HARTFORD, Conn. – UConn might be the No. 6 seed in the American Athletic Conference championship tournament, but the Huskies certainly are walking away from the XL Center this week with plenty of hardware and awards.
Before the games began Thursday, UConn players won two of the four major individual awards handed out by the conference. Freshman swingman Daniel Hamilton, second in the AAC in rebounding, was named AAC Rookie of the Year. And reserve guard Pat Lenehan was honored as the AAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
In addition to those awards, Temple coach Fran Dunphy was named Coach of the Year and SMU guard Nic Moore was named Player of the Year. All awards were decided by a vote of the league’s 11 coaches.
Winning the postseason award was especially gratifying for Hamilton after he also won the conference’s preseason rookie honors. The 6-7 guard/forward averaged 10.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists, showed his versatility by playing several positions, including power forward late in the season. Hamilton ranks second in the AAC in rebounding and ninth in assists. He was the only player in the conference’s top 10 in both categories.
“This award means a lot,” Hamilton said. “There were a lot of expectations coming in [to the season]. But when you have coaches believing in you and teammates believing in you, it’s not that tough. Everybody is trusting in you.”
UConn’s Daniel Hamilton accepts AAC Rookie of the Year award from AAC commissioner Mike Aresco (Ken Davis photo) During his acceptance speech, Hamilton thanked the UConn coaches and the team managers for “rebounding for me at night.”
“I want to thank Coach [Kevin] Ollie for being a mentor, a coach, another dad,” Hamilton said. I can talk to him about anything.”
UPDATE: Hamilton kept his late season surge going Thursday in UConn’s 69-43 rout of USF. Hamilton led UConn with 20 points on 6 of 8 shooting, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range. He had two rebounds and three assists in 32 minutes.
Hamilton is one of only two freshmen in UConn history to score 300 points (324), grab 200 rebounds (228) and hand out 100 assists (109). The other is Nadav Henefeld in 1989-90. Henefeld had 429 points, 208 rebounds and 106 assists.
There’s no doubt Hamilton matured as the season went along. He said he was most pleased that he cut down his turnovers and made better decisions at the end of the season. He thanked senior guard Ryan Boatright for teaching him about leadership and doing things to help his teammates – such as returning to Gampel Pavilion for late-night shooting exercises.
With Boatright leaving after this season, Hamilton realizes he will have to step into that leadership role next year.
“I’m ready to take on that task,” Hamilton said. “I want to step up and do whatever coach needs from me. Whatever that role is. I’ve learned a lot from coach about what he wants on and off the court, academically as well.”
And no one has been able to shine a brighter light on UConn academics than Lenehan. After two seasons as a walk-on, the senior from Cheshire, Conn., was awarded an athletic scholarship for this season and appeared in five games. He has a 4.0 cumulative grade-point average as a molecular and cell biology major.
A Rhodes Scholar finalist, he has already been accepted to medical school at Harvard, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Columbia and UConn. He is not near a decision, he said Thursday. Lenehan has received some of the highest academic honors UConn can bestow, including the Goldwater Scholarship, the Presidential Scholars Award Scholarship, the UTC Academic Scholarship, and he has been recognized as a Babbidge Scholar.
He is the second UConn player to win a conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year, joining two-time Big East Scholar-Athlete winner Emeka Okafor (2002-03, 2003-04).
Lenehan thanked Ollie for “setting up a system that really encourages us to be our best both on and off the court.
#UConn’s Pat Lenehan took home the AAC Scholar-Athlete award Thursday (Ken Davis photo)
“I think it says a lot about the University of Connecticut and the basketball program. It’s really what Coach Ollie stands for. I’m happy to be a representation of what Coach Ollie wants us to do. “I think it’s kind of an interesting turnaround from being banned from the NCAA tournament [for a poor APR in 2013] to having me and a couple of other guys on the team who are really good in the classroom. It’s less personal pride and more for the team that we are showing we’ve really turned it around. We’re not in that situation any more.”
Hamilton joins a list of UConn players who have won the Rookie of the Year Award that includes Earl Kelley (1982-83), Nadav Henefeld (1989-90), Doron Sheffer (1993-94), Khalid El-Amin (1997-98) and Rudy Gay (2004-05), all in the Big East Conference.
Hamilton admits he has come a long way since New Year’s Eve when he missed three free throws in overtime that would cost the Huskies a victory over Temple in the AAC.
“I learned from it,” Hamilton said. “Had to get in the gym. Keep taking free throws. After being in that position I know I’ll be in that position again and be able to knock them down.”
Earlier in the week, UConn sophomore Amida Brimah was named the AAC Defensive Player of the Year, Boatright was a unanimous first team All-ACC pick, Hamilton was a unanimous pick to the All-Rookie Team and Brimah and Hamilton were Honorable Mention all-league selections.
OLLIE: BOATRIGHT REMAINS FOCUSED
With Moore and Boatright the only unanimous selections on the all-conference team, it was clear one would take home the player of the year award. A strong case could have been made for either but Moore emerged from the SMU Mustangs, who won the regular season championship.
“He did a wonderful job,” Ollie said of Boatright. “He was unanimous, all first-team American conference. That’s a great honor for him. Of course, he wanted to win Player of the Year. I’d be lying in your faces if I said he didn’t. But at the end of the day, he doesn’t have any control over that. What he has control over is getting our team ready to play, him being a leader, him being the point guard of our team. And I think that’s where his mindset is.”
Moore ranked fourth in the conference in scoring, second in assists, eighth in steals and led the ACC in both 3-point shooting and free throw shooting.
“Boatright is tremendous,” Moore said. “He has a high basketball IQ. You can’t take a possession off against him. He can shoot, he gets his teammates involved. I’ve got high respect for him.”
Coach of the Year Fran Dunphy of Temple (Ken Davis photo)
DUNPHY “HUMBLED” BY AWARD
Dunphy, accepting his coach of the year award, became very emotional while telling a story about a girls high school coach he met and friended over the years. “I’m humbled and embarrassed to win this award,” Dunphy said, citing SMU’s Larry Brown, Tulsa’s Frank Haith and Cincinnati’s Larry Davis as other candidates. . . . The last time Hartford hosted a men’s conference tournament was 1982 when the young Big East stopped in the Civic Center. UConn lost to St. John’s and Georgetown won the championship game. One year later, the Big East began its long stay at Madison Square Garden in New York City. . . It’s ironic the Huskies are playing at one of their home courts for the tournament after a regular season of extraordinary travel. UConn has spent 31 days on the road with 20 plane trips and three lengthy bus rides. The Huskies have traveled roughly 21,500 miles.
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