Albany, NY –After winning the program's first Skyline Conference Championship and earning an NCAA Division III Championship berth, the members of the 2014-2015 Sage Men's Basketball team and the coaching staff will be honored by the New York State Assembly and Senate this coming Wednesday, May 20 at 10 a.m.
At the invitation of Assemblyman John T. McDonald III (District 108), the Gators will be honored with an introduction on the floor set for 10:00 a.m. The assemblyman will be presenting the group with a resolution that was passed in the Assembly to recognize their achievement. The resolution is K534 and a link to it is below.
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=%0D%0A&bn=K00534&term=&Summary=Y&Text=Y
For Sages' men's basketball team, the 2014-2015 season was a memorable and record-setting one, filled with numerous awards and acclaim for the Gators. For the Gators, the season saw the team earn the program's first NCAA Division III Tournament appearance after a record-setting campaign of 23-5, marking the most wins on the program's six-year history.
Brian Barnes, the 2014-2015 the Skyline Conference Coach of the Year, the Eastern College Athletic Conference Metro Coach of the Year, and the D3Hoops.com Atlantic Region Coach of the Year, guided the Gators to a program-record 23 victories this season. In addition, the 2015 National Association Basketball Coaches' Atlantic Region Coach of the Year, led Sage to the program's first-ever Skyline Conference Tournament Championship, as well as the regular-season league title. Sage recorded an 84-70 win over St. Joseph's College (L.I.) to earn their first-ever berth into the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship. The Gators compiled a 15-3 record in the Skyline and a perfect 13-0 mark at home this season, defeating teams by an average of 13.4 points per game. The Gators were unbeaten at home in Kahl Gym (13-0) over the course of the campaign. Sage was also unbeaten home or away in the month of February, going 9-0.
Also under Barnes' leadership, senior forward Kai Deans became the program's first-ever All-American when he was named a third teamer by the NABC. Deans becomes the very first Sage student-athlete, male or female named an All-American. Deans, a team tri-captain, earned Skyline Conference Player of the Year honors as well as a selection to the NABC Atlantic Region First Team, as well as a spot on the 2014-2015 D3hoops.com Atlantic Region First Team and ECAC Metro First Team honors. The awards are all 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.