Sharry of Middlebury Named Player of the Year

HADLEY, Mass. – Senior forward Ryan Sharry (Braintree, Mass.) of Middlebury has been chosen by the conference coaches as the NESCAC Player of the Year. Sharry's final season with the Panthers has proven to be his finest, as he has helped his squad achieve a 24-3 mark heading into this weekend's NCAA Tournament action. He is the second Middlebury player to be selected as Player of the Year, as Ben Rudin took home the league's top honor in 2009.

Sharry, who missed the first five games of the season due to injury, is one of only two players in the NESCAC averaging a double-double with a league-leading and career-high 19.8 points per game - over six points higher than his average scoring total from 2010-11 - along with 10.3 rebounds per game, second in the conference. He has paced the Panthers in scoring in 15 of the 22 games he has appeared in, including a remarkable 41 points in a 123-111 victory at Rensselaer on Jan. 3, the most points by a conference player in a single game in over eight years. Sharry is one of the most accurate shooters in the country, hitting nearly 63 percent of his shots. As good as he has been on the offensive end, Sharry has made key contributions to the Middlebury defense with 7.36 rebounds on the defensive glass and a conference-best 2.0 blocks per game. In addition to being named Player of the Year, Sharry collected All-NESCAC accolades for the third consecutive season with his second-straight appointment to the First Team. On Tuesday, Sharry was named as one of 10 finalists for the Jostens Trophy, given annually to a player who excels on the floor, in the classroom, and in the community.

Also from Middlebury on the All-Conference First Team was sophomore Joey Kizel (Short Hills, N.J.). Second only to Sharry in scoring for the Panthers, Kizel's 13.9 points per game puts him ninth overall in the NESCAC. The sophomore guard is also among the league's best in shooting, having made .537 percent of his shots (6th NESCAC), including a .528 mark from long range (1st), and a conference-best .906 percentage at the foul line. His ability to manage the ball has played a big part in Middlebury's success, as he has averaged 3.93 assists per game with a 2.30 assist-to-turnover ratio.

After becoming the first Polar Bear in 16 years to average a double-double in a single season last winter, Will Hanley (New Canaan, Conn.) put on an encore performance in his final campaign at Bowdoin. Hanley, who joined Middlebury's Sharry as the only other player to return from the 2011 First Team, posted 16 double-doubles in 25 games and finished second in scoring at 18.4 points per game and first in rebounds with 11.4 boards. Playing nearly 34 minutes per game, Hanley hit .565 percent of his shots, good enough for fifth among all players.

Wesleyan junior Shasha Brown (Harlem, N.Y.) garnered All-NESCAC First Team honors for the first time in his career a year after being named a member of the Second Team. The Cardinals' leading scorer for the third consecutive season, Brown averaged 17.1 points and finished among the top five players in the conference in the category. The 2010 Rookie of the Year made a career-best .505 percent of his shots and added in 4.32 assists per outing.

Sophomore Aaron Toomey (Greensboro, N.C.) of Amherst completes the 2012 All-Conference First Team. Toomey, last year's NESCAC Rookie of the Year, led the Lord Jeffs to an undefeated mark in league play and their first conference crown since 2006 this winter while averaging a team-leading 17.1 points per game, a figure that ties him with Wesleyan's Brown for fourth, along with 4.88 assists and 1.77 steals per game. The sophomore guard currently sits just behind Kizel of Middlebury for the best free throw percentage in the conference with a .904 accuracy rate.

Tufts guard Ben Ferris (Essex, Vt.) was singled out as the conference's Rookie of the Year. Appearing in 24 games for the Jumbos this season, the leading freshman player in the NESCAC was fourth on his squad in scoring with 9.6 points per game, as he hit .444 percent of his attempts and connected on .412 percent of shots from long range. He also averaged 5.1 rebounds per game.

Defensive Player of the Year went to Amherst junior Willy Workman (Northampton, Mass.) Workman, who was also honored on the All-NESCAC Second Team, has been a key component on the Lord Jeff defense in multiple roles. Among conference players, Workman is second in steals per game with 1.81, fourth in blocks at 1.07, and seventh in defensive rebounds with 4.89, as 75 percent of his boards have come on the defensive glass. He's also chipped in on the offensive end, scoring a career-high 11.7 points per game.

Middlebury head coach Jeff Brown was the choice among his peers, garnering Coach of the Year for the third time in the last four years. In his 15th season with the Panthers and 18th in the NESCAC, Brown's squad opened the season with a program-record 18-straight victories and reached the NESCAC final for the fourth year in a row. The Panthers will make their fifth NCAA Tournament appearance this weekend, all coming in the last five years.