WHITE PLAINS, NY — Iona College men’s basketball senior Scott Machado headlined three Gael performers on the 2012 Al-Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Team. Machado was named the 79th Haggerty Award Winner as the most outstanding Division I men’s basketball player in the New York Metropolitan Area.
Joining Machado on the All-Met First team is classmate Mike Glover. Junior Lamont Jones was named to the third team.
Machado is the fifth Iona basketball player to earn the Haggerty Award which is presented by the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and the Met Basketball Writers Association (MBWA). First presented in 1936, it is one of the oldest awards in college basketball and most prestigious honor given to a metropolitan area player.
Steve Burtt was the last Haggerty winner for the Iona College men’s basketball program after the 1983-94 season. Jeff Ruland and Gary Springer earned the honor in back-to-back seasons in 1979-80 and 1980-81. Springer was one of two freshmen to ever garner the award. Iona’s first Haggerty winner was Warren Isaac in 1964-65.
The fifth Haggerty Award for the Iona program matches the fifth most in the award’s history. St. John’s has had 23 Haggerty winners, Seton Hall has nine, Hofstra has seven and NYU has garnered six. The Gaels are tied with Columbia and Fordham with five awards each.
It is the third straight season that Machado was named All-Met after earning Third Team honors as a sophomore in 2010 and First Team honors as a junior last year.
Machado finished third on the team in scoring averaging 13.6 points per game. He led the nation in assists, posting a 9.9 per game average. Among his many accolades this season, Machado was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year, AP All-America Honorable Mention along with being one of 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award for the nation’s top point guard.
Glover was also named to the All-Met First team for the second straight year. Glover was the squad’s leading scorer (18.3 ppg) and rebounder (9.0 rpg). Glover finished second in the nation with his 63.7% field goal percentage.
In his first season with the Gaels, Jones was the team’s No. 2 scorer averaging a career-high 15.7 points per game. He also posted 3.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game and was second on the team with 53 three-point field goals made.
The trio of Gaels helped the program to its third straight 20+ win season, only the third time in school history the event has occurred. Iona also earned an at-large bid into the 2012 NCAA Championship becoming just the second Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference team to do so.
SUMMARY
NEW YORK — The 2011-12 All-Met Division I men’s college basketball team, announced Thursday by the Met Basketball Writers Assn.
FIRST TEAM: Scott Machado, Iona, 6-1, sr, G, Queens, N.Y.; Mike Glover, Iona, 6-7, sr, F, Bronx, N.Y.; Moe Harkless, St. John’s, 6-8, fr, G-F, Queens, N.Y.; Julian Boyd, LIU, 6-7, jr, F, San Antonio, Texas; Jordan Theodore, Seton Hall, 6-0, jr, G, Englewood, N.J.; Herb Pope, Seton Hall, 6-8, sr, F, Aliquippa, Pa.
SECOND TEAM: Chris Gaston, Fordham, 6-7, jr, F, Union City, N.J.; Rakim Sanders, Fairfield, 6-5, sr, F, Pawtucket, R.I.; George Beamon, Manhattan, 6-4, jr, G-F, Roslyn, N.Y.; Jamal Olasewere, LIU, 6-7, jr, F, Silver Spring, Md.; D’Angelo Harrison, St. John’s, 6-3, fr, G, Missouri City, Texas; Mike Moore, Hofstra, 6-5, sr, G, New Haven, Conn.
THIRD TEAM: Brian Barbour, Columbia, 6-1, jr, G, Alamo, Calif.; Lamont Jones, Iona, 6-0, jr, G, Harlem, N.Y.; Isaiah Wilkerson, NJIT, 6-3, sr, F, Staten Island, N.Y.; Eli Carter, Rutgers, 6-2, fr, G, Paterson, N.J.; Elia Ellis, Army, 6-6, jr, F, Houston, Texas.
Haggerty Award player of the year: Scott Machado, Iona.
Rookie of the year: Moe Harkless, St. John’s.
Co-coaches of the year: Danny Hurley, Wagner; Steve Masiello, Manhattan.