2014 Big West Men's Basketball Specialty Award Release
UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara commanded today’s announcement of the 2014 Big West Men’s Basketball All-Specialty awards. UCI freshman Mamadou Ndiaye took home Big West Defensive Player of the Year honors, and the UCSB backcourt tandem of junior Zalmico Harmon and senior Kyle Boswell were tabbed Best Hustle Player and Best Sixth Player, respectively.
The conference’s nine head coaches voted on the awards, but were not allowed to cast votes for their own players. This is the 14th straight year that the Big West has selected an All-Specialty Team. UCI and UCSB also accounted for all three awards in 2012-13.
Ndiaye, a native of Dakar, Senegal, is the second straight Anteater to be named the conference’s top defensive player after Will Davis II earned the award for 2012-13. The nation’s tallest player at 7-6, Ndiaye’s 94 blocked shots broke the school record of 88 that Davis II set just last year. Ndiaye enters the Big West Tournament needing one block to tie and two to eclipse the Big West single-season record of 95 established by Michael Olowokandi of Pacific in 1997-98. Ndiaye broke the Big West single-game blocked shots record on three different occasions this season – initially setting the mark with nine at Washington (Nov. 14), and eclipsing that total with 10 versus Eastern Washington (Nov. 24) and 11 against Long Beach State (Feb. 6). As of Mar. 6, Ndiaye ranked 14th in the country in blocked shots per game (3.07). A starter in all 31 games he played, Ndiaye ranked fifth on the team in scoring (8.8 ppg) and second in rebounding (6.0 rpg).
Harmon inherited the UCSB starting point guard position as a junior college transfer, and became the program’s first recipient of the Best Hustle award since Chris Devine was a three-time honoree in 2006, 2008 and 2009. Harmon, known as the team’s energizer, leads the squad in assists (150) and minutes played (891) while ranking fourth in steals (18). Harmon sports an incredible 4.7 assist-to-turnover ratio that ranks No. 2 nationally. No other player in UCSB history with at least 100 assists in a season has ever finished with an assist-to-turnover ratio better than 3.0. Harmon has 150 assists against just 32 turnovers. During the final 13 games of the regular season, the 6-0 guard registered 68 assists and turned the ball over only six times.
Boswell is the first player in the history of the Best Sixth Man award to win in back-to-back seasons. The 6-2 Gaucho guard gave his squad an offensive burst, ranking third on the team in scoring (10.7 ppg) while entering the game as a reserve in 24 of 29 games. Boswell also has dished out a career-best 77 assists against 36 turnovers, an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.1. In addition, the senior continued his knack for three-point shooting that he has displayed throughout his entire career. Boswell tops the Big West in three-point field goal percentage (.437) and his 73 treys rank No. 2 among the conference’s sharpshooters. The native of Huntington Beach, Calif. ranks third in UCSB career history with 216 threes, and he is just six short of the school record held by James Powell (2006-10).
2013-14 BIG WEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Mamadou Ndiaye, UC Irvine
2013-14 BIG WEST BEST SIXTH PLAYER
Kyle Boswell, UC Santa Barbara
2013-14 BIG WEST BEST HUSTLE PLAYER
Zalmico Harmon, UC Santa Barbara