Another exciting offensive-filled season in the AUS with three teams dominating at the top of the standings (5 teams finished with sub-.500 records). Several players had tremendous individual seasons, starting with 6'1" Joey Haywood, who shattered the AUS single-season scoring record. But there were others including 6'1" Jimmy Dorsey and 6'3" Paris Carter at Cape Breton, which lost only 1 game all season. 6'8" Owen Klassen, only a sophomore, continued to show that his offensive package is rapidly growing into All-Canadian worthy consideration before his career is done. All were worthy of my consideration for AUS Player of the Year.
However, in my opinion, the player most valuable to his team and thus my AUS POY is Dalhousie's Simon Farine, who led his team to a solid second place finish and a first round bye with his scoring, rebounding, playmaking and most importantly leadership. It was not uncommon to see Farine the first Tiger on the floor diving for loose balls, taking charges and generally leading by example at both ends of the floor. The Tigers were the best defensive team in the AUS and Farine was a big part of that. Haywood especially had a special season with his scoring and plays hard all the time but it was very difficult to choose a Player of the Year from a team that won only 7 of their 20 regular season games.
It was solid not spectacular year for AUS freshmen and X's 6'4" Terry Thomas, a fluid athlete who came to X from East Preston, Nova Scotia amid comparatively little fanfare, quickly emerged as one of the most exciting athletes in the AUS with his great work on the offensive glass and in transition especially. The author of several highlight reel put back slams, Thomas's game developed beyond the one-off spectacular plays as the season emerged, firmly establishing himself in X's lineup and had a couple of double doubles late in the season. Expect Thomas to continue his development and evolve into probably the next great players in Antigonish. UNB's 6'2" Will McFee had a nice first season, especially shooting the ball.
Here is my list of AUS season honours:
AUS First Team All-Stars
Simon Farine, Dalhousie POY
Joey Haywood, Saint Mary's
Jimmy Dorsey, Cape Breton
Owen Klassen, Acadia
Paris Carter, Cape Breton
AUS Second Team All-Stars
Christian Upshaw, St. FX
Joe Schow, Dalhousie
Tremaine Fraser, Cape Breton
Jeremy Dunn, St. FX
Anthony Sears, Acadia
AUS All-Freshman Team
6'4" Terry Thomas, St. FX (Top Freshman in the conference)
6'2" Will McPhee, UNB
5'10" Julian Smith, Cape Breton
6'1" Thomas Filgiano, Acadia
6'8" Aaron Robbins and 6'3" Geoff Doane, UPEI
Top Defensive Players
6'4" Phil Nkrumah
6'2" Stephen Lopez
5'9" Will Silver
6 comments:
Mark,
I agree with your selections.
I know it must have been a hard selection for POY. Joey had a great year, and he is an incredible scorer (I view him as a "Carmelo"), but Simon scores, rebounds, makes assists, plays hard D (make steals, takes charges).(I view his all around game like a "Lebron").
I also think Will Silver had a very good year, and could have been on the second team All-Stars.
Should be an interesting AUS playoffs, with the SMU and StFx match-up closer than people think.
Thanks for your coast to coast coverage. You are a real valuable member to the CIS community.
Jeremy Dunn an all-star and Phil Nkrumah not listed on either team? He was CBU's best player and should have been on either all-star team ahead of Dunn and fellow Capers Carter, Dorsey, or Fraser.
Hey Mark, totally agree with your choice of Simon Farine. 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists a game is hard to ignore. Just for fun and to compare, here are my picks for AUS all stars.
First Team
Simon Farine-Dal
Joey Haywood- SMU
Phillip Nkrumah-CBU
Will Silver-X
Owen Klassen-Acadia
Second Team
Christian Upshaw- X
Joe Schow - Dal
Paris Carter - CBU
Tory Fassett - SMU
Mannock Lual - UPEI
Coach of the Year: Brent Baker-UNB
Defensive Player - Will Silver
AUS Playoffs will be interesting. Only 3 teams had winning records in the past 10 games:
CBU 10-0 bye
DAL 8-2 bye
X 8-2 vs SMU 3-7
ACA 3-7 vs UNB 4-6
UPEI 5-5 out
MUN 1-9 out
"Halifax Server" has a more accurate sense of who deserves AUS Season Honours. Probably could replace second team pick,Tory Fassett, with either Acadia's Justin Boutillier who played consistant solid energetic D & offence, but was injured part way through the season; or Andrew Wright for UNB. POY would be a toss-up between Farine, Nkrumah, and Silver.
Coach of the Year? Jim Charters, John Campbell, Brent Baker?
Think it comes down to Phil Nkrumah or Will Silver for defensive player of the year. Simon Farine for player of the year. Anybody think Tremaine Fraser could be a second teamer?
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