St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Hardy, Kennedy, Brownlee Honored By MBWA
4/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
April 26, 2011
QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's honorable mention AP All-American and All-BIG EAST first team senior guard Dwight Hardy was named to the New York Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) All-Met first team, while teammates D.J. Kennedy and Justin Brownlee each earned second team honors. The Red Storm trio, along with Da'Shena Stevens and Shenneika Smith of the STJ women's basketball team, will be honored on Tuesday at the 78th annual NIT/MBWA Awards Dinner in Westchester, N.Y.
In March, Hardy became the first St. John's player to be named an AP All-American since Erick Barkley was an Honorable Mention AP All-American for the 1999-2000 season. Earlier that month, Hardy earned District II Player of the Year honors from the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and was named to its All-District team. Hardy was a first-team All-BIG EAST selection and the conference's Most Improved Player. He was also named a candidate for the nation's player of the year as a top 20 finalist for the prestigious Wooden Award.
Hardy finished the season averaging a team-best 18.3 points, improving from 10.5 ppg in 2009-10 and ranking fourth among all BIG EAST players. Hardy was one of the top 3-point shooters in the BIG EAST, making 62 treys to average 1.9 per game and rank 12th in the conference. He was named BIG EAST Player of the Week a league-leading three times and earned weekly honors from the league five total times in 2010-11. After making the move from the team's shooting guard and sixth man to starting point guard and scoring leader, Hardy led the Red Storm on an exciting ride in 2011, culminating in the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance since a 2002 trip that was vacated by the NCAA. He was at his best in St. John's six wins over ranked opponents, a program-high since 1999-2000, averaging 23.3 points in victories over then-No. 13/13 Georgetown, then-No. 9/11 Notre Dame, then-No. 3/3 Duke, then-No. 10/9 Connecticut, then-No. 4/4 Pitt and then-No. 14/15 Villanova.
Dynamic senior swingman Kennedy was a six-time BIG EAST Honor Roll member in 2009-10 and is now a three-time All-Met selection by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers' Association (second team in 2010-11, first team in 2008-09 and 2009-10). He finished his career 12th on STJ's all-time scoring list with 1,504 career points, 11th on the all-time rebounding list with 781 boards and sixth on the all-time steals list with 183 thefts. Those totals make him one of only three players in St. John's history to total 1,450 points, 750 rebounds and 150 steals, joining legends Malik Sealy (2,402 points, 880 rebounds, 238 steals) and George Johnson (1,763 points, 1,240 rebounds, 153 steals). He also finished fifth in the BIG EAST in 2010-11 with 1.8 steals per game. A torn right ACL suffered vs. Syracuse in the BIG EAST Championship Tournament (March 10) kept him sidelined for the NCAA Tournament. He had successful surgery on April 8 and is in his second week of physical therapy.
The Most Outstanding Player of both the 2010 Great Alaska Shootout and Holiday Festival, Brownlee was in the starting lineup for 31 games in 2010-11 after making three starts in 2009-10. His 12.3 ppg ranked 25th among all league players, and his .494 field goal percentage was 12th (60th nationally).
St. John's inaugural campaign under head coach Steve Lavin included a 21-12 overall record, marking St. John's most wins since the 2002-03 season, with six Top 25 victories and four over Top 10 opponents. The USBWA District II Coach of the Year, Lavin transformed a team that finished in 13th place in the BIG EAST conference last season at 6-12 to a squad that tied for third this year at 12-6 - only twice before has a jump of such magnitude occurred in BIG EAST conference history. The Red Storm finished its season ranked 18th in the Associated Press Top 25, marking the first time it qualified for the postseason as a ranked team since 2000-01.
