Jones, Momoh, Sellers Earn NEC Major Awards; Haid, Smith, Jr. Named All-NEC
Jordan Jones became the sixth Central Connecticut men's basketball player to be named the Northeast Conference Player of the Year, while Abdul Momoh earned Defensive Player of the Year and Patrick Sellers earned Jim Phelan Coach of the Year it was announced Tuesday. Devin Haid and Darin Smith, Jr. also earned All-Northeast Conference recognition it was announced on the eve of the league tournament tipping off on Wednesday night.
Jones is the program's sixth NEC Player of the Year and its first since Ken Horton in 2010-11. In his second season at CCSU, Jones became a two-time All-NEC performer earning a spot on the First Team. He was named Player of the Week three times, while averaging 14.4 points, 3.6 assists and 3.3 rebounds. He was among the league's statistical top-10 in seven categories, while leading CCSU in scoring in 12 games. He opened the season with 21 points at Providence, which was the first of his six 20-point games during the season. In conference play, Jones was even better, averaging 16.3 points, 3.6 assists and 3.3 rebounds, while shooting 54 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from beyond the arc.
Momoh became the first Blue Devil named Defensive Player of the Year since Tristan Blackwood won back-to-back honors in 2007-08. The 6-foot-7 senior was also named Third Team All-NEC. Momoh led the conference with 1.6 blocks per game, while ranking sixth in rebounding (6.0). He had a personal-best with six rejections against SFU on Feb. 15 and currently ranks 7th all-time at CCSU with 112 career blocked shots. He played a career-high 25.1 minutes per game and did not foul out of a contest. He averaged 9.0 points per game, while ranking second in the league with a .599 shooting percentage. In the season's first matchup with Le Moyne he posted 14 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high three assists.
In his fourth season at the helm of the Blue Devils, Sellers became just the sixth honoree in league history to earn back-to-back Coach of the Year honors. Sellers guided Central to a historic campaign, winning its second straight NEC regular season crown enroute to posting consecutive 20-win campaigns for the first time in the program's Division I history (since 1986-87). At 23-6, CCSU currently holds the nation's longest active win streak at 12 games. With a 14-2 mark in league play, the Blue Devils earned the tournament's top seed for the fifth time in the program's history and will be looking for its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2007.
Haid earned Second Team All-NEC honors in his first season with the Blue Devils. A four-time Player of the Week, the junior guard averaged 13.7 points, and 5.7 rebounds to go with 60 assists and 44 steals. He ranks among the league's top-10 in scoring (7th) and rebounding (8th), as well as, free throw percentage (4th, .849), field goal percentage (5th, .488) and steals (6th, 1.5). He topped 20 points in six contests, including a career-high 25 points against FDU on Feb. 6. He posted a pair of double-doubles, including a 24-point, 12-rebound outing at Rhode Island. He was named Player of the Week in three straight weeks from Dec. 9-23 when he was also named a Oscar Robertson National Players of the Week by the USBWA on Dec. 10.
Smith, Jr. earned a spot on the All-Rookie Team, becoming the first CCSU honoree on the squad since 2021-22. A four-time league Rookie of the Week, Smith led the circuit in three-point accuracy (.452) and posted 7.1 points and 3.0 rebounds in his first campaign. He scored a career-high 23 points and hit six three-pointers against Vermont State Johnson, becoming the first CCSU freshman to post a 20-point game since Myles Baker on Feb. 20, 2020. He connected on three three-pointers in four conference contests, while closing the regular-season with 12 points and a career-high seven rebounds in Central's win at Wagner.
The top-seeded Blue Devils open the NEC Tournament against Le Moyne on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in New Britain. Tickets are available online at CCSUBlueDevils.com/ccsutickets.
