College Basketball
Rider's Thompson MAAC Preseason Player of Year
Meyers on Women's First Team Preseason Team
Men Picked Third, Women Fourth
NEW YORK, NY-For the second time in three years, a Rider University basketball player named Thompson has been named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year.
Senior Ryan Thompson (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) was named the MAAC Preseason Player of the Year at the annual MAAC Basketball Media Day on Tuesday, held at the ESPN Zone NYC. "This is a great opportunity," Thompson said. "This is an honor but it will be even better to be the post-season Player of the Year. I'd like to thank everyone in the MAAC who voted for me."
Prior to the 2007-08 season Ryan's older brother Jason, currently playing in the NBA as a member of the Sacramento Kings, received the same award. Jason went on to win the MAAC Player of the Year award, leading Rider to the MAAC Championship Game and was a lottery pick in the NBA draft.
"I'm proud of Ryan," said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey, "He has worked really hard. This is a player who was not on the MAAC All-Rookie team. There are five or six players still in the league who were on that All-Rookie team, so this shows how far he has come during his career. He has gotten better each and every year. This is a real tribute to his great work ethic."
The Rider men's team was picked to finish third after a third place finish last year in the 10-team conference, the 13th ranked basketball conference in the nation. "That is pretty much where we thought we'd be picked," Dempsey said.
Defending champion Siena is picked to repeat as champs and Niagara is picked second, "Those two teams are coming off 27, 28-win seasons, and both have four starters back, so they are both deserving of being in the top two spots and we felt we would be picked behind them. Now we have to work hard to close the gap."
Fairfield was picked fourth, while Saint Peter's and Loyola were picked to finish fifth. Canisius was seventh, Manhattan was picked eighth, Iona was ninth and Marist was picked tenth.
Also picked on the Preseason All-MAAC teams from Rider were sophomore Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, PA/John Bartram) and senior Mike Ringgold (Philadelphia, PA/Roman Catholic), who were both Third Team selections.
The Rider women were picked to finish fourth, their highest preseason selection ever, after a seventh place finish last year. Four-time defending champion Marist was picked to win the Women's Title.
Senior Tammy Meyers (Willingboro), a Second Team All-MAAC pick last year, was selected to the First Team All-MAAC Preseason team this year.
In Thompson's three seasons at Rider the Broncs have won 58 games, the most over a three-year period in the program's 79-year history.
He enters his senior year ranked 15th at Rider in career scoring (1,313 points).
Last year Thompson was named First Team All-MET, First Team All-MAAC, National Association of Basketball Coaches First Team All-District 1 and collegeinsider.com Mid-Major All-American. He ranked second in the MAAC in scoring (18.0), first in minutes played (38.2), second in three-point field goal percentage (.422), seventh in assists (3.3), eighth in field goal percentage (.509), eighth in free throw percentage (.773), 11th in rebounding (6.5) and 11th in three-pointers made (32).
The Broncs lost in the MAAC semifinals and Thompson was named to the MAAC All-Tournament team.
As a sophomore Thompson was a Second Team All-MET and Second Team All-MAAC selection and was named to the collegeinsider.com Mid-Major All-America team.
Joining Thompson on the First Team were Bilal Benn and Tyrone Lewis of Niagara and Ronald Moore and Edwin Ubiles of Siena.
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