HAMILTON – Colgate continues to pile up postseason awards, as head coach
Matt Langel was named Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Coach of the Year and
Rapolas Ivanauskas garnered All-ECAC Second Team honors, announced Wednesday afternoon by the conference office.
Langel hauls in his third major postseason honor of the season, completing the trifecta as the Patriot League, NABC District 13, and now ECAC Coach of the Year.
Adding his 2018 Patriot League Coach of the Year award, Langel has now racked up four top honors over the last two years.
The eighth-year head coach is Colgate's first to be named ECAC Coach of the Year.
Colgate is coming off its best season in school history. The Raiders set program benchmarks for total wins (24), league wins (13), and home wins (15) on their way to claiming their first Patriot League regular season and tournament title since 1996.
The Raiders hovered around .500 in league play early on. Their only home loss of the season to Boston University on Feb. 2 dropped Colgate to 5-5 and fifth place in the standings.
Colgate lit a fuse from there and rattled off eight straight wins to finish 13-5 in the league and secure its first Patriot League regular-season title in over two decades. The Raiders kept the momentum going in the tournament, avenging an earlier loss in each round.
Colgate dispatched Boston University and Navy, before knocking off two-time defending champion Bucknell 94-80 in front of a capacity crowd at Cotterell Court on March 13.
The Raiders brought the nation's sixth longest winning streak into the NCAA Tournament, where they gave No. 6 Tennessee all it could handle in a 77-70 defeat.
Ivanauskas was pivotal to the Raiders' success down the stretch, averaging 20.5 points per game during their 11-game win streak. For the season, he averaged 15.9 points and 7.8 rebounds with 10 double-doubles on his way to being named the Patriot League Player of the Year.
Ivanauskas led Colgate on the glass in 20 games and finished with 11 games with 20 or more points. The junior scored in double figures in 12 straight games leading up to the NCAA Tournament.
