ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (Mar. 8, 2023) – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), today announced the 2022-23 Men’s Basketball Major Award winners, as voted on by the league’s 11 head coaches.
Headlining the 2022-23 major award winners was Iona University’s Walter Clayton Jr., garnering MAAC Player of the Year accolades. Also receiving hardware was Clayton’s teammate Berrick JeanLouis and Manhattan College’s Josh Roberts, being named as MAAC Co-Defensive Players of the Year, while Fairfield University’s TJ Long was selected as MAAC Sixth Player of the Year, and Siena College’s Michael Eley was chosen as MAAC Rookie of the Year.
Clayton helped lead the Gaels to its second consecutive MAAC Regular Season title, earning a unanimous selection to the All-MAAC First Team along the way. The sophomore guard was Iona’s leading scorer, tallying 16.5 points per game, good for third in the MAAC, 3.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.9 steals. One of the most efficient scorers in the conference, Clayton led the country in free throw percentage, successfully making 94.4 percent of his shots at the charity stripe, while also ranking third in the MAAC in three-point field goal percentage, and 15th in field goal percentage. A native of Lake Wales, Florida, he also landed in the league’s top-10 in assists, steals, and assist/turnover ratio. Clayton becomes the second-consecutive Gael – 10th in program history – to win MAAC Player of the Year, joining his former teammate Tyson Jolly.
JeanLouis was sixth in the league in blocked shots, rejecting 1.1 shots per game en route to Defensive Player of the Year honors. The 6-foot-4 senior guard from Florida helped the Gaels finish first in the league in field goal percentage defense and turnover margin, while ranking second in three point percentage defense. JeanLouis also helped guide Iona to a second straight Regular Season title. He wins the award for Iona for only the second time in program history, joining Ricky Soliver who won it in 2005-06.
Roberts ascended from third in the league in blocks last year, to MAAC leader this year with 1.8 blocks per game and 50 total blocks, to earn Defensive Player of the Year. He was the top rebounder in the conference, pulling in 9.7 per outing and totaling 264, while also ranking first in the MAAC in defensive rebounds, recording a 6.4 average. Roberts joins former Jasper’s Pauly Paulicap and Rhamel Brown as the only Manhattan players with the distinction.
Named as the best reserve in the MAAC, Long averaged 10.5 points and 2.9 rebound per game. The New York native was eighth in the league in three pointers made per game, while shooting 32 percent from deep, and 86 percent from the line. Long recorded 20 or more points four times in his sophomore campaign, to become the fourth Stag in school history to claim Sixth Player of the Year. He is the first since 2013-14 when Maurice Barrow won the award.
A unanimous All-Rookie Team choice, Eley played in over 20 minutes per game off the bench, suiting up 28 times with one start. Coming from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he scored in double figures 12 times, averaging 9.2 points, while also collecting 2.8 rebounds. He surpassed 20 points a pair of times, both coming against Mount St. Mary’s. Eley scored exactly 20 points against the Mount on Jan. 20 and he followed that up with a career mark of 23 points on Feb. 10 against the Mount. Moreover, Eley ranked top-25 in three-point field goal percentage during his rookie campaign. The freshman won six MAAC Rookie of the Week awards in 2022-23, which tied for the most in the league. Eley is the sixth Saint to hoist the top rookie honor, the first since Jalen Picket in 2018-19.
The 2022-23 campaign culminates with the 2023 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships from March 7-11 at Atlantic City's Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall for the fourth consecutive year. For all information regarding the 2023 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, please visit
MAACSports.com/basketball and by following @MAACHoops and #MAACHoops on Twitter. For tickets to the 2023 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, please visit
ticketmaster.com.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 42nd year of competition during the 2022-23 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona University, Manhattan College, Marist College, Mount St. Mary’s University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.
Stay up to date with the MAAC on social media by following @MAACSports on
Twitter,
Facebook and
Instagram or visit
MAACSports.com for all the latest MAAC news.