Broncs Run the Stable at NIT/MBWA Awards
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| (l - r) Jason Thompson, Tommy Dempsey and Ryan Thompson |
Senior Jason Thompson was presented with the Haggerty Award as the Metropolitan Area Player of the Year, while Tommy Dempsey was presented with the Peter A. Carlesimo Award as the Metropolitan Division I Coach of the Year. Sophomore Ryan Thompson was named to the All-Metropolitan second team
A First Team All-Met selection for the second year in a row, Jason Thompson is Rider’s first-ever Haggerty Award winner. “I am truly honored to receive this award, especially seeing all of the great players who have won this award in the past,” he said afterward “I would like to thank the Met basketball writers for voting for me, and I would like to thank my coaches and teammates for helping me achieve this and all of the success we were able to achieve this year.”
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association District II Player of the Year, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year and a First-Team National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 3 selection, Thompson was a collegeinsider.com All-American and an Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American.
A 6-foot-11, 245-pound forward, the Mt. Laurel, N.J., native finished second in the nation in rebounding (12.1), 18th in blocked shots (2.7), 29th in scoring (20.4) and 35th in field goal percentage (.560).
Thompson is expected to be a first-round NBA draft pick this summer, Rider’s first. He graduated with 2,040 career points and a Rider-record 1,171 rebounds, one of just 96 Division I players to ever compile both 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. Three times this season, Thompson scored more than 20 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in a game. According to ESPN.com, no player has done that three times in a season in at least a dozen years.
Dempsey is Rider’s second Met Coach of the Year, and the first since Kevin Bannon in 1994. Also named the 2008 MAAC Coach of the Year, Dempsey guided Rider to first place in the MAAC this season with a program-best 23 wins. Rider won just eight games in 2006 before winning 16 under Dempsey in 2007.
“I am so honored to be the Carlesimo Award winner,” Dempsey said. “To be here at Giants Stadium being recognized as the Metropolitan Coach of the Year is very humbling and I am grateful to the sports writers for selecting me. Five years ago, I could not even imagine something like this happening.”
Rider reached the MAAC Championship Game for the second time in four years and was selected to take part in the inaugural College Basketball Invitational. During the regular season, the Broncs defeated teams from the Big Ten and the Big East on their way to a best-ever 21 regular season games. Rider finished the season ranked 23rd among Mid-Majors by collegeinsider.com. The Broncs finished 13th in the nation in field goal percentage, 11th in 3-point field goal percentage and 37th in scoring.
At age 33, Dempsey is the youngest active head coach to reach 100 head-coaching victories and is now 127-38 as a collegiate head coach, including 39-26 in two years at the helm in Lawrenceville.
Ryan Thompson, the younger brother of Jason Thompson, was a Second Team All-MAAC selection this year and finished 55th in the nation in field goal percentage (.537). In the MAAC, Ryan Thompson ranked eighth in scoring (15.0), 10th in rebounding (6.2), ninth in assists (3.44), fourth in three-point field goal percentage (.438) and fifth in steals (1.66).
Submitted on April 24, 2008
