Shamorie Ponds of St. John's, a sophomore and one of the top players in the nation, was been named the All-Met Division I men's Haggerty Award winner for the 2017-18 season, presented annually to the college Player of the Year by the Met Basketball Writers Association. The 85th annual Haggerty Awards dinner was held on April 25 at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, NY.

A 6-1 guard from Brooklyn, NY, with a potent all-around game, Ponds is the 23rd player from St. John's to snare the Haggerty Award, which has gone to a member of the Red Storm team 27 times overall. Coincidentally, Ponds' coach, Chris Mullin, is a three-time recipient (1983-84-85) of the Haggerty Award.  

In addition to being named Player of the Year, Ponds heads up the MBWA All-Met First Team. The All-Met Second Team includes fellow Red Storm player Justin Simon.  

Ponds, who has amassed 1,220 career points in two seasons at SJU, collared numerous accolades during the 2017-18 season, including being named an Associated Press All-America honorable mention. Selected to the All-Big East first team, he led the conference in scoring and was 18th in the nation in Division 1 with 21.6 points per game.

Picked as Big East player of the week twice, named to the conference weekly honor roll seven times and heralded as the MBWA All-Met player of the week three times, Ponds also was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches All District 5 second team.

One of the most notable weeks for Ponds, and St. John's, had to be the first week in February when SJU defeated then No. 4 Duke 81-77 at Madison Square Garden and, four days later, upended No. 1 and eventual national champion Villanova on the road 79-75. It was the first time in 33 years that the Red Storm had beaten a top-ranked opponent and the first time in program history St. John's defeated two top-five teams back-to-back. In the victories, Ponds scored 26 points at Villanova after pouring in 33 points at the Garden against Duke.

Ponds posted a bonanza of standout statistics this past season. He set a school scoring record for sophomores with 647 points, the 10th best single-season output in program history; ranked fourth in the Big East with 4.7 assists per game; had 70 steals overall for a 2.3 average per game, second in the conference and 11th best in the nation; was fifth in the Big East in free throw shooting at 85.7%; placed 11th in the BEC with a 1.7 assists-to-turnover ratio; led the league in playing time at 37.0 minutes per game; topped the Red Storm in scoring in 21 of 30 appearances; had 16 games with 20-plus points and six games with 30-plus. Ponds set a homecourt Carnesecca Arena/Alumni Hall scoring mark with 44 points against Marquette on Feb. 10.

After declaring for the NBA draft in 2018 and going undrafted, Ponds is currently playing in the NBA G-League.