CAA Awards Show 

RICHMOND, Va. – Five different members of the Northeastern men's basketball team earned Colonial Athletic Association postseason honors as announced by the conference Friday afternoon, while three Huskies earned major conference accolades.
 
After leading his program to a 14-4 conference record, Bill Coen was named CAA Coach of the Year for the first time in his career.
 
Shawn Occeus, who led the CAA in steals for the entire conference season was named the Defensive Player of the Year and Bolden Brace was tabbed the Sixth Man of the Year as voted on by the league's head coaches, media relations directors and members of the media.
 
In addition, Vasa Pusica finished as the runner up for Player of the Year while earning All-CAA First Team honors while Tomas Murphy finds himself on the CAA All-Rookie Team.
 
Coen becomes the fourth Northeastern coach to be named conference Coach of the Year joining Jim Calhoun (1986), Karl Fogel (1987), and Ron Everhart (2005) and the first during the CAA era. Coen led a team, picked to finish sixth in the conference and featuring four freshmen, five sophomores, three juniors and a one senior, to a CAA regular season title for the third time in the last six seasons.
 
The winningest active CAA Coach, Coen has previously been honored as the 2013 NABC District 10 Co-Coach of the Year, 2013 USBWA District I Coach of the Year and as a 2013 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Finalist. Coen has also coached 30 players to All-CAA honors in his 12 seasons at Northeastern.
 
For the fourth-straight season, a Northeastern athlete has All-CAA First Team honors, this time as Vasa Pusica earned his first All-Conference accolade in his first season with the Huskies, finishing as runner-up in the CAA Player of the Year voting.  
 
The redshirt junior ended the regular season with a 17.6 points per game, 5.0 assists per game and 3.4 rebounds per game average while making 33 steals and shooting .505 from the field as well as .418 from deep and .811 from the line in 30 games. Pusica has 13 20-point efforts and a pair of 30-point games on while leading the Huskies in assists in 25 of the 30 outings on the season, including his first-career 10-assist game at Hofstra earlier this season.
 
During conference play, Pusica averaged 19.3 ppg (fifth) and 5.9 apg (second) while his 3-point field goal percentage of .421 ranked top-10 and his 2.5 3-pointers per game mark finished fifth among CAA athletes.
 
Occeus becomes just the third ever Husky to be tabbed conference Defensive Player of the Year joining Shawn James (2005, 06) and Scott Eatherton (2014). Occeus also earns CAA All-Defensive Team honors marking the second-straight season a Husky has earned a spot on that team (Devon Begley, 2017) while the Boynton Beach, Fla. native becomes the ninth Husky to earn All-Defensive honors.   
 
The sophomore finished the regular season with 61 steals, 41 of which came in conference action, a number that ranks seventh all-time on the Northeastern single season steals list in a tie with Reggie Lewis (1984-85) and Chaisson Allen (2010-11). He had 13 multiple-steal efforts this season, 12 games with 3+ steals and four games with 5+ steals, including a career-high six against Drexel (Feb. 15) and in the season finale against Elon (Feb. 24).
 
Occeus' 2.03 steals per game average ranks first in the CAA and 31^st nationally while his 61 total steals again top the CAA and rank 24^th nationally.
 
The defensive success did not stunt Occeus' offensive presence as he finished the regular season second on the team with 10.4 ppg, and 2.6 rpg while that total only increased during CAA action as he finished the conference season playing and starting in all 18 games while averaging 11.4 ppg and 2.7 rpg.
 
Brace, who started the first six games of the season for the Huskies, moved into a reserve role during the second half of the non-conference slate where he has excelled en route to being named the first-ever CAA Sixth Man of the Year. The sophomore, who usually checks into the game alongside Murphy and Begley, brings another level of intensity to the game the second he steps foot on the court.
 
The Santa Barbara, Calif. native finished the regular season averaging 8.0 ppg, and a team-leading 4.9 rpg, while shooting .460 from the field and .402 from behind the arc. In conference play, Brace's numbers only went up. He finished CAA action with 8.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg, while dishing out 42 of his 64 total assists, and making 12 of his 20 steals and seven of his 12 total blocks. He also shot .485 from the field and .429 from deep while tallying two double-doubles on the year, both during CAA play.
 
Rounding out the honorees is Murphy who becomes the 23^rd Husky to be named to the conference All-Rookie team, the seventh since the Huskies have joined the CAA and the first since 2016 CAA Player of the Year T.J. Williams earned All-Rookie honors in the 2013-14 season.
 
Murphy was tabbed as CAA Rookie of the Week two times this season and finished his freshman campaign with 6.7 ppg and 2.4 rpg and actually made more offensive than defensive rebounds during the regular season. In conference action he netted 7.4 ppg, while shooting .609 from the field and making 26-of-30 free throws.  
 
The Huskies will begin their CAA Tournament play on Sunday night at 6 p.m. when they take on the winner of the #7 Delaware/#10 Elon First Round game at the North Charleston Coliseum. The game can be found at CAA.TV.
 

First Team All-CAA	Cl.	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Hometown/High School
Devontae Cacok, UNCW	Jr.	F	6-7	240	Riverdale, Ga./Alpharetta
Joe Chealey, Charleston	Sr.	G	6-4	190	Orlando, Fla./Apopka
Vasa Pusica, Northeastern	Jr.	G	6-5	210	Belgrade, Serbia/Sunrise Christian Acad.
Grant Riller, Charleston	So.	G	6-3	195	Ocoee, Fla./Ocoee
Justin Wright-Foreman, Hofstra	Jr.	G	6-1	185	Queens, N.Y./High School of Construction

 

Second Team All-CAA	Cl.	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Hometown/High School
Jarrell Brantley, Charleston	Jr.	F	6-7	250	Columbia, S.C./Notre Dame Prep
Tramaine Isabell, Drexel	Jr.	G	6-1	180	Seattle, Wash./Garfield
Nathan Knight, William & Mary	So.	F	6-10	235	Syracuse, N.Y./Kimball Academy
Zane Martin, Towson	So.	G	6-4	205	Philadelphia, Pa./Ss. Neumann-Goretti
Tyler Seibring, Elon	Jr.	F	6-9	225	Normal, Ill./Normal Community

 

Third Team All-CAA	Cl.	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Hometown/High School
David Cohn, William & Mary	Sr.	G	6-2	168	Elmhurst, Ill./York
Ryan Daly, Delaware	So.	G	6-5	225	Ardmore, Pa./Archbishop Carroll
Rokas Gustys, Hofstra	Sr.	F/C	6-9	260	Kaunas, Lithuania/Oak Hill Academy
Stuckey Mosley, JMU	Jr.	G	6-3	190	Orlando, Fla./Timber Creek
Justin Pierce, William & Mary	So.	G/F	6-7	215	Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard West
Jordon Talley, UNCW	Sr.	G	6-1	180	Richmond, Va./Henrico

2017-18 CAA Player of the Year – Justin Wright-Foreman, Hofstra
2017-18 CAA Coach of the Year – Bill Coen, Northeastern
2017-18 CAA Rookie of the Year – Ryan Allen, Delaware
2017-18 CAA Defensive Player of the Year – Shawn Occeus, Northeastern
2017-18 CAA Sixth Man of the Year – Bolden Brace, Northeastern
2017-18 Dean Ehlers Leadership Award – Tyler Seibring, Elon
2017-18 CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year – Paul Rowley, William & Mary
 

CAA All-Rookie Team	Cl.	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Hometown/High School
Ryan Allen, Delaware	Fr.	G	6-2	195	Bowie, Md./DeMatha
Darius Banks, JMU	Fr.	G	6-5	225	St. Petersburg, Fla./St. Petersburg
Matt Lewis, JMU	Fr.	G	6-5	180	Arlington, Va./Bishop O'Connell
Tomas Murphy, Northeastern	Fr.	F	6-8	220	Wakefield, R.I./Northfield Mount Hermon
Jalen Ray, Hofstra	Fr.	G	6-2	175	Hampton, Va./Hampton

 

CAA All-Defensive Team	Cl.	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Hometown/High School
Devontae Cacok, UNCW	Jr.	F	6-7	240	Riverdale, Ga./Alpharetta
Cameron Johnson, Charleston	Sr.	G	6-4	200	Athens, Ga./Clarke Central
Nathan Knight, William & Mary	So.	F	6-10	235	Syracuse, N.Y./Kimball Academy
Shawn Occeus, Northeastern	So.	G	6-4	208	Boynton Beach, Fla./Grandview Prep
Austin Williams, Drexel	Sr.	F	6-8	245	Richmond, Va./Trinity Episcopal