COBLESKILL’S JACKSON NAMED REGION III PLAYER-OF-THE-YEAR/CRICHLOW NAMED SECOND TEAM ALL-REGION
SUNY Cobleskill men’s basketball standout senior Prince Jackson, Schenectady, NY, Schenectady High School, has been named the NJCAA Region III Player-of-the-Year and by the region’s coaches. Jackson becomes the third Fighting Tiger to earn Region III Player-of-the-Year honors during the tenure of Cobleskill Head Coach Kevin McCarthy. Fellow Fighting Tiger Keith Crichlow, Central Islip, NY, Central Islip High School, also was selected to the All-Region III Second Team by the region’s coaches.
During the season, Jackson averaged 21.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game in 32 starts for the Fighting Tigers this season. The 6’6” swingman connected on 252 of 545 attempts from the field for a 48.1% mark on the year including an impressive 53 of 139 from beyond the three-point stripe. The Cobleskill co-captain also hit on 102 of 143 attempts from the charity stripe for a 71.3 % average. He closes his career as the program leader in career scoring with 1132 points and finishes fourth in career rebounding with 457 boards. Jackson was recently selected as Mountain Valley Conference Player-of-the-Year and was named to the league’ First Team by the conference’s coaches. He was also a First Team All-Mountain Valley Conference and the First Team NJCAA All-Region III honors during his freshman campaign.
“People always ask me about who the best player that I’ve coached at Cobleskill is and I always make it a point not to answer the question,” said Fighting Tiger Head Coach Kevin McCarthy. “But if someone were to come up to me and tell me that Prince is the best player we’ve ever had here, I’m not sure that I could argue very strongly against that statement. Prince’s high school coach Mark Sausville told me that we were getting a good player when we signed Prince. He forgot to mention what a hard worker, intense competitor and good person we were also getting. Prince is a fine young man who is a credit to his family and his community. We’re all going to miss him next season on many levels.”
Keith Crichlow made the transition from a reserve player as a freshman to the starting five as a senior and brought a diversified game to the Fighting Tiger line-up. In 32 starts, the 6’2” shooting guard averaged 13.1 points, 4.6 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals per contest. He was named as a Third Team All-Mountain Valley Conference selection by the MVC coaches. His play throughout the season brought high praise from Coach McCarthy.
“Keith is the type of player that people tend overlook because he does a number of things very well but tends to blend into the background of the team’s success,” said McCarthy. “He is the kind of player that guys love to play with because he makes you look better because of his intelligence and unselfishness. I’ve enjoyed working with Keith these past two seasons because of his work ethic and his commitment to winning. I think his best basketball is still ahead of him.”
The Fighting Tigers closed the season with a 25-7 overall record, including a 13-5 record in Mountain Valley Conference play, advancing to the 2004 NJCAA Region III Finals. Cobleskill concluded the year ranked sixth in the final NJCAA Division III National Poll. During the twelve years of Head Coach Kevin McCarthy tenure the Fighting Tigers have recorded a 262-97 overall record and posted a streak of ten consecutive twenty-win seasons and twelve consecutive NJCAA post-season tournament appearances. During this time period twenty-six Fighting Tiger players have earned All-Region III honors.
