Mid-American Conference

Cleveland, Ohio - Today the Mid-American Conference announced that Buffalo's Nick Perkins, teammate Dontay Caruthers & Ohio's Ben Vander Plas have earned top honors for the 2018-19 basketball season. Vander Plas was named Freshman of the Year, while Perkins was selected as the Sixth Man of the Year for the third consecutive season. In addition, Caruthers was tabbed as the MAC Defensive Player of the Year. The Defensive Player of the Year & Sixth Man of the Year were voted on by the league’s head coaches. The Freshman of the Year award was voted on by a 21-member MAC News Media Association Panel, as well as MAC head coaches.

Perkins become the first Division I player in the nation to ever earn Sixth Man of the Year honors three times. Perkins is averaging 14.9 points per game and a team-high 7.3 rebounds per contest. He is also the reigning MAC East Player of the Week. Perkins has hit the 20-point mark 10 times this year, including nine as a reserve, which is three more than any other bench player in the entire nation.  He had a career-best 27 points in Buffalo’s win over Kent State and added 26 points in a road win at Toledo.  Perkins went over 1,700 points for his career on Friday night and he is just two points shy of fifth place on UB’s all-time scoring list.

“Nick is one of the best big men in the league if not, in my opinion the best offensive big in our league,” said head coach Nate Oats. “For him to agree and be willing to and embrace the role of coming off the bench for three years now to help the team win speaks volumes to his character.  He's a great teammate and one of the best cheerleaders for Montell at the start of the game and then when comes in, he's focused and ready to go.”

Caruthers becomes the third player in MAC history win Defensive Player of the Year multiple times during his career.  Caruthers also won the award in 2017 during his sophomore seasons.  An All-MAC Defensive Team selection, Caruthers leads the entire MAC in charges drawn with 25. He is second on the team in steals, but offensive he is having the best year of his career, averaging 9.4 points per game.

Caruthers and fellow All-Defensive Team selection Davonta Jordan have been given the assignment of guarding some of top players in the nation and they have been up for the challenge as they helped the UB defense drop their points allowed by game by nearly 5.0 points per contest.

“Dontay is the definition of Buffalo blue collar basketball,” said Oats.  “He plays so hard and he has brought us an edge that we didn't have before he got here. I think the other coaches recognize what he means to us.  He enables us to play defense at a high level, which in turn gets us a lot of wins.”

Vander Plas finished his first season in the Green and White third on the team in scoring, averaging 8.8 points per game. He also added 5.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 41.5 percent from the field, 31.4 percent from three-point range and 70.7 percent from the free throw line. In MAC play, Vander Plas averaged 7.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. He shot 38.3 percent from the field, 27.5 percent from three-point range and 57.9 percent from the free throw line. Vander Plas scored in double figures 11 times this season, while recorded two double-doubles. He also had two 20-point games and led the Bobcats in scoring three times this season. 

"It's a well deserved honor for for Ben, " fifth-year head coach Saul Phillips said. "He came in and made an immediate impact with out program and I expect big things from him in the future."
 
The MAC Player of the Year & Coach of the Year awards will be announced tomorrow morning. MAC Men’s Basketball Quarterfinal games will take place Thursday starting at Noon. For more information about the MAC Men’s Basketball Tournament – CLICK HERE