2009-10 All-PSAC Men's Basketball Teams (pdf)
Lock Haven, Pa. - Kutztown’s Stephen Dennis, the leading scorer in NCAA Division II, has been named the PSAC East Player of the Year while Thomas Young of PSAC champion IUP has been named the PSAC West Player of the Year, highlighting the 2009-10 All-PSAC men’s basketball teams as voted on by the league’s head coaches. The East award marks the second straight year that the East Player of the Year has come from Kutztown, as Dennis follows former teammate Dave Ben, who was the East Player of the Year last year, while Young is IUP’s first West Player of the Year in 10 years since Mike Beckles in 1999-00.
Terrance King of East Stroudsburg is the PSAC East Freshman of the Year while Gannon’s Tanner Furno is the PSAC West Freshman of the Year. King’s award is the first major award won by an East Stroudsburg player or coach since the 1999-00 season when Shahad Abdur-Rahkman was also named the PSAC East Rookie of the Year. Furno is Gannon’s first-ever major award winner in the Golden Knights’ second year in the PSAC. Jeff Wilson of East Stroudsburg was named the PSAC East Coach of the Year, his first career honor and giving the Warriors two out of the three major awards in the East. He is the first East Stroudsburg head coach to win East Coach of the Year honors since Lynn Ramage in 1998. Joe Lombardi of IUP has been named the PSAC West Coach of the Year and is the first West Coach of the Year from IUP since Kurt Kanaskie in 1995.
Three different teams led the way with three all-conference selections apiece: Kutztown, Cheyney and IUP. The Golden Bears were led by Dennis and Ryan Washington on the first team and Julius Gray on the second team. Cheyney had Sharif Bray on the first team and both Tyrone Smith and Kevin Presbery on the second team. In the West, IUP had both Young and Darryl Webb on the first team and they were joined by Akida McLain on the second team.
Earlier this season, Dennis became just the 11th player in PSAC history and just the second player in Kutztown history to surpass the 2,000-point mark in his career. Entering this weekend’s NCAA Tournament, Dennis has 2,386 career points, which ranks him third on the PSAC all-time list and with 797 points this year, needs just 49 points to break the PSAC record for points in a single season. Earlier this year, Dennis, who was also the PSAC East Rookie of the Year in 2007, broke the Kutztown school record for career points that had been set just last year by last year’s Player of the Year and former teammate Dave Ben. Dennis owns the top four single-game performances in the PSAC this year for points as he has scored 30 or more points in a game nine times this year, including one game in which he scored 42 points. His Player of the Year award gives Kutztown at least one winner of a major award in each of the last six seasons, either a Player, Freshman or Coach of the Year in each year since 2004-05.
After three straight seasons of having the PSAC West Rookie/Freshman of the Year, IUP produced its first West Player of the Year since 2000 with Young, who coincidentally, was not one of the three previous IUP players to win the Rookie/Freshman of the Year in the last three years. Young is in just his second season with the Crimson Hawks after transferring in from UMBC and he led IUP in scoring this year with 16.7 points per game and is also third on the team in rebounds and third in assists. His play helped the Crimson Hawks win their first PSAC West championship since 2001-02 and their first PSAC tournament championship since 2003-04.
King is the fourth-ever player from East Stroudsburg to win the PSAC East Freshman of the Year. King averaged 8.9 points and 4.6 rebounds this year for the Warriors and ranked fourth in the PSAC in field goal percentage. He was a six-time PSAC East Freshman of the Week, the most selections of any freshman this year.
Furno is Gannon’s first-ever major award winner in this, the Golden Knights second year in the PSAC. He averaged just 5.1 points and 2.6 rebounds for the year but received more playing time down the stretch of the season and was named the PSAC West Freshman of the Week in five out of the final six weeks of the season. He averaged 10.4 points and 4.4 rebounds during the final eight games of the year and for the year, shot 56.7 percent from the floor.
Both division’s all-conference teams featured several first-time honorees and only a few repeat selections. Dennis out of the East is the only four-time all-conference honoree on either team and will end his career as a three-time first team honoree. West Chester’s Ralph Hegamin is the only other repeat first team member from last year. Moving up to the first team this year from the second team last year is Mansfield’s Yuseff Carr and Kutztown’s Ryan Washington. Cheyney Sharif Bray, the second-leading scorer in the PSAC behind Dennis, was also named to the first team. Bray, who did not play basketball for a few seasons prior to this year, was the PSAC West Rookie of the Year and a second team All-PSAC West selection in the 2003-04 while playing for California. Rounding out the first team was East Stroudsburg guard Andy Heimbach, the leading scorer on the co-PSAC East champions who garners his first career all-conference recognition. The East second team was headlined by Cheyney’s Tyrone Smith, who ends his career as a three-time All-PSAC East pick. He was a first team selection last year and a second team pick two years ago. The other five members of the second team were also first-time all-conference honorees - Ruben Britt of Bloomsburg, Ryan Callahan of Mansfield, Julius Gray of Kutztown, Robby Pines of East Stroudsburg and Kevin Presbery of Cheyney. All members of the second team except for Gray are seniors.
There was just one senior on the West first team, that being the Player of the Year in Young, but of the 12 total all-conference selections out of the West that make up the first and second team, only one is a repeat honoree, with the other 11 all earning their first all-conference recognition of their careers. Young was joined on the first team by teammate Darryl Webb, the only repeat selection in the West. Webb was a first team pick last year and a second team pick two years ago as a freshman, when we has also the PSAC West Rookie of the Year. Also making the first team were juniors Maron Brown of Slippery Rock, George Johnson of Gannon and Byron Knight of Edinboro, and sophomore Eric Brennan of Lock Haven. Brown leads the PSAC in rebounding and is one of only two players in the PSAC to average a double-double for the season, with Kutztown’s Washington being the other. The second team featured senior Akida McLain from IUP, as well as juniors Jabril Bailey of Slippery Rock, Jamar Harrison and Lloyd Harrison of Clarion (no relation) and Heiden Ratner of Mercyhurst, and sophomore Kelsey Williams of California.
Wilson is the PSAC East Coach of the Year after guiding the Warriors to a 24-5 overall record this year, a co-PSAC East championship and just the program’s second-ever NCAA Tournament berth and the first since 1989-90. East Stroudsburg also made to the PSAC tournament semifinals for the first time since 1992 and hosted the semifinals of the tournament for the first time in program history. The 24 overall wins is also a school record.
Lombardi is the PSAC West Coach of the Year after helping the Crimson Hawks to a 28-2 overall record this year and a 13-1 mark in the PSAC West as they enter the NCAA Tournament this weekend. The 28 wins is just one win shy of tying the school record of 29 set in 1994-95. IUP has not lost at home this year and will take a 10-game winning streak into the tournament as the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic Region.
2009-10 All-PSAC East Men’s Basketball Team
First Team
Sharif Bray^ Cheyney Jr. Philadelphia, Pa./Central
Yuseff Carr^ Mansfield Jr. New York, N.Y./East NY Transit Tech
Stephen Dennis**^ Kutztown Sr. West Chester, Pa./Henderson
Ralph Hegamin* West Chester Sr. Virginia Beach, Va./Floyd Kellam
Andy Heimbach East Stroudsburg Sr. Allentown, Pa./Central Catholic
Ryan Washington^ Kutztown Jr. Philadelphia, Pa./Wissahickon
Second Team
Ruben Britt Bloomsburg Sr. Voorhees, N.J./Eastern Regional
Ryan Callahan Mansfield Sr. Contoocook, N.H./Wagner
Julius Gray Kutztown Jr. Lincoln University, Pa./Oxford
Robby Pines East Stroudsburg Sr. Telford, Pa./Souderton
Kevin Presbery Cheyney Sr. Philadelphia, Pa./Lackawanna JC
Tyrone Smith*^ Cheyney Sr. Philadelphia, Pa./Simon Gratz
PSAC East Player of the Year
Stephen Dennis Kutztown Sr. West Chester, Pa./Henderson
PSAC East Freshman of the Year
Terrance King East Stroudsburg Fr. Bushkill, Pa./East Stroudsburg North
PSAC East Coach of the Year
Jeff Wilson East Stroudsburg
* Indicates previous All-PSAC first team selection
^ Indicates previous All-PSAC second team selection
2009-10 All-PSAC West Men’s Basketball Team
First Team
Eric Brennan Lock Haven So. Chester, Pa./West Catholic
Maron Brown Slippery Rock Jr. Salisbury, Md./Wicomico
George Johnson Gannon Jr. Arlington, Va./Wakefield
Byron Knight Edinboro Jr. Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills
Darryl Webb*^ IUP Jr. Elkridge, Md./Long Reach
Thomas Young IUP Sr. Philadelphia, Pa./Plymouth-Whitemarsh
Second Team
Jabril Bailey Slippery Rock Jr. New Castle, Del./Delcastle
Jamar Harrison Clarion Jr. Washington, D.C./Dunbar
Lloyd Harrison Clarion Jr. Detroit, Mich./Southwestern
Akida McLain IUP Sr. Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills
Heiden Ratner Mercyhurst Jr. Las Vegas, Nev./Silverado
Kelsey Williams California So. Sandusky, Ohio/Sandusky
PSAC West Player of the Year
Thomas Young IUP Sr. Philadelphia, Pa./Plymouth-Whitemarsh
PSAC West Freshman of the Year
Tanner Furno Gannon Fr. Columbus, Ohio/Whetstone
PSAC West Coach of the Year
Joe Lombardi IUP
* Indicates previous All-PSAC first team selection
^ Indicates previous All-PSAC second team selection