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| DANNTON JACKSON 2013-14 GCAC COACH OF THE YEAR |
The GCAC announced the all-conference teams and its special awards Monday. All were selected by the league's head coaches. XU's Lucas Martin-Julien shared Freshman of the Year with Fisk's Walter Arnold, and Sydney Coleman and Morris Wright of the Gold Rush made the 12-player all-conference team.
The GCAC Tournament for men and women will begin Thursday in New Orleans. Xavier's Convocation Center will be the site of four men's quarterfinal games the following day, with the Gold Rush playing at 7 p.m. Friday against Fisk or Dillard, which meet in the first round.
Jackson successfully reloaded a program which won 24 games a year ago with five senior starters. The Gold Rush are 22-7 in 2013-14 and won the GCAC regular-season championship for a school-record third straight year. Xavier's 71-66 victory at Spring Hill on Dec. 17 made Jackson the winningest coach in Gold Rush history, and he enters the postseason with a 248-105 record in 11 years.
Martin-Julien, a 6-foot-2 guard from Reserve, La., and a graduate of Riverside Academy, averaged 9.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 18 regular-season games with 43 assists and 23 steals. He scored in double figures eight times with highs of 16 points twice.
Martin-Julien is the first Gold Rush player to be named GCAC Freshman of the Year since Shaun Dumas in 2004-05.
Coleman, a 6-7 junior forward from Meridian, Miss., and a graduate of Meridian High School, averaged 12.8 points and leads the Gold Rush with 7.2 rebounds per game, 108 made free throws, 24 blocked shots and 53.7 percent field-goal accuracy. His 16 rebounds at Tougaloo on Feb. 1 are the most in a game by a Gold Rush player since the start of the 2003-04 season. Coleman produced seven double-doubles, three in a row in November.
Wright, a 5-10 sophomore guard from Zachary, La., and a graduate of Zachary High School, leads the Gold Rush with 13.1 points and 3.1 assists per game, 50 steals, 38 made 3-pointers and 40-percent 3-point accuracy. He scored in double figures 19 times and had 26 points and 14-of-14 free throws in an overtime home victory against William Carey, No. 3 in last week's NAIA Division I coaches poll.
Fisk junior Cameron Lewis was voted Player of the Year. Talladega junior Brandon Peters was chosen Newcomer of the Year.
By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information DirectorXULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
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