Craig Wise & Jenel Stevens Named 2017 Canisius College MAAC Basketball Honor Roll Inductees
EDISON, NJ – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) has announced its first two institutional honorees to be inducted in the MAAC Honor Roll, in which honorees will be enshrined in “The MAAC Experience” exhibit at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, September 16.
Each member institution of the MAAC honors one male and one female from its basketball “family” as part of the 2017 induction class. A dinner event will be on Saturday, September 16 at the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Court of Dreams to recognize the Honor Roll inductees.
Each honoree will be profiled in the game program for the 2018 MAAC Basketball Championships, and will also be featured in a video display at “The MAAC Experience.”
Craig Wise ‘95
Considered the “back bone” of the famed Canisius team that advanced to the NIT semifinals in Madison Square Garden in 1995, Wise ended his career on Main Street as just the fourth player in school history to lead his team in scoring in three-straight seasons (1992-94). The program’s first MAAC Rookie of the Year, Wise would go on to score 1,799 points, grab 784 rebounds, dish out 353 assists and record 218 steals in 121 games as a Griff. Through 113 seasons of Canisius basketball, the Philadelphia, Pa., native ranks third all-time in career scoring, fifth in career rebounding, eighth in career assists and second in career steals. In all, Wise ranks in the top-10 in 12 different career statistical categories, and he is the only player in school history to close out his career with more than 1,500 points, 700 rebounds and 350 assists.
Wise earned first-team All-MAAC honors in 1993-94 and helped lead the Griffs to a 12-2 conference record en route to the program’s only MAAC regular-season title. A MAAC All-Tournament Team selection in 1994, he averaged 18.0 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in two postseason contests, highlighted by his 23 point, 10 rebound effort in the Griffs semifinal round loss to Loyola Maryland in Albany’s Knickerbocker Arena.
After starting the 1994-95 season as a Preseason All-MAAC selection, Wise averaged 16.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.1 steals per game in 35 contests. For his efforts, he was again named All-MAAC First Team and became the first player in school history to be honored as the MAAC Player of the Year. The 1994-95 edition of the Griffs won 18 regular season games, including the school’s last win over a ranked opponent when the Blue and Gold defeated No. 13 Cincinnati on the road, and posted a 10-4 mark in conference action. Canisius earned a second-straight NIT berth in Wise’s senior season, and the Griffs ended up advancing to the NIT semifinals in Madison Square Garden thanks to three victories, where Wise was good for 17.4 points per contest, highlighted by his career-high 32 point effort in the team’s loss to Virginia Tech in a semifinal game.
A two-time team captain, he graduated from Canisius in 1995 with his degree in physical education. He was enshrined into the Canisius Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. He was the 48th men’s basketball player in school history to be voted into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Jenel Stevens ‘04, MS ‘05
Stevens, one of the most decorated female student-athletes in Canisius history, will be enshrined in “The MAAC Experience” exhibit at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., on Saturday, Sept. 16.
A three-time All-MAAC honoree and the program’s second conference Player of the Year, Stevens ranks fourth in the school’s record book with 1,590 career points and third with her 876 career rebounds. A member of the MAAC’s 25th Anniversary Team, the Freeport, N.Y., native earned All-MAAC Second Team accolades after her sophomore season in 2001-02 where she averaged 13.1 points per game for the Blue and Gold.
In 2002-03, Stevens scored 615 total points, second most for a single-season in school history, and earned first team All-MAAC honors after she averaged a double-double with 20.5 points and 10.1 boards per contest. She started that season by tying a school record with seven 3-point field goals in a win over Stetson, and her perfect 7-for-7 effort from behind the arc in that game still stands as a school record to this day. As a senior in 2003-04, she became just the second player in program history to earn MAAC Player of the Year honors after she posted 16.6 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. In addition to earning All-MAAC First Team honors for a second-straight season, she was tabbed as the 2003-04 MAAC Co-Defensive Player of the Year, making her the first Griff to be acknowledged as the league’s top defensive player.
The first two-time Canisius Female Athlete of the Year, Stevens ranks in the top-10 of 10 different career statistical categories in the Canisius record book, and her 1,590 career points ranks among the top-40 in MAAC women’s basketball history. After he playing career ended, she spent the 2004-05 season on head coach Terry Zeh’s staff and was a part of Canisius’ MAAC Tournament championship team, the first Division I women’s basketball program in Western New York to advance to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship event.
A two-time team captain and the 2003-04 MAAC Preseason Player of the Year, Stevens graduated from Canisius with her undergraduate degree in business management in 2004, and she earned her master’s degree in sport administration from the College in 2005. She became the 12th former women’s basketball player in school history to be enshrined into the College’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.