At this point in the season every team has played between 8 and 10 games, which isn’t a particularly large sample size. Well, we decided that the p-value is low enough for us to be able to hand out some awards for what we’ve seen thus far. At the end of the season the NESCAC hands out awards for Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and Coach of the Year. We felt that this simply isn’t enough to recognize all of the talent that is present in NESCAC basketball, so we added 6th Man of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year. We plan on putting out an updated list midway through the season and, of course, at the end of the season as well so stay tuned because we’re in for an action packed season.
Player of the Year
Kena Gilmour ’20 (Hamilton)
19.7PPG, 6.6REB/G, 2.7AST/G, 52.6% FG
Gilmour has been off to an incredibly hot start in his junior campaign after earning Rookie of the Year honors two seasons ago and finding a spot on the all-NESCAC first team last year. He is a true do-it-all player who scores, shares the ball, rebounds, and defends well. Averaging 19.7 points per game is already impressive as it is, but he hasn’t even played full minutes in a number of their matchups given that they’ve been blowing teams out. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see his scoring numbers actually increase come conference play. What really stands out is that he’s shooting over 50% from the field, proving that he’s an efficient scorer who has the awareness to take good shots and not force anything despite being the team’s best player. He’s certainly aided by the fact that the Continentals have so many other threats, but the 6’4” guard is already looking like a very strong candidate for POY honors.
Defensive Player of the Year
Matt Folger ’20 (Middlebury)
9.9REB/G, 2.1BLK/G, 0.9STL/G
He’s no slouch on the offensive end either, but Folger has really been making a name for himself on the other end of the court. In the NESCAC, guys who are 6’8” and 210 pounds are almost always going to be big men so Folger has a huge advantage given that he plays as a wing. He possesses the size to defend NESCAC bigs but he has the quickness and athleticism to defend guards as well. It also doesn’t hurt that the Panthers have an outstanding true big man in Eric McCord, so Folger has been able to play mostly around the perimeter. This is a huge reason for why he is tied for the league lead in blocks per game – he’s almost always defending someone 2 to 5 inches shorter than him. This allows him to often get a hand on jump shots when he’s closing out on a shooter. Folger consistently causes problems for whomever he is defending, so opponents beware and try not to get distracted by that outrageous moustache.
Rookie of the Year
Noah Tyson ’22 (Colby)
11.8PPG, 8.6REB/G, 2.6AST/G, 0.5TO/G
At this point in the season, this was the easiest award to pick. The former Mr. Basketball in Vermont has really been making a name for himself during his first season in Waterville. His scoring numbers have been good, but the 6’2” guard has been hauling in rebounds like it’s his job. His 8.6 rebounds per game is good for 8thin the NESCAC, but each of the 7 guys ahead of him on the leaderboard are over 6’4” so you can see that Tyson is a next level athlete. Perhaps the most promising feature of Tyson’s game is that he’s very sure-handed with the ball. The freshman is averaging a miniscule 0.5 turnovers per game, giving him the 3rdhighest assist-to-turnover ratio (5.2) in the league. He has all the tools to become a star, so keep an eye on the standout youngster to see if he can continue this blistering pace as we start to move into conference play.
Side note: Apologies for using this photo of Tyson from last year, but Colby hasn’t uploaded their headshots for basketball season yet so it’s the best we could do.
6th Man of the Year
Max Bosco ’21 (Middlebury)
15.3PPG, 2.9AST/G, 48.2% FG
Here’s another early award that was frankly a no-brainer. Bosco has been easily the most effective 6thman in the league, putting up an impressive 15.3 points while playing just 21.6 minutes per game. He is the perfect complement to Middlebury’s top offensive threats – Matt Folger and Jack Farrell – because it allows the Panthers to take one of those two off the court and without sacrificing any offensive production. Bosco is a guy that is easy to lose track of, but if you do then he’ll make you pay. He’s capable of knocking down threes with his quick release, but he can also put the ball on the floor and get to the rim if you close out too hard. This guy is exactly what the Panthers could ask for in a 6thman and the rest of the league should be on notice – don’t forget about Max Bosco.
Comeback Player of the Year
Kyle Scadlock ’19 (Williams)
14.4PPG, 9.2REB/G, 2.3AST/G, 63.2% FG
Not only is Scadlock a lock to win comeback player of the year, but he’s also a very serious contender for player of the year. The senior currently falls at 16thin the NESCAC in points per game, however he’s doing that while taking nearly half as many shots per game as the first 15 guys on the list. Shooting 60% over the course of an entire season seems impossible, but Scadlock has been getting great looks because of how many other weapons are in this Eph lineup. Scadlock has also been a rebounding machine thus far, but this also isn’t too much of a surprise given that he’s 6’7” and is almost always the most athletic guy on the court. Williams has also played a relatively easy schedule to this point so they haven’t needed any serious late-game leadership that a guy like Scadlock can bring. I wouldn’t be surprised to see his scoring totals actually start to increase once they start facing more talented teams.
Coach of the Year
Damien Strahorn (Colby)
This is probably the toughest award to give out this early in the season since each team has played a vastly different schedule to date. That said, Strahorn is doing an excellent job with the guys he has to come up with a winning formula. He has the Mules off to an 8-2 start while scoring the 3rdmost points per game in the conference, behind only Williams and Hamilton who currently sit at #2 and #4 in the national rankings. They also lead the league in assists per game and are doing a very respectable job rebounding given their lack of a true big man. On the other end Colby forces a ton of turnovers and are very pesky defensively, which is exactly how they need to play with their size disparity. If he can keep the Mules as hot as they have been to flip the script from last season’s 10thplace finish, Strahorn will be on his way to earning coach of the year honors.