Miller, O'Neill and Martin Receive NABC All-District Honors
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A pair of student-athletes from the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) men's basketball team have been named National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District for the 2022-23 season, it was announced by the association Tuesday. Graduate student wing Ryan O'Neill (Litchfield, Conn.) and senior point guard Jaecee Martin (Hartford, Conn.) were named to the All-District 1 Second Team. Second-year head coach Glen Miller also received distinction, being named the NABC District 1 Coach of the Year.
It marks the second consecutive year that USJ received NABC honors in men's basketball program history, after Martin earned All-District 1 First Team accolades following the 2021-22 campaign. O'Neill and Martin were two of 110 student-athletes in the nation who received at least a second-team level honor from the NABC. The All-District honors are voted on by NABC-member coaches across all of NCAA Division III. There are a total of 10 geographical districts with six student-athletes on each district's first team, including a Player of the Year, and five student-athletes on each district's second team. Each district also features a Coach of the Year. For the complete list of District 1 winners, please see below:
DISTRICT 1
FIRST TEAM
EJ Day – Lasell
Terion Moss – Maine-Farmington
Aaron Nkrumah – Worcester St.
Alex Sobel – Middlebury*
Spencer Spivy – Williams
Dylan Thoerner – Tufts
SECOND TEAM
Terry Dawkins – Albertus Magnus
Nicky Johnson – Wesleyan
Will King – Colby
Jaecee Martin – Saint Joseph (CT)
Ryan O'Neill – Saint Joseph (CT)
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Alex Sobel – Middlebury
COACH OF THE YEAR: Glen Miller – Saint Joseph (CT)
O'Neill paced the USJ offense in 2022-23, finishing as the team's leading scorer, averaging 15.7 points per game. The Litchfield, Conn. native shot lights out from the floor, posting a 45.2 percent shooting clip from the field and a 39.1 percent mark from long range. The graduate student also hauled in 3.9 rebounds per game, while playing a role in a defense that currently ranks first in the nation in field-goal percentage defense (35.9 percent) and three-point field-goal percentage defense (27.0 percent). In addition to the NABC accolade, O'Neill was also named to the All-GNAC First Team for the first time in his career earlier this season.
Martin was a jack-of-all trades at the point guard position for the Blue Jays in 2022-23, finishing second on the team in scoring (11.8 ppg), while grabbing 3.2 rebounds and dishing out 3.3 assists per game. The Hartford native was a menace on defense, leading the team with 1.7 steals per game. As a result of his stellar play, Martin repeated as an All-GNAC First Team selection for the third consecutive season when the conference announced its year-end awards following the conclusion of the GNAC Tournament.
Coach Miller, along with O'Neill and Martin, helped propel the Blue Jays to a historic 2022-23 campaign, guiding the team to a 29-2 overall record and the team's third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The season saw the Blue Jays take hold of the No. 1 ranking in the nation according to D3hoops.com, holding onto the top spot for nine consecutive weeks. USJ earned the GNAC's first-ever at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and hosted the first two rounds for the first time in GNAC and program history. The Blue Jays went on to earn the first-ever NCAA Tournament victory across all 16 programs in USJ school history, defeating Chatham University in the First Round. They then defeated Williams College in the Second Round to become just the third-ever GNAC school to advance to the Sweet Sixteen in men's basketball. The men's basketball team's historic run then came to a close in the Sweet Sixteen, falling to Wheaton College (Ill.).
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