Top 10 Moments: #7 - Louison's Outstanding Rookie Campaign Nets Rookie of the Year Honors
It is not often that a freshman makes the type of impact that David Louison made this past season. The highly touted St. Edmund Prep recruit averaged a double-double in his rookie campaign averaging a team second-best 12.8 points on a team-high 48.8 percent shooting while grabbing a team-best 10.3 rebounds (finishing 22nd in the nation).
Louison helped lead the Bears to a five-win improvement over last season and their highest win total in the last five seasons and for his efforts was named the Atlantic Region Men’s Basketball Rookie of the Year by D3Hoops.com, besting candidates from 30 other schools in the region. It also marks the first major award received from the respected Division III sports authority, in the program's first full year of NCAA membership. Louison added to his growing list of accolades which included AD3I Rookie of the Year and First-Team All-Independent honors, USCAA All-American Honorable Mention and a HVMAC All-Conference Team selection.
Coupled with strong play from veteran seniors Justin Gist and Antoine Forehand and junior Jan Rogowski, the Bears provided a flair for the dramatic all season with key victories at home over CUNYAC foes John Jay, Lehman and CCNY and a near upset in the East vs. West game against St. Joseph’s (L.I.), the then top-ranked team in the Atlantic Region, before finding their comeback bid in the HVMAC title game fall short to Berkeley.
To put into perspective how impressive the rookie forward's season was in Bears' history1, aside from being ranked nationally, his 346 points was the second-highest single-season rookie tally and his 278 rebounds set a new single-season Bears record by any player. Louison's 10 double-doubles matched the single-season team record set by former assistant coach Luke Caccavo and current assistant Lukasz Cygan, who both set the mark in their senior seasons. And one could easily argue Louison did it against much stronger competition, which featured a Division I school (NJIT), two NCAA Tournament participants (St. Joseph’s-L.I. and Staten Island), the ECAC Metro Tournament runner-up (Brooklyn College) and the USCAA Division II National Tournament runner-up (Berkeley).
Not only did Louison dominate in the post, David also posted a perfect 4.0 GPA for the spring term and made the Dean's List for both fall and spring semesters.
1 Bears basketball statistical archive started in the 2002-03 season
A summer feature on www.SJCBears.com, we look back at the highlights from the 2011-2012 season in St. Joseph’s College Brooklyn Athletics. We will reveal a new moment on the list every Wednesday throughout the summer ending in August right before the start of the new season.
#10 – Diamonds Sparkle on National Stage at Disney
#9 – 2011-12, One For The Record Books...
#8 – Multi-Purpose Facility Construction
Commences
#7 – Louison's Outstanding Rookie Campaign Nets
Rookie of the Year Honors
#6 – Check back on July 18th!