March 6, 2007
New York, N.Y. - Georgetown University junior men's basketball player Jeff Green (Hyattsville, Md./Northwestern) was named the BIG EAST Conference's Player of the Year at a press conference at the Grand Hyatt prior to the league's postseason tournament Tuesday night.
In a vote of the league's 16 coaches, the Hoyas co-captain was named the league's player of the year. It is the sixth time a Georgetown player has been named the league's player of the year and Green is the sixth Hoya to earn the award, joining Alonzo Mourning (1991-92), Charles Smith (1988-89), Reggie Williams (1986-87), Patrick Ewing (1983-84, 1984-85) and John Duren (1979-80).
Green led Georgetown to the BIG EAST Regular Season Championship this year as the Hoyas went 13-3 in conference play, clinching the league title with a 59-46 win over Connecticut on March 3 at Verizon Center. The Blue and Gray are 23-6 overall and ranked No. 9 in the country by the Associated Press and in the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Coaches' poll. The Hoyas, winners of 12 of their last 13 games, enter the BIG EAST Tournament as the conference's No. 1 seed. The team will play the winner of a first round matchup between eighth-seeded DePaul and ninth-seeded Villanova on Thursday, March 8 at noon at Madison Square Garden.
The 6-9 forward, who was a unanimous selection to the All-BIG EAST First Team on Monday, leads the Hoyas in scoring (13.6 points per game) and assists (3.5 per game), while ranking second on the team in rebounds (5.9 per game) and in blocked shots (1.2 per game). He has connected on 51.6 percent of his field goals (145-of-281), 41.0 percent of his three-point attempts (34-of-83) and 76.7 percent of his free throws (69-of-90). Green ranks 21st in the BIG EAST in scoring, 12th in field goal percentage and 13th in blocked shots per game.
In conference games, Green led the team in scoring (15.1 points) and assists (3.5 per game) and was second in rebounding, grabbing 5.4 boards per game. In 16 league games this year, he connected on 50.5 percent of his shots from the field (93-of-184), 39.3 percent of his three-point attempts (22-of-56) and 73.3 percent of his free throws (33-of-45). He was 11th in the league in scoring and field goal percentage and 15th in the league in assists and blocked shots.
Green became the 37th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark for his career earlier this season. He enters the BIG EAST Tournament standing 23rd all-time at Georgetown with 1,204 points, 21st all-time with 598 rebounds and 14th all-time with 302 assists. Should he grab two more rebounds, he will be one of only two players in Georgetown history with at least 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 300 assists, joining Reggie Williams (1983-87) in that elite group.
Green, who was named BIG EAST Player of the Week twice this season, was a first-team District 4 selection from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. This is the third time in three years the junior forward has earned all-league honors as he was a second-team selection in 2005-06 and was named the league's Co-Rookie of the Year in 2004-05.
