Xavier University Athletics
West Leads XU Honorees As Player of the Year
03.05.02 | Men's Basketball
First-year head coach Thad Matta was named Coach of the Year for leading the Musketeers to the West Division regular season championship with a 14-2 record in A-10 play and a 22-5 mark overall.
Sophomore Romain Sato (Central African Republic/Dayton (Ohio) Christian) was named to the All-Conference Second Team and junior Lionel Chalmers (Albany, N.Y./Albany) was named to the Third Team.
West is fifth in the A-10 with an 18.6 points per game scoring average thanks to his A-10 leading .548 field goal percentage. He?s also first in the league with 10.0 rebounds per game. In addition, West leads the conference and is 18th in the nation with 2.7 blocks per game, giving him a school record total of 72 this season.
West is just the fourth player in A-10 history to win the award in consecutive years. James Bailey of Rutgers (1978 and 1979) and Earl Belcher of St. Bonaventure (1980 and 1981) join West as the only players to win the award outright in consecutive years while West Virginia?s Greg Jones was Player of the Year in 1982 and Co-Player of the Year in 1983.
West is just the second player to be named Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. Temple?s Pepe Sanchez did so in 2000.
Sato, a 2000-01 Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team Selection, earned Second Team honors for averaging 15.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game this season. Through the non-conference portion of the season Sato averaged 11.6 points, but has scored 18.3 points per league game.
Chalmers was named to the third team with averages of 12.3 points and 4.1 assists per game. He has scored in double figures in 17 of Xavier?s 27 games this season.
Matta becomes the sixth first-year head coach to win the A-10?s Coach of the Year Award. After one season at Butler, Matta has led Xavier to the top seed in the Verizon Atlantic 10 Men?s Basketball Championship and has the Musketeers ranked in both national polls (No. 24 Associated Press, No. 23 USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll).
Xavier will begin play in the A-10 Tournament on Thursday at 12:05 p.m. against the winner of Wednesday?s first round game between George Washington and Massachusetts.
