Steve Donahue named Atlantic 10 coach of the year; St. Joe’s earns five player awards
The first-year coach led the Hawks to a No. 3 seed in the conference tournament, their highest seed since the 2004-05 season.
St. Joseph’s earned six Atlantic 10 postseason honors on Wednesday, including Steve Donahue being named the conference’s coach of the year in his first season at the helm.
Center Justice Ajogbor earned a spot on the all-defensive team and was co-defensive player of the year. Guard Derek Simpson was named to the all-conference first team and guard Jaiden Glover Toscano was named to the second team. Guard Austin Williford also earned a spot on the all-freshman team. The awards were selected by the conference’s 14 coaches.
Donahue was hired by the Hawks as associate head coach under Billy Lange in May after nine seasons as Penn. Lange departed for an assistant coaching role with the New York Knicks on Sept. 10 and Donahue was promoted to head coach.
St. Joe’s started conference play 0-2 and leading scorer Deuce Jones II departed the team on Dec. 23. The Hawks finished the season 13-3 in the conference and 21-10 overall to earn the third seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament, their highest seed since the 2004-05 season.
Ajogbor is the team’s leader in blocks with 69 blocks, which ranks 14th in the country. He was second in the conference in blocks per game and had 11 games with three or more rejections.
Simpson became one of the Hawks’ top players and was the fuel behind their midseason turnaround. He averaged 13.7 points and ranked second in the Atlantic 10 with 5.2 assists per game. The Mount Laurel native was named conference’s player of the week twice and had five games with at least 20 points in A-10 play and had three with 10 or more assists.
Glover-Toscano became St. Joe’s leading scorer at 15.8 points per game after transferring in from St. John’s. He became a steady hand beyond the arc as his 78 three-pointers rank fifth in the conference. He also dropped 20 points in 11 games this season.
» READ MORE: Point guard Derek Simpson is assisting in St. Joseph’s turnaround: ‘We can be unstoppable’
Williford played a role off the bench before joining the starting lineup. He scored 7.8 points per game, fourth among freshmen in the conference.
The Hawks earned a double bye in the conference tournament in Pittsburgh and will play in the quarterfinal game on Friday (CNBC, 7:30 p.m.). They will face the winner of the second-round game with Davidson, which will play the winner of the first-round game between Richmond and Loyola Chicago.