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Miye Oni named Ivy League POY; Mike Martin named top coach
- Updated: March 14, 2019
Miye Oni (Steve Musco photo)
Miye Oni, Yale star and top pro prospect, is the Ivy League POY and unanimous all-Ivy selection; Mike Martin of Brown is Coach of the Year
The third annual Ivy League Tournament will be played this weekend at Yale. Since what amounts to a four-team playoff has no bearing on the league’s yearly awards, the All-Ivy teams, and some individual honors, as selected by the coaches, have just been released.
Top individual honor went to Miye Oni of Yale, just a junior but completing what could be his final year as a college player if he enters the NBA draft, as generally predicted. Oni, whose parents are Nigerian, is from Porter Ranch, Calif.
In addition to being one of four unanimous selections, Oni was also selected Player of the Year.
Including out-conference games, he was third with 17.4 ppg, including 39.3 percent shooting three’s, good for third among the league leaders. Oni reached double figures in 25 games.
Pro scouts have been attending Yale games throughout the season, mostly to see Oni, but also to observe some other good prospects. The Ivy League has displayed arguably the best overall talent it ever had.
Others on the All-Ivy first team are AJ Brodeur (Pennsylvania), Bryce Aiken (Harvard), Matt Morgan (Cornell), and a tie for the fifth position between Myles Stephens (Princeton) and Alex Copeland (Yale). Brodeur, Aiken, and Morgan join Oni as unanimous choices.
Brodeur and Aiken are both juniors, while Stephens is the only first-year. Morgan and Copeland are seniors. Morgan is another strong pro prospect.
A player who probably would have been selected for all-Ivy honors is Devin Cannady, the Princeton high scorer, who withdrew from school late in the season after being charged with assault in an off-campus incident. At the time he announced his decision to leave, he said he would hire an agent and declare for the NBA draft.
The second team
The second All-Ivy team is led by two from Brown, Temenang Choh and Obi Okolie, along with the only foreign-born on the two teams, Gabe Stefanini (Columbia). He is from Bologna, Italy. The group is rounded out by Chris Knight (Dartmouth), Devon Goodman (Pennsylvania) and Richmond Aririguzoh (Princeton). Again, six players were included because of a tie in the voting. Honorable mention went to Patrick Tape (Columbia).
The break down by class starts with Choh, a first year, followed by sophomore Stefanini, two juniors, Goodman and Tape, and one senior, Okolie
Coach of the Year but not tournament bound
In a tribute to how well he is regarded by his fellow coaches, Mike Martin of Brown was voted Coach of the Year. Martin coached the Bears to tie its all-time record, set in 2008, for wins in a season with an overall ledger of 19-11. The Bears finished tied for fourth place in the league standings with Penn and Cornell (7-7). However, the tiebreaker rule kept the Bears from qualifying for the tournament.
Other awards include one for all in the family
Harvard’s Noah Kirkwood was voted Rookie of the Year. He is from Ottawa, Ontario (Canada) and joins Stefanini, a second-team selection, as the two honorees not born in the United States.
Brown’s Obi Okolie earned the Defensive Player of the Year nod. His brother, Agunwa Okolie, played at Harvard from 2012 to 2015, and he also was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. Obi and Agunwa Okolie thus become the first set of brothers to be so named.
Who says the Ivy League isn’t a family affair?
