McCormack is a 3.85 student studying Business Administration with a Data Analytics concentration and Economics. Earlier this season, McCormack was one of two Big South representatives on the CoSIDA Academic All-District team. This season, McCormack has seen action in all 31 games with a couple of starts. He has scored in double-figures five times including a season-high 13 points in Presbyterian's win over The Citadel on Nov. 15.
The entire 2021-22 All-Conference team is as follows:
2021-22 MEN’S BASKETBALL ALL-CONFERENCE
First Team (in order of points received)
DJ Burns Jr., Winthrop
Drew Pember, UNC Asheville
Justin Hill, Longwood
John-Michael Wright, High Point
Isaiah Wilkins, Longwood
Second Team
Bryson Mozone, USC Upstate
D’Maurian Williams, Gardner-Webb
Zack Austin, High Point
Rayshon Harrison, Presbyterian College
Jordan Gainey, USC Upstate
Honorable Mention
Cedric Henderson Jr., Campbell
LJ Thorpe, UNC Asheville
Patrick Good, Winthrop
DeShaun Wade, Longwood
Lance Terry, Gardner-Webb
All-Freshman Team
Zack Austin, High Point
Jordan Gainey, USC Upstate
Claudell Harris, Jr., Charleston Southern
Marquis Barnett, Presbyterian College
Taje Kelly, Charleston Southern
Men’s Basketball All-Academic Team
Austin McCullough, R-Sr., Campbell
Lance Terry, Jr., Gardner-Webb
Emmanuel Izunabor, Jr., High Point
Zac Watson, Sr., Longwood
Kameron Langley, Grad., North Carolina A&T
Owen McCormack, Jr., Presbyterian
Shaquan Jules, Jr., Radford
Coty Jude, Sr., UNC Asheville
Josh Aldrich, Sr., USC Upstate
Russell Jones Jr., Jr., Winthrop
Player of the Year
DJ Burns Jr., Winthrop
Defensive Player of the Year
Drew Pember, UNC Asheville
Coach of the Year
Griff Aldrich, Longwood
Co-Freshman of the Year
Zack Austin, High Point
Jordan Gainey, USC Upstate
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Owen McCormack, Presbyterian