Darrun Hilliard named Big 5 Player of the Year

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It won't take the sting out of Villanova's unceremonious exit from the NCAA Tournament, but two Wildcats won Big 5 awards on Monday morning.

Darrun Hilliard, Villanova's senior leader who almost singlehandedly prevented the loss to NC State, was named Big 5 Player of the Year, while freshman Phil Booth took home Big 5 Rookie of the Year.

Unsurprisingly, Jay Wright was Big 5 Coach of the Year after leading 'Nova to a 33-3 season.

Hilliard averaged 14.3 points in his senior year, shooting 44 percent from the field, 38.7 percent from three and 79.6 percent from the line.

Booth averaged 5.8 points in 14.5 minutes per game and went 32 for 66 (48.5 percent) from long range. He had nine points in both of Villanova's NCAA Tournament games and made 5 of 6 threes.

Big man Daniel Ochefu was named the Big 5's Most Improved Player. He boosted his scoring average from 5.7 points to 9.2 and his rebounding average from 6.1 to 8.5. Ochefu also shot 64.4 percent (five percent higher than his sophomore season) and made 69.2 percent of his free throws (up from 55.4 percent as a soph).

Hilliard and point guard Ryan Arcidiacono were named to the All-Big 5 first team, along with La Salle's Jordan Price, St. Joe's DeAndre' Bembry and Temple's Will Cummings.

Ochefu, teammate JayVaughn Pinkston, Temple's Jaylen Bond and Quenton DeCosey, and La Salle's Jerrell Wright were second-teamers.

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