MCCARTHY TO COACH NJCAA ALL-STAR TEAM IN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT

SUNY Cobleskill Head Men’s Basketball Coach Kevin McCarthy has been named as head coach of an NJCAA All-Star Team made up of players from NJCAA Division II & III programs that will represent USA Basketball in an international tournament to be played on the Caribbean nation of Antigua from August 4th through August 10th. During the summer of 2000 coach McCarthy served as an assistant coach of a NJCAA Division II & III all-star team organized by the NJCAA Coaches Association that competed in, and won, the first international basketball tournament held on Antigua. 

“It is a great honor to coach a team representing the United States in international competition and I am personally looking forward to working with USA Basketball again,” said McCarthy. “This is going to be a difficult tournament given the growth of the game internationally. We expect the competition to be much improved over the competition we faced in 2000. Ask the NBA players who played in the last world championships and they’ll tell you just how good the competition is outside our country these days. This is going to be a difficult tournament and we will have to be ready to play from the opening tip.”

McCarthy will be accompanied to the Caribbean by Fighting Tiger star player senior Prince Jackson, Schenectady, NY, Schenectady High School. Jackson was selected to the All-Mountain Valley Conference and NJCAA All-Region III Teams for his play as a freshman. In his first year with the Fighting Tigers the 6’5” swingman averaged 15.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game in 30 games shooting 44.1% from the field including 39.0% from three-point range.

“This is a great opportunity for Prince to play at the international level and I think it will help him prepare for next season,” said McCarthy. “He is certainly one of the best players in the nation at our level and besides that I need someone around who understands my coaching style.”

Under McCarthy the Fighting Tigers have compiled a 237-90 overall record winning three Mountain Valley Conference Western Division titles and two overall Mountain Valley Conference Championships. Cobleskill has made eleven consecutive NJCAA Division III Region III Play-off appearances highlighted by the 1998 Region III Championship on the way to a 1998 NJCAA Division III Final Four appearance. The Fighting Tigers are currently working on a streak of nine consecutive twenty-win seasons.

McCarthy has been named Mountain Valley Conference Coach-of-the-Year three times, NJCAA Region III Division III Coach-of-the-Year twice and was the NJCAA District I Coach-of-the-Year in 1998. During his tenure twenty-five Fighting Tigers have been earned All-Mountain Valley Conference recognition, twenty-four have been named to the All-Region III team and seven have been selected as NJCAA Division III All-Americans.

The Fighting Tiger mentor currently serves as the Division III National Representative to the NJCAA Basketball Coaches Association’s Executive Counsel and Assistant Regional Director of NJCAA Region III.