HOFSTRA'S JENKINS, PECORA EARN TOP METROPOLITAN NEW YORK HONORS
Hempstead, NY (April 15) - Sophomore guard Charles Jenkins was named the 76th winner of the Haggerty Award as the 2008-09 All-Metropolitan New York Division I men’s college basketball player of the year, presented by the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and the Met Basketball Writers Association (MBWA), it was announced today.
In addition, Head Coach Tom Pecora earned the MBWA Peter A. Carlesimo Coach of the Year Award. Jenkins and Pecora will both be honored at the annual Haggerty Awards Dinner this evening at the Giants Stadium Club in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Jenkins becomes the fifth Hofstra player to win the Haggerty Award, joining Bill Thieben (1956), Rich Laurel (1977), Speedy Claxton (2000) and Norman Richardson (2001). He also becomes the first sophomore to win
the award since Chris Mullin of St. John’s in 1983.
Jenkins had a spectacular sophomore season in leading the Pride to a 21-11 final record. He finished the year averaging 19.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists, making him one of only six players in the nation who averaged at least 19 points, four rebounds and four assists per game.
A 2008-09 first-team All-CAA selection, Jenkins provided numerous clutch points for Hofstra over the course of the season. He scored the Pride’s final eight points in a comeback 76-75 win over East Tennessee State on Nov. 16, including the tying jumper with 59 seconds left and the winning foul shot with 1.1 seconds left. East Tennessee State went on to reach the NCAA Tournament and scare top-seeded Pittsburgh in the opening round.
Jenkins also hit the game winning jumper in the paint with just 1.9 seconds remaining in a 69-68 road win over James Madison on Jan. 24. In the rematch with the Dukes at home on Feb. 18, Jenkins tallied 32 points and 13 assists, the highest assist total for any Hofstra player since Speedy Claxton (the 2000 Haggerty Award winner) had 13 in a game in the 1997-98 season. He capped off his season by scoring 27 points in a CAA quarterfinal loss to Old Dominion, when he accounted for over half of the Pride’s points in a 52-51 defeat.
Hofstra has now had at least one first-team All-Metropolitan New York selection in each of the last five seasons. Former guard Loren Stokes was a first-teamer for three straight years from 2005-07, while former guard Antoine Agudio earned first-team honors in both 2007 and 2008.
Jenkins was joined on the first team this year by Jeremy Hazell (Seton Hall), Ryan Thompson (Rider), Paris Horne (St. John’s), D.J. Kennedy (St. John’s) and Jaytornah Wisseh (LIU).
Pecora earned the Met Coach of the Year honor for the second time in his career, after also earning the distinction in 2005-06 when he led the Pride to a 26-7 record. Hofstra has won 20 games in four of the last five seasons, compiling a combined 102-55 record in that span. Pecora has been a part of seven of the nine 20-win seasons that the program has had at the Division I level, including four as a head coach and three straight as an assistant under Jay Wright from 1998-2001.