The Big West Conference Player of the Year Award will stay at Long Beach State for a third consecutive year, as senior guard/forward James Ennis followed up Casper Ware’s two player of the year awards with one of his own.
LBSU head coach Dan Monson won Big West Coach of the Year for the third time as well, and four 49ers were named to all-conference teams. Ennis and sophomore point guard Mike Caffey were first-team selections and junior transfers Keala King and Tony Freeland were honorable mentions.
“I think it’s a great accomplishment that [Ennis] wins player of the year and that he and Caffey get first-team all-league,” Monson said.
Monson also said that without the team’s conference-winning effort, the awards likely would have gone to other players.
“Those are also somewhat team awards,” he said. “If we finish in the middle of the league, James [Ennis] might be all-league, Mike [Caffey] probably wouldn’t be and James [Ennis] certainly wouldn’t be player of the year… As a coach it’s a good thing to see them get recognized as a group.”
Ennis finished the Big West play among the conference leaders in points (fifth with 17.3 per game), steals (first with 41), blocks (fourth with 22) and defensive rebounds (fifth with 4.7 per game).
Monson led The Beach to a third straight regular-season title despite losing four starters from last year’s squad. He also took on the task of introducing three transfers to the starting lineup, two of which weren’t eligible until midseason.
“The thing that makes this one special is that we [won the Big West] with four new starters,” Monson said. “To lose what we lost last year and get another group to come in and buy in and not accept that we have to rebuild, but that we can reload…to win the league is a big deal.”
A couple notable 49ers not included on the Big West’s all-conference press release were junior transfer Dan Jennings and senior sixth-man Peter Pappageorge. Jennings finished second on the team in rebounds, and Pappageorge shot a team-leading 38 percent on 3-point attempts.
“You’re always hoping for more,” Monson said. “I would have liked to have seen Peter Pappageorge win sixth man of the year, and I would have liked to have seen Dan Jennings get honorable mention. He, Keala [King] and Tony [Freeland] all had games where they were very important for our league championship. They just weren’t as consistent as Mike [Caffey] and James [Ennis], but they all deserved in certain games to be recognized.”
On the women’s side, center Devin Hudson and guard Alex Sanchez earned All-Big West honorable mention nods.
Both the men’s and women’s basketball will take on Cal State Fullerton in the first rounds of their respective Big West tournaments. The men will play at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, and the women will play at 6 p.m. Thursday at Bren Events Center in Irvine.