SAGE'S BRIAN BARNES NAMED NABC REGIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR; DEANS NAMED FIRST TEAM ATLANTIC REGION
Kansas City, MO–Days after earning acclaim from D3hoops.com, The Sage Colleges' men's basketball team is hauling in more honors for what is the best season in the program's history. The 2014-2015 season marks the sixth season for the Gators as a Division III member and it was a record-setting campaign in every way possible for the Gators.
Sage's head men's basketball coach, Brian Barnes was named the 2014-2015 National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC) Atlantic Region Coach of the Year. The award comes on the heels of his selection as the Skyline Conference Men's Basketball Coach of the Year and the D3hoops.com Atlantic Region Coach of the Year. He led the team to the Skyline Conference Championship and a regular-season league championship. Sage went 23-5 and set marks for most wins in a season overall (23) and Skyline (15), while also winning 11 games in a row and going undefeated at home in 2014-2015 (13-0). Now in his sixth season, Barnes graduated from the University at Albany in 2003 with a degree in Communications and earned his master's degree in Educational Administration from the University at Albany in 2005.
Senior forward and team tri-captain, Kai Deans (Miami, FL/Monsignor Pace) became the first Sage men's player recognized by the NABC as he was named to the NABC Atlantic Region First Team and is now a candidate for All-America honors. Also a D3hoops.com honoree this season, he was named to the 2014-2015 Atlantic Region First Team on Monday. Deans was also named the Skyline Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year and is a candidate for the ECAC Metro Division III Player of the Year. The awards are both firsts for Sage's men's basketball team as Deans set records along the way this year for most points in a game (33) and most points in a season (468). He closed his career with 826 points in just two seasons as a Gator.
Dean's finished with a team-best 19 points in the Gators' NCAA contest with Amherst College, marking the 14th time this year he paced the team on the hardwood. He caps his stellar career having helped to rewrite the basketball record book. He stands No. 4 all-time in scoring and No. 5 in career rebounding while setting a new standard for best career point per game average with a 17.3 ppg average. He is ranked nationally in 12 different categories in the latest NCAA statistics release. He finished the season with a 53.7 FG% and added a 71.9% effort from the line with 35 blocked shots and added 231 rebounds on the year in 27 starts.