Ejiofor adds two trophies to his collection

NEW YORK – St. John’s star center Zuby Ejiofor was named Big East Player of the Year on Wednesday ahead of the conference tournament and it wasn’t particularly close.

Leading the back-to-back Big East regular season champions in just about every statistical category, Ejiofor was the only player unanimously voted First Team All-League in addition to being the only unanimous pick for the All-Defensive Team. A 6-foot-9 senior from Garland, Texas, Ejiofor led the Red Storm and was top-10 in the league in points (16.0), rebounds (7.1), assists (3.5) and blocks (2.0) per game while shooting 52.9% from the floor, which was good for second in the league behind only UConn’s Tarris Reed Jr. (63.8%).

It was the second year in a row that St. John’s had a player at the press conference ahead of the Big East Tournament to accept the league’s top honor as Ejiofor followed his former point guard, R.J. Luis.

Ejiofor was also named Scholar-Athlete of the Year on Wednesday.

UConn saw its streak of Freshman of the Year winners come to an end as Nigel James Jr. accepted the award after leading Marquette in scoring at 16.4 points per game, in addition to his 4.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game.

And Shaheen Holloway, who Dan Hurley campaigned for, was named the league’s Coach of the Year for the first time after leading Seton Hall to the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament. The Pirates were picked to finish last in the preseason coaches’ poll.