Reigning CAA Basketball Players of the Year Tyler Tejada, Taryn Barbot Return

Reigning CAA Basketball Players of the Year Tyler Tejada, Taryn Barbot Return

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Dylan Smith, Ben Kane

RICHMOND, Va. – After incredible 2024-25 campaigns, the Coastal Athletic Association is eager to begin the upcoming season with both of its reigning Player of the Year honorees returning to their respective institutions as Towson’s Tyler Tejada and Charleston’s Taryn Barbot look to defend their major awards in 2025-26.
 
Tejada and Barbot are one of two pairs in NCAA Division I to earn conference Player of the Year honors last season and return to the same school for the upcoming campaign. The CAA’s top duo joins the Big Ten’s leading pairing: Purdue’s Braden Smith and USC’s JuJu Watkins. Tejada and Barbot were both selected as the league’s Preseason Player of the Year entering the 2025-26 campaign.
 
Tejada became the first sophomore since George Mason’s George Evans in 1999 to nab CAA Player of the Year honors. The junior wing helped the Tigers log their fourth-straight 20-win season while matching the league record with 16 conference victories. Tejada registered double figures in 25 of his 27 appearances last season, including all 18 conference games. He also produced eight 20-point efforts and featured a career-high 30 points against Robert Morris.
 
“It means a lot to me and is definitely a really great feeling to be selected,” Tejada said about being recognized with the league’s top honor.
 
The Teaneck, N.J., native blossomed in league action, averaging 16.8 points on 43.7 percent shooting, while sinking 2.0 triples per contest and shooting 82.5 percent from the free throw line. Tejada was also named a finalist for CollegeInsider.com’s Lou Henson Award, given to the top player at the mid-major level. Towson will start the 2025-26 season ranked No. 7 in the Field of 68’s Preseason Mid-Major Top 25, the highest of all CAA schools.
 
“He’s totally changed his body [entering this season] and he’s moving really well,” Towson Head Coach Pat Skerry said during the Field of 68’s CAA Preview show. “He’s 1000% not a defensive liability anymore or a guy we’re worried about hiding anymore and has improved tremendously on that side of the court. He lives it. He’s in at 6:30 in the morning and he’s back at nine at night. Him and Dylan Williamson work out together all the time, so it sets the standards of what habits need to be. It makes it pretty easy when two guys work really well together like that.”
 
In just two seasons, Charleston’s Taryn Barbot has taken the Cougars and the CAA by storm. After earning the program’s first Rookie of the Year honor in 2023-24, the Floral Park, N.Y., native made history again as Charleston’s first CAA Player of the Year in 2024-25. The junior notched 17.7 points per game, alongside 7.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists en route to her major award last season. The All-CAA First Team selection and All-CAA Defensive Team honoree picked up three conference Player of the Week honors for her dominance.
 
“It means a lot because I’ve been working a lot to get Preseason Player of the Year again,” Barbot said. “My freshman year, I had the goal to come here and make a real impact on the program. I feel like I have shown through my work last year to get it too.”
 
Barbot reached double figures in scoring across 27 games last season, including 12 with 20 or more points, six of which came in March. The Cougars’ leading scorer opened the month with a historic 40-point showing in the squad’s season finale against UNCW, tying the program’s benchmark and becoming just the second player in team history to accomplish the feat. Barbot also eclipsed 1,000 career points during the Cougars’ WNIT run and became the fastest player - man or woman - in school history to reach the milestone.
 
“She loves the game,” said Charleston Head Coach Robin Harmony. “She doesn’t take a break. If she does something she’s not supposed to do, you can just tell her ‘Hey, [Players of the Year] don’t do that,’ and she’ll respond with, ‘I got you, Coach.’”
 
Barbot and the Cougars open the 2025-26 season on Monday, Nov. 3, when they take on Covenant College inside TD Arena at 4 p.m. Tejada and Towson will look to close out Opening Night festivities on Nov. 3 when they square off with Loyola (Md.) at 9 p.m. from CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore.
 
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