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St. John’s Hardy, Kennedy, Brownlee Honored by MBWA, But Jenkins Wins 3rd Haggerty Award

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With all the accolades that the Johnnies have been awarded this season, there was one they were unable to bring home.

DJ Kennedy finished a stellar career at St. John's. He was a six-time BIG EAST Honor Roll member in 2009-10 and is now a three-time All-Met selection by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers’ Association (second team in 2010-11, first team in 2008-09 and 2009-10). He finished his career 12th on STJ’s all-time scoring list with 1,504 career points, 11th on the all-time rebounding list with 781 boards and sixth on the all-time steals list with 183 thefts.
St. John’s Dwight Hardy, who was very much in the conversation for the award after averaging 18.3 points per game, being named to the All-Big East First team, and leading the Red Storm to their first NCAA appearance since 2002, did not do quite enough to be named the Metro Area’s best player.

For the third season in a row, Hofstra guard Charles Jenkins has won the Haggerty Award, given to the Division I Player of the Year in the New York-Metro area.

“The first time I won the award one of the things I did was to look at the list of winners to see who won before me and I saw the names of the three-time winners and I didn’t think of doing that,” Jenkins told the Wall Street Journal. “Instead I looked at it as a reason to grow. It’s been tremendous.”

Jenkins, who was sixth in the nation with 22.6 points per game this past season, becomes part of an elite group, becoming only the third player in history to win the award three times. He joins Columbia’s Jack McMillan (1968-1970) and St. John’s Hall of Famer Chris Mullin (1983-1985), quite exclusive company for the Queens native.

But St. John’s did not come out empty-handed.

Dwight Hardy picked up All-Met First Team honors, and teammates DJ Kennedy and Justin Brownlee were both named to the Second Team.

Before going down with a torn ACL in the Big East Tournament, an injury for which he is now rehabbing, Kennedy had another strong season across the board for the Red Storm. He averaged over 10 points, 5 rebounds, and nearly 2 steals, including 20 points and 11 rebounds in a win over eventual National Champion Connecticut at Madison Square Garden.

Justin Brownlee, in his second season with the Red Storm after transferring from Chipola Junior College (FL), was the Most Outstanding Player in both the Great Alaska Shootout and the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. On the season, he averaged over 12 points and 5 rebounds, being one of the most versatile players for the Johnnies.

St. John’s has a strong history in the All-Met Awards, having 24 winners in the history of the Haggerty Award. The next-closest school is Seton Hall, with 9 total winners.

The last Johnny to win the Haggerty Award was Marcus Hatten in 2001-2002

Read the Official Press Release from St. John’s.

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