NEW YORK (April 21, 2025) ---
Jay Wright, the former Hofstra University head coach and a two-time national championship coach at Villanova, will present a Distinguished Service Award from the Met Basketball Writers Association to Big East Commissioner
Val Ackerman.
A 2021 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and current college basketball television commentator, Wright will make the presentation of a Carlesimo/Powers DSA to Ackerman on Thursday, April 24, during the 92nd annual MBWA All-Met Haggerty Awards dinner at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel & Conference Center in Tarrytown, NY.
The Haggerty dinner is the longest running, media-managed college basketball awards program in the United States. This year’s dinner again will be Livestreamed via the MBWA website (
www.metbasketballwriters.org)
.
Ackerman is being recognized for her meritorious service to athletics in many forms and at many levels, including college basketball and, most notably, overseeing the rebirth of the Big East Conference. She has had a long and accomplished career in the sports industry and is one of the few executives in sports who has held leadership positions in both men’s and women’s sports at the collegiate, professional, national team and international levels.
At the dinner, Bloomfield College Head Men’s Basketball Coach
Gerald Holmes also will receive a Carlesimo/Powers Distinguished Service Award. The presentation will be made by Bloomfield Athletic Director
Sheila Wooten.
Other 2025 special award recipients:
John Paquette, Big East Senior Associate Commissioner for Sports Media Relations, MBWA Career Achievement Award;
Stephen Gorchov, Hofstra Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Marketing and Communications, Mike Cohen “Good Guy” Award;
Joseph Henry, Fordham, Jim O’Connell Sports Communications Scholarship.
For those who cannot attend the awards dinner in person, especially for remote family and friends, the Haggerty Awards Livestream will begin at 7 pm tonight.
The direct link to access the Livestream:
https://metbasketballwriters.org/2025haggertylivestream
FFI: Chuck Stogel, MBWA
914-428-6111;
chstogel@aol.com