CHICAGO — No stranger to the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference men’s basketball honor roll, Olivet Nazarene University’s Nic Reed (New Albany, Ind.) capped off his brilliant career by capturing his second straight CCAC Player of the Year award Monday night when the league recognized its top athletes and teams.
Reed also completed the four-year sweep of being a first-team all-conference selection, beginning with the 2016-17 campaign when he was also recognized as the CCAC Freshman of the Year. The 6-5 forward produced another monster year in 2019-20 by ranking among the top four players in the league in no fewer than six statistical categories and among the Top 20 in the nation in four areas.
In the conference, Reed topped the scoring chart with his 22.5 points-per-game average, while ranking second in three-point field goal accuracy (.477). He also finished third in field goal percentage (.581), rebounds per game (9.3) and double-doubles (14) and fourth-best with his .836 free throw shooting mark.
On the national stage, Reed’s top rankings came in scoring and shooting beyond the arc, where he was 13th-best in both categories. He was also 15th in field goal percentage and 20th in rebounding.
Reed helped propel the Tigers to a share of the conference regular-season title, which led to the program receiving the most postseason accolades with five. Olivet Nazarene was also the only team to land four all-conference picks with two on the five-member first team, one on the ten-member second team and one on the ten-member honorable mention list.
Conference co-champion Holy Cross College was the only other school to put one player on each of the three teams and collected four awards total. Conference tournament champion Indiana University South Bend and Saint Xavier University were next in line with three honors each. Saint Xavier had all three as all-conference selections, while Indiana South Bend had two and one individual top award winner.
That was Kourtlandt Martin (Evansville, Ind.), who paired up his first-team honor with his designation as the CCAC Newcomer of the Year. The 6-0 senior guard produced four top-ten marks in the league, while also averaging 14.2 points per game, which was 18th best. His top billings came in assists per game (5th, 3.78), free throw percentage (7th, .797), steals per game (8th, 1.69) and field goal percentage (10th, .492).
Besides Martin and Reed, the rest of the five-member first team was made up of Holy Cross’ Larenzo Moore (Chicago, Ill.), Indiana University Northwest’s Rashad Richardson (Lafayette, Ind.) and Olivet Nazarene’s Alex Gross (Hope, Ind.).
Indiana Northwest, Calumet College of St. Joseph, Governors State University and St. Ambrose University all scored two spots on the all-conference team, while Roosevelt University, Robert Morris University Illinois, Cardinal Stritch University, Trinity Christian College and University of St. Francis each gained one selection.
Recognized as the CCAC Freshman of the Year was Roosevelt’s Josh Redic (Chicago, Ill.). The guard averaged 12.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, while ranking fourth in the league in three-point field goals made (2.6).
The final individual honor went to Holy Cross head coach Mike McBride, who was named the first-ever Ralph Hodge CCAC Coach of the Year. The award was renamed this season in honor of the 40-year veteran head coach of the Olivet Nazarene program, who passed away in November, 2018. McBride led the Saints to a share of their first-ever CCAC regular-season crown and are currently ranked No. 9 in the nation with a 26-6 mark.
Rounding out the list of awards winners was Judson University, which captured its second consecutive Champions of Character Team Award.
For the complete list of award winners, go to Awards.