Six members of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Tigers men's basketball team have earned AUS honours for their performance in the 2021-22.
Sam Maillet, a second-year guard from Moncton, New Brunswick has been named the AUS defensive player of the year. He averaged 1.6 steals and 3.4 defensive rebounds per game this season and also finished third in the conference in blocks with 12 and averaged five rebounds per game.Â
The Tigers were a defensive force in the regular season, leading the league with a points-against average of 68.8.
Maillet is the third player from the Tigers to be named AUS defensive player of the year. Xavier Ochu last earned the honour for the Tigers in the 2019-2020 season, while Ritchie Kanza Mata earned the honour twice—in 2014-15 and 2016-17.
Alex Carson and Keevan Veinot have both been named AUS first team all-stars.
A fifth-year guard, Carson led the Tigers in scoring, averaging 18.8 points per game - good for third in the confernce. The Lower Sackville, N.S. native shot a league-leading 87.3% during the regular season with 42.7 accuracy from three-point territory. The AUS championship MVP in 2019-20, this is Carson's fourth AUS all-star nod.
Veinot, a fourth-year guard from Port Williams, N.S., was fourth in the conference this year, averaging 18.5 points per game in 11 regular season games. He led the Tigers with 3.5 assists per game. The 2019-20 AUS MVP and championship all-star, this is Veinot's second-straight AUS first team all-star selection.
Fourth-year guard Shamar Burrows was named an AUS second team all-star. The Nassau, Bahamas native was third in scoring for Â鶹´«Ã½, averaging 14.8 points per game in his 13 appearances this year, shooting 73.3%. He led the Tigers in rebounding with 6.7 per game.
First-year guard Nginyu Ngala averaged 10.9 points per game this year to earn a spot on the AUS all-rookie team. The Montreal Q.C. native shot 82.9% from the free throw line and averaged 2.4 assists per game in his 14 appearances, playing an average of 24 minutes per game.
In his ninth season at the helm of the Â鶹´«Ã½ program, Rick Plato has been selected by his peers as the AUS coach of the year for the fourth time in his career.
This year, the AUS defending champions finished with a 12-2 regular-season record and a first-place finish in the conference standings. They averaged 83.4 points per game, 34.5 rebounds per game and had the second-highest free-throw percentage (75.9) and three-point percentage (33.3) in the conference. Â鶹´«Ã½ also had the best field goal percentage in the AUS at 46.7.
The Tigers were also a force to be reckoned with defensively, allowing a conference low points-against average of 68.8.
Under coach Plato's leadership, the Tigers have taken home five of the last six AUS championship titles and a national silver and bronze medal. This week, they’ll go into the 2022 Subway AUS Championship ranked fifth in the country.
Plato first earned the conference's coach of the year honour in back-to-back seasons in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and again in 2019-2020. He will now represent the AUS as the nominee for U SPORTS coach of the year, an award he won after the 2019-2020 season.