UL Lafayette’s Long Named Student-Athlete of the Year, Little Rock’s Beard Makes History
NEW ORLEANS – Little Rock’s Chris Beard became just the second first-year Division I head coach in Sun Belt Conference history to earn the Coach of the Year award while the all-time career rebounding record holder, UL Lafayette junior Shawn Long, earned the Student-Athlete of the Year honor.
Voting of the Preseason Sun Belt All-Conference Team and Preseason Poll was conducted by the league’s 11 head coaches along with a selected media panel.
UL Monroe senior Justin Roberson earned the Defensive Student-Athlete of the Year award while Georgia Southern guard Tookie Brown was named the Freshman of the Year. Roberson is the first student-athlete in UL Monroe men’s basketball history to earn a Sun Belt Conference individual honor.
Long earned the Student-Athlete of the Year award following a stellar senior season to cap one of the most prolific careers in Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball history. Long led the league in rebounding (12.9 rpg), blocked shots per game (1.8), offensive rebounds (123 total/4.2 rpg), defensive rebounds (251 total/8.7 rpg) and was second in scoring (18.8 ppg) and fifth in field goal percentage (.514) this season. The senior has recorded 21 double-doubles, increasing his career total to 73 for the most by an active Division I student-athlete and 14th overall in NCAA history. Long is the UL Lafayette school record holder in blocked shots and ranks third in league history in blocked shots (264). He is four points away from becoming one of just seven student-athletes in NCAA history to reach 2,250 points and 1,400 rebounds in his career. Long has scored 20 or more points in 14 games this season, including nine games with at least 20 points and 15 rebounds.
Beard is just the second head coach in league history to earn the Joe Gottfried Coach of the Year award in his first season as a Division I head coach. The only other head coach to accomplish the feat is former Louisiana Tech head coach Keith Richard, the current head coach at UL Monroe, in the 1998-99 season. The Trojans clinched the regular-season title two weeks ago, the first outright Sun Belt title in school history. Beard led Little Rock to the nation’s best record and winning percentage. He is the only coach to lead his team to a Top 15 winning percentage in his first year as a Division I head coach that inherited a sub-.500 team from the previous year. The plus-14 win turnaround is the second best mark in the country this year and is tied for the best in Sun Belt Conference history. The Trojans’ 10-0 start to the season set new program and Sun Belt Conference records for consecutive wins to start a season.
Roberson was UL Monroe’s shutdown defender this season. Tasked with guarding the opposing team’s best guard, Roberson finished the year ranked fourth in the league in steals at 1.5 per game. The senior’s scoring also improved this season as he scored at least 20 points in nine games of a 10-game span. He is shooting .420 from three-point range and has reached double-figures in scoring 22 times this year.
Brown has set Georgia Southern freshman records for scoring (536 points) and points in a game (34, at Appalachian State on Jan. 25) during a stellar first season. He finished the year averaging 17.6 points per game to rank fourth in the league, 3.4 assists per game (seventh) and 1.7 steals per game (second). He is eighth among freshmen in NCAA Division I in scoring this season. He reached double figures in 26 straight games and 28 of 30 overall this season and has scored 20-plus points 11 times.
Long earned First Team All-Conference honors for a third consecutive year and was joined on the team by Brown, Little Rock senior Josh Hagins, UL Monroe senior Majok Deng and UT Arlington sophomore Erick Neal. Brown is the first freshman to be named a first team honoree since 2011-12 and just the fourth in the 40-year history of the league. It is also just the second time in the last 13 years the first team has featured two underclassmen.
Hagins, a second straight all-conference honoree, helped lead Little Rock to its first-ever outright Sun Belt Conference title. He was 15th in scoring (13.0 ppg), fourth in assists (4.7 apg), sixth in steals (1.4 spg) and tied for the league lead in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.8). He scored in double figures 24 times this season and was named the Sun Belt Student-Athlete of the Week after nearly posting the first triple-double in school history in a win at Tulsa (Nov. 28) after totaling 17 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.
Deng led the league in scoring at 18.9 points per game this season. He has scored at least 13 points in 21 of his last 23 games to close the regular season. He finished third in blocked shots (1.7 bpg), seventh in rebounding (7.1 rpg) and 10th in field goal percentage (.478). Deng ranks fifth all-time in career blocks at ULM with 99 in two seasons. He’s notched 24 double-figure scoring games and six double-doubles this year while leading the Warhawks to a second-place finish in the league standings.
Neal led the Sun Belt in assists this season at 6.2 per game and tied for the league lead in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.8. He also finished the year 14th in scoring at 13.0 points per game, 3rd in steals at 1.5 per game and eighth in 3-point field goals made at 2.1 per game this season. Neal notched the first triple-double in school history with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists at UL Monroe on Jan. 28, and recorded a double-double (20 points and 10 assists) against Bradley. Neal is fifth on UTA’s single-season assist list with 160. He has scored in double figures 21 times, including five games of at least 20, and has dished out at least five assists in 22 games.
The 2016 Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Championship begins on Thursday, Mar. 10, at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, La. The top eight teams in the regular season standings are set to compete for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. All games of the tournament will be televised by ESPN3 and available on the WatchESPN app with the championship game set for a Noon C.T. tip on Selection Sunday, Mar. 13, and an ESPN2 broadcast.
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First Team All-Conference
Tookie Brown (Georgia Southern, Freshman, G, Undeclared)
Josh Hagins (Little Rock, Senior, G, Health Science)
Shawn Long (UL Lafayette, Senior, F, General Studies)
Majok Deng (UL Monroe, Senior, F, General Studies)
Erick Neal (UT Arlington, Sophomore, G, Broadcast Communications)
Second Team All-Conference
Frank Eaves (Appalachian State, Senior, G, Management)
Anthony Livingston (Arkansas State, Junior, F, Interdisciplinary Studies)
Marcus Johnson Jr. (Little Rock, Junior, G, Criminal Justice)
Justin Roberson (UL Monroe, Senior, G, General Studies)
Wesley Person (Troy, Sophomore, G, Global Business)
Third Team All-Conference
Devin Carter (Arkansas State, Junior, G, Interdisciplinary Studies)
Mike Hughes (Georgia Southern, Sophomore, G, Sport Management)
Roger Woods (Little Rock, Senior, F, Criminal Justice)
Ken Williams (South Alabama, Junior, G, Interdisciplinary Studies)
Emani Gant (Texas State, Senior, F, General Studies)
Student-Athlete of the Year
Shawn Long (UL Lafayette, Sr., F/C, General Studies)
Defensive Student-Athlete of the Year
Justin Roberson (UL Monroe, Senior, G, General Studies)
Freshman of the Year
Tookie Brown (Georgia Southern, Freshman, G, Undeclared)
Joe Gottfried Coach of the Year
Chris Beard, Little Rock