College Men’s Basketball News – Guilford’s McCarthy Named to All-State Team

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College senior Matt McCarthy earned First Team All-State (College Division) recognition Tuesday from the North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Association (NCCSIA). He is the first Quaker so honored since Josh Pittman ’14 earned a spot on the 2013 unit.

The all-star units are comprised of basketball student-athletes from North Carolina’s NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA institutions. The state’s sports information directors nominated student-athletes for the teams, which were selected by NCCSIA members. NCCSIA was founded in 2002 and its first all-state basketball teams were released in 2005.

The announcement marks the latest honor in a stellar campaign for Guilford’s 6-3, 185-pound captain. He gleaned Second Team NCAA Division III All-America honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and was selected to the D3hoops.com Third Team All-America squad. The Quakers’ 10th men’s basketball All-American in school history, the shooting guard also earned spots on the NABC’s First Team All-South District Team and the D3hoops.com First Team All-South squad.

In February McCarthy became Guilford’s third recipient of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s (ODAC) Kurt Axe Memorial Men’s Basketball Player of the Year Award. He led the Quakers and ranked fifth in the league with 16.6 points per game. McCarthy topped the conference and ranked fifth nationally with 96 three-point field goals this year, the second-highest total in school history. He had nine 20-point games as a senior, including a career-high 44-point showing in the Quakers’ Jan. 28 overtime win at Emory & Henry College, Guilford’s highest scoring game since 2007.

McCarthy earned consecutive ODAC Player of the Week Awards this season and was named the 2014 Guilford Invitational’s Most Valuable Player. He was also one of eight national finalists selected for online voting into the NABC’s Reese’s Division III College Senior All-Star Game.

In addition to his long-distance scoring prowess, McCarthy boasted the ODAC’s fifth-best free-throw shooting percentage (.805) and ranked fifth in the loop with 1.78 steals per game. He had a team-best 78 assists, the league’s 13th-highest total, and stood seventh in the conference with a 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio.

For his career, McCarthy scored 1,314 career points, the 20th-highest total in school history. He stands second among the Quakers’ all-time leaders in three-pointers (271) and three-point attempts (724). McCarthy will graduate ranked 11th among Guilford’s career assists leaders (247) and fourth in steals (139). Guilford’s third three-time All-ODAC pick, he was a third-team all-league honoree in 2013 and a second-team selection in 2014. The Quakers posted a 71-35 record with four ODAC Tournament trips in McCarthy’s tenure.

Coach Tom Palombo’s Quakers (18-9) earned the third seed for the ODAC Tournament and reached the semifinals before falling to national semifinalist Virginia Wesleyan College. The Quakers could return as many as 11 letter winners next fall.