March 4, 2010

VIDEO of Long and Hancock discussing winning their awards

Richmond, Va. - George Mason junior guard Cam Long was named Second-Team All-CAA on Thursday night while freshman guard/forward Luke Hancock was selected to the CAA All-Rookie Team as the selections by the leagues coaches, sports information directors and media members were announced at the annual CAA Awards Banquet. It is the 16th-straight season Mason has had a player selected to the All-Conference Team and Long is the 45th Mason player to be named All-Conference in the CAA's history. No team has had more All-CAA selections than Mason.

Long, who leads Mason in scoring, assists and steals for the second straight season, improved on last year when he was named third-team All-CAA. His scoring, assists and steals per game numbers are better than last season and he enters the CAA Tournament averaging 12.5 points, 3.2 assists and 1.3 steals. He is the only player to start all 30 games for Mason this year. Long has scored in double figures 16 times and 20 or more six times. He has led Mason in scoring 11 times this year while also leading the club in assists on 17 different occasions.

Luke Hancock was named to the CAA All-Rookie Team.

Hancock has played in all 30 games with three starts this year and he has averaged 7.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists while shooting 51.5 percent from the field. He flirted with a triple-double in back-to-back games earlier this season when he had eight points, nine rebounds and seven assists against Georgia Tech and nine points, eight rebounds and eight assists against Indiana. Twice named CAA Rookie of the Week, Hancock has scored in double figures 10 times. His scoring average is the most by a Mason freshman since Lamar Butler averaged 10.4 points in 2001-02. He is the 15th Mason player to be named to the All-Rookie Team.

Hofstra's Charles Jenkins was named CAA Player of the Year. He enters the CAA Tournament as the only player in the conference averaging 20 points per game. Chaisson Allen and Matt Janning of Northeastern, Gerald Lee of Old Dominion and Larry Sanders of VCU joined Jenkins on the All-CAA first team. Long was joined on the second team by Jawan Carter of Delaware, Denzel Bowles of James Madison, Joey Rodriguez of VCU and David Schneider of William & Mary. The All-CAA third-team was made up of Jamie Harris of Drexel, Joe Dukes of Georgia State, Julius Wells of James Madison, Ben Finney of Old Dominion and Quinn McDowell of William & Mary.

Larry Sanders was named the CAA Defensive Player of the Year. He was joined on the squad by Allen, Greg Washington of Hofstra, Ken Bazemore of Old Dominion and Robert Nwankwo of Towson. Chris Fouch was chosen CAA Rookie of the Year. He and Hancock were joined on the All-Rookie Team by Halil Kanacevic and Chaz Williams of Hofstra and Darren White of James Madison. Tony Shaver of William & Mary, which was picked to finish 10th in the preseason poll but finished tied with Mason for third, was named Coach of the Year while Schneider was presented with the Dean Ehlers Leadership Award.

The Patriots will return to action on Saturday when they play in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament. Fourth-seeded Mason has a first-round bye and will face either fifth-seeded VCU or 12th-seeded Delaware at 2:30 p.m.