G-Mac is first-team All-America East

Gerald McLemore earned first team All-America East honors. The postseason awards were handed out at a Friday afternoon banquet at the University of Hartford, where the men's and women's conference tournament is taking place. McLemore is the first Black Bear to make first team all-conference since Rickey White in 2003.

Joining McLemore on the first team are Muhammad El-Amin (Stony Brook), Marqus Blakely (Vermont), John Holland (Boston U.) and Greer Wright (Binghamton).

In a shocker, El-Amin was selected by league coaches as America East Player of the Year. Vermont's Marqus Blakely had won two straight and was a prohibitive favorite to win a third.

UMaine's Sean McNally was named third team all-conference. Junior Bernal was picked for the all-defense team and Murphy Burnatowski made the all-rookie team.

Binghamton's Dylan Talley beat out Burnatowski for the Rookie of the Year Award.

Stony Brook's Steve Pikiell was named Coach of the Year after leading Stony Brook to its first regular season title.

Second Team All-Conference
Corey Lowe (Boston U.), Alvin Abreu (New Hampshire), Tommy Brenton (Stony Brook), Bryan Dougher (Stony Brook) and Joe Zeglinski (Hartford).

Third Team All-Conference
Sean McNally (Maine), Jake O'Brien (Boston U.), Chauncey Gilliam (UMBC), Evan Fjeld (Vermont) and Maurice Joseph (Vermont).

Opinion
There's some inconsistency here. League coaches awarded El-Amin for being the most outstanding player on the team that won the regular season championship. That's fine, but Blakely impacts every game in every way possible. On top of that, he's at the top of the league charts in just about every statistical category imaginable. El-Amin is a scorer and that's about it. Don't get me wrong, he's a fine player and I have no problem if the emphasis is going to be on players who lead their teams to wins.

But that's where the inconsistency comes in. How then is Dylan Talley the Rookie of the Year? Sure, he led all rookies in scoring and he rebounds well as a guard. But Murphy Burnatowski has been productive on both ends of the floor and has helped his team to a third-place finish and 19 wins. Talley winning the award is not a surprise, but what worked for El-Amin evidently didn't come into play for Burnatowski.

You could also make a strong case for Stony Brook's Tommy Brenton or Bryan Dougher as first-team worthy. Brenton's the best rebounder in the league and is a ball-hawk on defense. Dougher is one of the top 3-point shooters in the league and, as a guard, only turned the ball over 19 times, yes, that's 19 times during the whole America East schedule. And they led Stony Brook to its first regular season title.

But when it came time for first-team honors, there's Binghamton's Greer Wright, who had a fine statistics, but his team was 13-18 and 8-8 for fifth-place in the league. It worked for El-Amin but not Brenton and Dougher. Seems like an awful lot of love for an sub-.500 team.

And then, on the third team is Maryland-Baltimore County's Chauncey Gilliam, the leading scorer on a 4-25 team.

You mean to tell me an all-around performer like Maine's Junior Bernal wouldn't have been a better fit there?