PRINCETON, N.J. -- The 2011-12 postseason
awards for Ivy League men's basketball are packed with multiple
honors for multiple previous honorees, highlighted by Penn senior
guard Zack Rosen as the unanimous choice for
Player of the Year and first-team All-Ivy as voted on by the
League's head coaches.
Rosen (Colonia, N.J.) is just the fourth player to receive the
Ivy League Player of the Year honor in a unanimous vote since the
1999-2000 season, following Penn's Michael Jordan
in 1999-2000 and Ibrahim Jaaber in 2005-06 and
Cornell's Ryan Wittman in 2009-10. He is the 16th
Quaker to be named Player of the Year and the first since Jaaber
won the award in back-to-back seasons in 2005-06 and 2006-07.
The three-time, first-team All-Ivy selection finished the
regular season leading the Ivy League in scoring in conference
games, averaging 18.6 points per game, for the second-straight
year. He also led in minutes played per game (38.1) and was second
in three-point field goal percentage (.392) and three-point field
goals per game (2.2), third in free-throw percentage (.886), sixth
in assists per game (3.8) and steals per game (1.5), and ninth in
assist/turnover ratio (1.39).
Rosen set Penn all-time records for assists and minutes played
this season and is tied for the program record with 113 career
starts. He is one assist shy of the school's single-season record
with 161 and his 18.5 scoring average is the best by a Quaker since
Hassan Duncombe averaged 19.1 ppg in 1989-90.
A pesky presence on the defensive end all season, Yale senior
guard/forward Reggie Willhite (Elk Grove, Calif.)
was tabbed Defensive Player of the Year. Willhite is Yale's first
Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year since the award was
instituted for the 2008-09 season. He led the League in steals (2.3
per game in all games and 2.1 in Ivy games). His 63 steals broke
the Bulldogs' single-season record previously set by Alex
Zampier in 2009-10.
Willhite, who was also named second-team All-Ivy, was among the
League leaders in points (seventh at 12.2 per game) and rebounds
(eighth at 6.1 per game). The majority of his boards came off the
defensive glass, averaging 4.6 per game.
Continuing a Cornell tradition of recent years, Big Red freshman
forward Shonn Miller (Euclid, Ohio) was named
Rookie of the Year. Miller is the seventh Cornellian to take home
Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors and the fourth in the last
seven years. He established new school freshman records for
rebounds (170) and blocked shots (46) while taking home the
conference's Rookie of the Week honor five times.
Miller ranked among the top 10 freshman scorers in school history
with 250 points. He ranked eighth in the Ivy League in rebounding
and steals and was second in blocks. Miller ended the season
averaging 8.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.3 steals per
game while starting in 21 of the team's 28 contests.
Interestingly, the previous three Rookies of the Year were among
this year's award winners, led by Cornell senior guard
Chris Wroblewski (2008-09 Rookie of the Year) and
Harvard junior forward Kyle Casey (2009-10 Rookie
of the Year) who join Rosen, Princeton junior forward Ian
Hummer, Yale senior center Greg Mangano
and Columbia junior guard Brian Barbour on the
All-Ivy first team.
Wroblewski (Highland Park, Ill.) capped his career with his
first first-team nod to go along with a pair of Ivy League titles
and a NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance. The two-time Capital One
Academic All-American and three-year starter finished as the
school's all-time career leader in assists (482) and a 1,000-point
scorer (1,202 points, 13th player all-time in Cornell history).
This season, he led the Big Red in scoring (11.5 ppg) and was third
in the Ivy League in assists (5.3 apg) and second in steals (1.6
spg).
Casey (Medway, Mass.) led Harvard in scoring (11.7 ppg) in
conference play and paces the Crimson's offense overall at 11.3
ppg. The starter in all 30 games this season reached double digits
in scoring in 17 contests and is second on the team in rebounding
at 5.5 per game. With 35 blocks during his junior campaign, he sits
fifth in program history with 90 rejections.
Hummer (Vienna, Va.), the only other unanimous first-team
selection, completed the regular season leading Princeton in
scoring at 16.1 points per game, good for third in the Ivy League,
and rebounding at 7.3 boards per game. He also led the team in
blocks, was second in steals and assists and hit 46.8 percent of
his shots. A second-team pick a year ago, Hummer added three-point
shooting to his repertoire this year and hit 32.8 percent of those
tries (19-of-58).
Mangano (Orange, Conn.) grabbed first-team accolades for a
second-straight season, becoming just the seventh player in Yale
history and the first since Paul Maley in 1987 and
1988 to earn multiple first-team All-Ivy selections. Mangano topped
the League in rebounding (9.7 rpg) and blocks (64) and was second
in scoring (18.2 ppg). He recorded 14 double-doubles and scored at
least 20 points in a game 14 times as well.
Barbour (Alamo, Calif.) led the Ivy League in assists (5.6
assists per game) and was second in scoring (16.9 points per game)
during League games. For the season, he averaged 15.5 points and
4.3 assists in 30 games. Barbour scored in double figures 24 times
this season, topped 20 points 10 different times and established
new career highs in points and assists in a game.
Brown sophomore guard Sean McGonagill
(Brookfield, Ill.) was the third previous Rookie of the Year winner
(2010-11) to receive recognition, garnering a spot on the All-Ivy
second team with the Harvard duo of senior forward Keith
Wright (Suffolk, Va.), the 2010-11 Ivy League Player of
the Year, and junior guard Brandyn Curry
(Huntersville, N.C.) and Princeton senior guard Douglas
Davis (Philadelphia).
Player of the
Year
*Zack Rosen, Penn (Sr., G, Colonia, N.J.)
Rookie of the
Year
Shonn Miller, Cornell (Fr., F, Euclid, Ohio)
Defensive Player
of the Year
Reggie Willhite, Yale (Sr., G/F, Elk Grove, Calif.)
First Team
All-Ivy^
Brian Barbour, Columbia (Jr., G, Alamo, Calif.)
Chris Wroblewski, Cornell (Sr., G, Highland Park, Ill.)
Kyle Casey, Harvard (Jr., F, Medway, Mass.)
*Zack Rosen, Penn (Sr., G, Colonia, N.J.)
*Ian Hummer, Princeton (Jr., F, Vienna, Va.)
Greg Mangano, Yale (Sr., C, Orange, Conn.)
Second Team
All-Ivy
Sean McGonagill, Brown (So., G, Brookfield, Ill.)
Brandyn Curry, Harvard (Jr., G, Huntersville, N.C.)
Keith Wright, Harvard (Sr., F, Suffolk, Va.)
Douglas Davis, Princeton (Sr., G, Philadelphia)
Reggie Willhite, Yale (Sr., G/F, Elk Grove, Calif.)
Honorable
Mention All-Ivy
Johnathan Gray, Cornell (Jr., G, Tampa, Fla.)
Rob Belcore, Penn (Sr., G, Lake Forest, Ill.)
* Unanimous Selection
^ Expanded to six players due to a tie in voting