West Babylon, N.Y. - St. Thomas Aquinas College's James Patterson was named the ECC Men's Basketball Rookie of the Year and was one of two Spartans to earn All-ECC honors, the East Coast Conference announced on Friday. In addition, Matt Capell was tabbed the conference's Coach of the Year.
Patterson was joined on the All-ECC First Team by DeVante Jamison. It is the first all-conference selections for both Patterson and Jamison in their collegiate careers.
Patterson ranked second on the Spartans in points per game with 14.4 and first in rebounds per game with 7.1. The freshman from Richmond, Virginia was fourth in the conference in scoring with 388 total points and sixth in rebounds (193). Patterson was chosen the ECC Player of the Week one time and the ECC Rookie of the Week on six occasions.
Jamison led the maroon and gold in points per game with 14.6 and assists per game with 5.8. In the ECC, the junior from Dorchester, Massachusetts ranks second in assists (150), third in steals (54) and fifth in total points (379). Jamison was named the ECC Defensive Player of the Week once this season.
In his first season at the helm of the Spartans, Capell earned his first career ECC Coach of the Year award after leading the maroon and gold to a 24-4 record during the regular season, including a 15-1 conference mark. STAC was nationally ranked for most of the campaign and is currently sixth in the East Region. The Spartans hit the 20-win plateau for the eighth time in the last nine seasons (20-21: only 14 wins due to a 16-game COVID schedule) and they are the number one overall seed in the ECC Tournament.
The ECC Regular Season Champs will also serve as hosts for the semifinal and final rounds of the 2023 Men's Basketball Tournament, which takes place on March 4 and 5 at Aquinas Hall. The top-seeded Spartans will tip-off at noon on Saturday against #4 seed University of the District of Columbia. The winner will face either #2 Daemen University or #6 Roberts Wesleyan University (Saturday, 3:00 p.m.), the very next day (Sunday, March 5 - 2:30pm) for the right to be called ECC Men's Basketball Champion. Following the crowning of a champion on Sunday afternoon, NCAA brackets and locations will be announced later that night. Regional play takes place the very next weekend (March 11-14), with the Elite Eight to be held from March 21-25 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.
2022-2023 ECC Men's Basketball All-Conference