Zack Rosen was announced Tuesday as the Big 5 Player of the Year, following a season in which he nearly carried the Penn Quakers to the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately for Rosen and his teammates, their underwhelming performance against Princeton in the last game of the season left them one game behind the Harvard Crimson, forcing Rosen to graduate without ever making it to the dance.
Though he came up short in that pursuit, the all-time Penn leader in assists, games started and minutes played was given plenty of respect by the Big 5, taking home the aforementioned Player of the Year honor as well as the Scholar-Athlete Award and the city scoring title.
Rosen was locked in a fight with Temple's Ramone Moore for that final honor for most of the year, before Moore's struggles to score down the stretch turned into the Owls' struggles to win.
Other players taking home individual awards are La Salle Explorers Jerrell Wright (Rookie of the Year) and Earl Pettis (Most Improved Player). On the coaching side, Temple's Fran Dunphy won the award for head man of the year for the third time in four seasons, while his Owls, who tied the Saint Joseph's Hawks for the Big 5 title, took home Team of the Year honors.
Not to overlook the final individual accolade, Villanova's Maalik Wayns finished the season with the city's best foul shooting percentage at 89 percent.
And now, a look at your first and second team All-Big 5 athletes:
First TeamZack Rosen, Penn
Ramone Moore, Temple
Maalik Wayns, Villanova
Khalif Wyatt, Temple
Langston Galloway, Saint Joseph’sSecond Team
Tyreek Duren, La Salle
Ramon Galloway, La Salle
Earl Pettis, La Salle
Carl Jones, Saint Joseph’s
C.J. Aiken, Saint Joseph’s
Juan Fernandez, Temple
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A trend you may have noticed, of the 14 players honored Tuesday, only two -- Jerrell Wright and C.J. Aiken -- are not guards. Really, there's not even any small forwards in there. Not that it necessarily matters, nor that it's really surprising -- just a note worthy of mention. Also of note are the six, and not five, players on the second team.
Anyway, the actual awards will be presented to the winners at the annual Big 5 banquet an April 23 at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University.
So, thoughts on the honors? Anyone left out? Likewise, anyone who shouldn't have won or been named to one of the two All-"Conference" teams?