 The
2006 Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year,
Northeastern’s Jose Juan Berea is now the Mid-Major Player of
the Year.
“There is nothing mid-major about his game,” says
CollegeInsider.com’s editor-in-chief Joe Dwyer. “If you blink
when he is on the floor, you probably missed something great. He
is a game changer in every sense of the expression.”
The 6-foot senior led the CAA in both scoring (21.4 points per
game) and assists (8.4 assists per game), good for 18th and
second in the nation, respectively, making him the only player
to rank among the top 20 in both categories nationally. He also
ranks fifth in the league in 3-point field goals made and sixth
in assist/turnover ratio.
“This is such a deserving honor,” says Northeastern head coach
Ron Everhart. “He has been such a pleasure to coach. He makes
everyone on the floor better and he changes the complexion of
the game. He is the type of player that makes a coach look
smart.”
During his four years at Northeastern, Barea twice earned a
selection to the America East All-Conference first team and a
third team nomination as a freshman. He was also named to the
CollegeInsider.com freshmen All-America team and was named to
the Mid-Major All-America team as a sophomore, junior and
senior.
“One great thing about moving to the Atlantic 10 is the fact
that I never had to worry about how we would defend Barea,” says
current La Salle coach John Giannini who coached against Barea
in the America East Conference while at Maine. “We tried
everything to slow him down. We had no answer for him. He is a
big time player.”
Beara currently ranks second on Northeastern’s all-time scoring
list behind only Reggie Lewis (1984-87) and second all-time in
assists behind Andre LaFleur (1984-87). |
