By: Chuck Stogel, MBWA, 914-428-6111, chstogel@aol.com
NEW YORK (April 22, 2026) – Speedy Claxton of Hofstra University and Shaheen Holloway of Seton Hall University were named the Lou Carnesecca Co-Coaches of the Year on Wednesday when the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association announced its 2025-26 All-Met Men’s Division I teams.
Preston Edmead of Hofstra was selected Rookie of the Year.
The winner of the Lt. Frank J. Haggerty Award, presented annually since 1936 by the MBWA to the area’s Division I men’s Player of the Year, will be announced Thursday morning, April 23.
The All-Met First Team: Budd Clark, Seton Hall; Cruz Davis, Hofstra; Zuby Ejiofor and Bryce Hopkins, St. John’s; Tariq Francis, Rutgers, Erik Pratt, Stony Brook.
The All-Met Second Team: Edmead; Jamal Fuller, LIU; Anquan Hill, Sacred Heart; Dillon Mitchell, St. John’s; Kenny Noland, Columbia; Dejour Reaves, Fordham.
The All-Met Third Team: CJ Anthony, Iona; Brandon Benjamin and Braden Sparks, Fairfield; Brent Bland, Saint Peter’s; Dylan Darling, St. John’s; Nick Jones, Wagner; Jason Rivera-Torres, Monmouth.
All-Met Honorable Mention: David Bolden, Ari Fulton and Sebastian Robinson, NJIT; Ryan Curry, Army-West Point; Malachi Davis, LIU; Oziyah Sellers, St. John’s; Andrej Shoshkikj, Stony Brook; AJ Staton-McCray. Seton Hall; Jaden Winston, Manhattan.
Being named All-Met is a unique honor in that there are 21 colleges and universities, and more than 300 athletes, under the MBWA Division I men’s umbrella.
The 2025-26 All-Met teams will be honored at the 93rd MBWA Haggerty Awards dinner on Thursday, April 23, at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel & Conference Center in Tarrytown, NY. The Haggerty dinner, which also will be Livestreamed, is the longest running, media-managed college basketball awards program in the United States.
The Met Writers’ Lou Carnesecca Coach of the Year award is named in memory of the longtime St. John’s coach who is in both the Naismith and New York City Basketball Halls of Fame.
This is the fourth time that the MBWA has selected Co-Coaches of the Year. The previous three occasions: 2012, Danny Hurley, Wagner, and Steve Masiello, Manhattan; 2015, Glenn Braica, St. Francis, and Jim Engles, NJIT; 2019, Joe Mihalich, Hofstra, and Kevin Willard, Seton Hall, representing the second time that Hofstra and Seton Hall coaches have shared the laurels.
After finishing third during the Coastal Athletic Association regular season, Claxton led the Pride (24-11, 12-6) to the CAA tournament title, earning Hofstra the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. This season was his fourth time in his five years as head coach that Claxton’s team has won 20 or more games.
Under his tutelage, Hofstra became the first school in CAA history to boast the conference player of the year (Cruz Davis) and rookie of the year (Preston Edmead) in the same season. Claxton has now mentored four CAA players of the year in just five seasons. The Pride in 2025-26 became the first CAA school to defeat two ACC teams --- Pittsburgh, Syracuse --- in the same season.
As a collegiate player, Claxton is a Hofstra grad and two-time AP All-America Honorable Mention who won the MBWA Haggerty Award as a senior in 2000. His career head coaching record over the five seasons with the Pride is 105-62 (.629 W-L pct).
Claxton is believed to be the first Haggerty Award winner to later capture “The Looie,” which is now the namesake for the MBWA’s Coach of the Year designation. He is certainly the first to accomplish the Haggerty/Coach of the Year feat since modern record-keeping began in 1981.
Claxton’s honor represents the fifth time a coach from Hofstra has been named MBWA Coach of the Year. Previous winners: Jay Wright, 2001; Tom Pecora, 2006, 2009; Joe Mihalich, 2019.
This is the third time in five years that Holloway has received an MBWA Coach of the Year acknowledgement. Previously, he was recognized in 2022 while at Saint Peter’s and then again in 2024 at Seton Hall. In his fourth campaign guiding the Pirates, Holloway --- with virtually an entire rotational change of players --- engineered one of the best turnarounds in the country in 2025-26, improving by 14 wins from 7-25 last year to 21-12 this past season.
Holloway’s Pirates hung their hats on the defensive end by allowing their opponents just 65.3 points per game, second as a team in the Big East to UConn (65.2 ppg). Seton Hall ranked No. 1 in the conference with 5.67 team blocks per game and first in overall team steals with 304. After posting a 10-10 record during the Big East regular season, SHU won its quarterfinal playoff game at Madison Square Garden before bowing out to eventual champion St. John’s in the semifinals.
A 2000 Seton Hall graduate, Holloway was named All-Met in all four seasons as a player. In eight seasons as a head coach, including four years at Saint Peter’s, his career won-loss record is 134-122 (.523 pct). 
This is the eighth time that a coach from Seton Hall, including Holloway in 2024, has been selected MBWA Coach of the Year. Previous winners: P.J. Carlesimo, 1988, 1989; Tommy Amaker, 2000; Kevin Willard, 2016, 2017, 2019.
A 6-1 freshman guard from Deer Park, NY, Edmead was second on the Pride (24-11, 12-6) with 563 points (No. 6 CAA) and 16.1 points per game (No. 7 CAA). The first Hofstra freshman to start every game (35/35) in his rookie year since 2013-14, he scored in double figures 29 times, averaged 3.7 rebounds and had 155 assists, shooting 40.1% overall from the floor, 40.0% from 3-point range and 83.0% at the free throw line.
Named the CAA rookie of the year and to the All-CAA Second Team, Edmead helped Hofstra claim the conference tournament title, an event for which he was named Most Outstanding Player. He posted a season-best 26 points in the CAA championship game win over Monmouth and led the Pride with 24 points in their NCAA Tournament first round loss to Alabama.
For a list of previous Men's Division I Awards:
Coaches of the Year - Rookies of the Year
SUMMARY
NEW YORK (April 22, 2026) – The 2025-26 All-Met Division I men’s college basketball team announced Wednesday by the Met Basketball Writers Association.
FIRST TEAM
Budd Clark, Seton Hall • 5-10, Jr., G, Philadelphia, PA
Cruz Davis, Hofstra • 6-3, Jr., G, Plano, TX
Zuby Ejiofor, St. John’s • 6-9, Sr., F, Garland, TX
Tariq Francis, Rutgers • 6-1, Jr., G, Pittsburgh, PA
Bryce Hopkins, St. John’s • 6-7, Gr., G/F, Oak Park, IL
Erik Pratt, Stony Brook • 6-5, Gr., G, Lake Worth, FL
SECOND TEAM
Preston Edmead, Hofstra • 6-1, Fr., G, Deer Park, NY
Jamal Fuller, LIU • 6-5, Gr., G/F, Toronto, Canada
Anquan Hill, Sacred Heart • 6-9, Sr., F, Philadelphia, PA
Dillon Mitchell, St. John’s • 6-8, Sr., F, Tampa, FL
Kenny Noland, Columbia • 6-2, Sr., G, Apex, NC
Dejour Reaves, Fordham • 6-0, Gr., G, Syracuse, NY
THIRD TEAM
CJ Anthony, Iona • 6-0, Gr., G, Columbus, OH
Brandon Benjamin, Fairfield • 6-8, Fr., F, Newark, NJ
Brent Bland, Saint Peter’s • 6-3, Sr., G, Wheatley Heights, NY
Dylan Darling, St. John’s • 6-1, Jr., G, Spokane, WA
Nick Jones, Wagner • 6-2, Jr., G, Edgewood, MD
Jason Rivera-Torres, Monmouth • 6-7, Jr., G, Bronx,NY
Braden Sparks, Fairfield • 6-0, Sr., G, Villa Rica, GA
HONORABLE MENTION
David Bolden, Ari Fulton and Sebastian Robinson, NJIT; Ryan Curry, Army-West Point; Malachi Davis, LIU; Oziyah Sellers, St. John’s; Andrej Shoshkikj, Stony Brook; AJ Staton-McCray. Seton Hall; Jaden Winston, Manhattan
Lou Carnesecca Co-Coach of the Year: Speedy Claxton, Hofstra
Lou Carnesecca Co-Coach of the Year: Shaheen Holloway, Seton Hall
Rookie of the Year: Preston Edmead, Hofstra
--- www.metbasketballwriters.org ----