Men's Basketball Weekly Honors - Jan. 19
Rob Washburn
CAA MEN'S BASKETBALL WEEKLY REPORT - JAN. 19 (PDF format)
PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Addison Spruill • UNCW
Sr., G, 6-4, 225 - Currie, N.C./Pender
Spruill averaged 28.0 points and 7.0 rebounds as UNCW split a pair of difficult road games. The senior guard poured in a career-high 33 points on 12-of-16 FG shooting and grabbed eight rebounds in a 76-72 setback at William & Mary and scored a team-best 23 points with six boards in a 79-74 victory at Hofstra. For the week, Spruill shot 62.5% from the floor, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range, and was a perfect 11-for-11 at the free throw line. He’s scored double figures in 10 straight games and is averaging 18.3 ppg in CAA play.
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK:
Tyshawn Myles • Drexel
Fr., F, 6-8, 245 - Queens, N.Y./Washington Hts. Learning School
Myles came off the bench to record a double-double with career-highs of 11 points and 11 rebounds in Drexel’s 66-62 victory at Delaware on Saturday. The freshman forward entered the game with no points and four rebounds in 19 minutes over his first five CAA contests, but connected on 5-of-8 shots from the floor and grabbed six of his 11 boards on the offensive end while playing a career-high 26 minutes.
CONFERENCE NOTES:
TIGHT RACE ATOP CAA STANDINGS: The top five teams in the CAA standings are separated by just one game at the one-third mark of the conference race. Northeastern, which is on a four-game winning streak, and William & Mary, which has won three in a row, are tied for first at 5-1. Sitting just a game back at 4-2 are Hofstra, which has won six of eight, James Madison, which went 2-0 last week, and UNCW, which is off to its best league start since 2005-06. The CAA is one of five Division I conferences (Pac 12, Patriot, Summit and Sun Belt) in which all teams have at least one win and one loss in conference play.
ROAD TEAMS ARE 17-13 IN CAA PLAY: Road teams are a combined 17-13 in CAA play this season. Visitors have gone 3-2 on five of the six conference play dates, with the exception being Jan. 14-15 when home teams were 3-2. Six squads have winning records in league road games and nine of the 10 teams have won at least one conference road contest. Last season, home teams went 44-28 (61.1%) in CAA play.
HOFSTRA, NORTHEASTERN AMONG BEST ON ROAD: Hofstra (7-4) is tied with Gonzaga (7-1) for the most true road wins in Division I this season. Northeastern is tied for third nationally with six road victories (6-3).
YOUTH MOVEMENT: There are only six seniors among the CAA’s top 30 in scoring, six seniors among the league’s top 20 in rebounding and four seniors among the top 15 in assists. Through games of Jan. 18, there were 12 juniors, 10 sophomores and two freshmen on the list of top 30 scorers, while there were nine juniors, four sophomores and one freshman on the list of top 20 rebounders.
CLIMBING THE 3-POINT LISTS: Three CAA players are climbing the career three-point lists at their respective schools. Delaware senior guard Kyle Anderson became the Blue Hens’ all-time three-pointer leader (239) on Jan. 5, passing Mike Ames (228). William & Mary senior guard Marcus Thornton hit four threes in a win at Towson last Saturday to tie David Schneider for the most treys in Tribe history with 278. That total is also tied for 8th in CAA history. Elon junior guard Tanner Samson moved into fifth place on Elon’s career 3-pointers list with 200 after hitting five at JMU last Saturday. He needs four to pass Scottie Rice (204) for fourth place.
W&M’S THORNTON ON NATIONAL TOP 10 LISTS: William & Mary senior guard Marcus Thornton ranks fourth among active Division I players in career 3-pointers made (278) and he’s seventh in career scoring (1,853 points). The CAA preseason Player of the Year ranks second in the CAA in scoring (19.6 ppg) this season and has hit 55 treys. He also ranks fourth on W&M’s all-time scoring list.
HOFSTRA’S GREEN LEADS NATION IN MADE FREE THROWS: Hofstra junior guard Juan’ya Green has made 134 free throws this season, which is the most of any player in Division I. BYU’s Tyler Haws is second with 128. Green also ranks second in free throws attempted (161), trailing only Gardner-Webb’s Jerome Hill (176). He’s shooting an impressive 83.2% from the charity stripe.
CAA TEAMS AMONG NATIONAL STATS LEADERS: Several CAA teams are ranked nationally in various statistical categories through games of Jan. 18. Hofstra is 9th (9.2 pg) and William & Mary is 18th (8.8 pg) in 3-pointers per game, while the Tribe is 10th (40.7%), the Pride is 31st (39.1%) and Northeastern is 34th (39%) in 3-point FG percentage. Hofstra is also 17th in scoring offense (79.1 ppg). Towson ranks 16th in rebound margin (+8.1 rpg) and W&M is 22nd in FG percentage (48.7%).
MCGLYNN RANKS 2ND NATIONALLY IN FT PERCENTAGE: Towson junior guard Four McGlynn is an incredible 73-of-78 (93.6%) at the charity stripe, which currently ranks second in the nation. Last season, McGlynn led the CAA and ranked sixth nationally in free throw percentage at 91.3%. Northeastern junior David Walker is shooting 90% (45-of-50) from the line and ranks 13th in Division I.
THREE CAA PLAYERS AMONG TOP 32 IN SCORING: Three CAA players are among the nation’s top 32 in scoring through games of Jan. 18. Drexel junior guard Damion Lee is ranked 15th with 20.2 ppg, W&M’s Marcus Thornton is 22nd with 19.6 ppg and Hofstra’s Ameen Tanksley is 32nd with 18.9 ppg. Thornton has scored double figures in 23 consecutive games, Tanksley has hit double digits in 19 straight and Lee has a 14-game streak.
3-POINT THREATS: The CAA features several of the nation’s top three-point threats this season. W&M senior Marcus Thornton is 9th in 3’s per game (3.24) and 13th in 3-pt percentage (46.2%). Hofstra junior Ameen Tanksley ranks 5th in 3-point percentage (49.1%), while Pride sophomore Brian Bernardi is 25th in 3’s per game (2.95) and 14th in 3-pt percentage (45.9%). Elon junior Tanner Samson is 12th in 3’s per game (3.21).
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