BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh junior guard C.J. McCollum continues to rack in the honors, most recently earning ECAC Player of the Year honors, as announced on Thursday. It marks McCollum’s second ECAC major award of his career after earning Rookie of the Year laurels as a freshman. McCollum was joined on the ECAC First Team by Scott Machado (Iona), Kevin Jones (West Virginia), Andrew Nicholson (St. Bonaventure) and Kris Joseph (Syracuse) while Duke’s Austin Rivers was named Rookie of the Year.
Voting for major award winners came from ECAC coaches, or their respective designee. McCollum was named ECAC Player of the Week twice this season, to go with his six Patriot League Player of the Week awards.
A two-time Patriot League Player of the Year, McCollum led Lehigh to the program’s first NCAA Tournament win on Friday, defeating Duke 75-70 to become only the sixth 15 seed to defeat a 2 seed in tournament history. The Mountain Hawks then became the first 15 seed to lead their ensuing game at the half, as Lehigh led Xavier, 37-33, after 20 minutes on Sunday.
McCollum has previously been named a National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) First Team All-District selection for the third straight year. He garnered Lute Olson All-America honors earlier this week. McCollum averaged 21.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per game this season, shooting 81.1 percent from the free throw line and 44.3 percent from the field along with a team-leading 124 assists. He currently owns 2,074 career points, good for second in school history and third in league history, just 150 from tying the Patriot League mark (2,224).
Cracking the ECAC Second Team were Mike Muscala from Bucknell along with Jeremy Lamb (UConn), Zack Rosen (Penn), Mike Scott (Virginia) and Mike Glover (Iona).
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