Hart, Wright Among Finalists For Freshman of the Year Award

Hart, Wright Among Finalists For Freshman of the Year Award

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MAAC Sports

EDISON, N.J. – Two of the top freshmen in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, guards Khallid Hart of Marist and Marquis Wright of Siena, has been named finalists for the 2014 Kyle Macy National Freshman of the Year Award.

Hart and Wright are two of just 25 finalists for the Kyle Macy Award, which is presented annually to the top freshman in Division I college basketball. The winner of the 2014 Macy Award will be announced at the CollegeInsider.com Awards Banquet Friday in Dallas, site of the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

Wright has helped lead Siena to an 11-win improvement from last year, and to the championship round of the CBI Tournament. Siena, now 19-17, won Game One of the best of three championship series with Fresno State on Monday night, and hosts the Bulldogs in the Alumni Recreation Center on the Siena campus on Wednesday. The game will be nationally televised on the CBS Sports Network. Last year, the Saints were 8-24.

Wright leads the MAAC in assists with 5.4 per game, and also averages 8.4 points and 1.8 steals per game. Wright was a MAAC All-Rookie Team selection and three-time conference Rookie of the Week.

Hart was the MAAC’s Rookie of the Year as selected by the conference’s coaches. He was a seven-time Rookie of the Week selection. Hart averaged 14.7 points, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game, all of which ranked second on the team. He ranked in the conference’s top 15 in scoring (14th), field goal percentage (15th), assists (13th), free throw percentage (9th), steals (9th), three-point percentage (12th) and minutes (8th).

Macy, who was the 1975 Indiana “Mr. Basketball” played his freshman season at Purdue University, averaging 13.8 points a game. He then transferred to the University of Kentucky in 1976. He was a three time All-America and three-time All-SEC player, and a member of Kentucky’s 1978 National Championship team. In his senior year of 1979-80. Macy was first Kentucky player ever to be named consensus Southeastern Conference Player of the Year.