The Northeast Conference released its regular season men’s basketball awards on Tuesday, March 5, and the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils were well represented.
Third-year head coach Patrick Sellers was named the Jim Phelan Coach of the Year after leading the Blue Devils to a regular season championship and the top seed in the Northeast Conference tournament, the school’s first since the 2006-07 season.
Sellers orchestrated an impressive turnaround of a program that experienced a last-place finish in his first year and a seventh-place finish in his second. Sellers led CCSU to 13 conference victories, the most for the program since 2006-07. The team’s 19 wins are its highest total since the 2010-11 season.
Sellers credited his assistants with helping him win the award.
“It just tells me that I work with great guys,” Sellers said. “Ben Wood, Lenny Jefferson, Jeremy Brown, and Ryan Olander. Those guys are really good coaches, and they do a lot for the program and a lot for us as a group.”
The Blue Devils had three players named to the All-NEC teams, tied with in-state rival Sacred Heart University for the league-high.
Senior forward Allan Jeanne-Rose was named to the All-NEC first team after leading the Blue Devils in points-per-game with 15.1, good enough for fifth in the conference. He also averaged 4.8 rebounds per game and shot 54.1% from the field, the third-best mark in the conference.
In addition to making the All-NEC first team, Jeanne-Rose embraced the role of becoming a mentor to the younger players.
“I’m just trying to lead and help the younger guys,” Jeanne-Rose said. “Just trying to help them develop as players and help myself be a better leader on and off the court.”
Senior guard Jordan Jones was named to the All-NEC second team after posting 12.8 points and 4.8 assists per game. Jones’s memorable season included hitting a game-winning three-point shot to upset the Riverhawks of UMass Lowell on the road 57-54, tallying a career-high 33 points in a 77-70 win over the Sacred Heart Pioneers on Feb. 8, and recording his 1000th career point on Feb. 29 against the Long Island University Sharks.
Jones won the honor after transferring from Division II Coker University in South Carolina.
“Grit, just heart, passion, coming from Division II, I don’t take anything for granted,” Jones said. “I’m going to play my heart out on defense every possession. My people, my family, they know that I’m here for a purpose, and I’m not going to let any of them down and that this right here is a blessing, and I don’t take anything for granted.”
Senior guard Kellen Amos tacked on another All-NEC honor, adding a third-team nomination to a second-team nod from last year. The swingman was an integral part of the Blue Devils offense, averaging 12.1 points per game and 5.2 rebounds.
Amos credits his All-NEC honor to hard work.
“If you work hard, you may not see the benefits next week, next month, next year, or the next five years,” Amos said. But I promise it’s going to come. You just got to keep working because that’s what I did.”
