The All Hoop Time team is very different from the All Patriot League team announced at the conference at the end of the regular season.

The difference is simple: the league's official team does not take position into account. The first team is made up of the five players who the coaches consider the top five in the league, the second team is the next five in the voting.

In a league like the Patriot, that tends to produce a team heavy on guards and woefully shy of big men. Matter of fact, the 10 players who won all-league honors included only two taller than 6-4.

As we explained it last year, when the first All Hoop Time team was named, we take a different approach:

Here is how our team has been selected. We began by choosing the starting five we'd most like to put on the floor. That meant paying attention to positions. No four guard lineups allowed. We then proceeded to fill out the rest of our 15-man roster. Again, we looked for balance. Depth at all positions was essential.

Four of our five starters are repeat selections from last season. Three of the guys on the bench were also chosen last season. Two guys who were on our all-rookie squad last season have moved up to the "varsity" this year. Previous All Hoop Time picks are noted by the designation "(HT '05)" after their name. The All Rookie picks from last season are noted by a "(R '05)" designation.

FIRST TEAM

CENTER: Chris McNaughton, 6-11 Jr. Bucknell (HT '05)– By a wide margin, the best big man in the league. Averaged 12.8 ppg despite being double- and triple-teamed by everybody in the league, something no other Patriot League player demanded.

POWER FORWARD: Darren Mastropaolo, 6-8 Soph. Bucknell (R '05)– Mastropaolo doesn’t show up in the box scores, but he does in opposing team’s scouting reports. A tremendous screener and tough as nails defender, Mastropaolo might have led the league in charges drawn if such a stat were kept.

SMALL FORWARD: Charles Lee, 6-3 Sr. Bucknell (HT '05)– The league’s coaches voted him player of the year. Who are we to argue. Averaged 13 points and 6 boards per contest and ranked in the top 10 in five other categories. One of the two best defenders in the league, Lee is single-handedly responsible for American’s Andre Ingram not making the All Hoop Time team

SHOOTING GUARD: Kevin Hamilton 6-4 Sr. Holy Cross (HT '05)– The league’s defensive player of the year won that honor for good reason. He averaged over 3 steals per game and seemed to deflect every pass that was in the same zip code. Led the league in scoring and rebounding, too, and had more assists than four of the starting point guards in the league.

POINT GUARD: Abe Badmus 6-0 Jr. Bucknell (HT '05)– Torey Thomas had better overall numbers, but Badmus played better when the two faced each other head-to-head. Either way you cannot go wrong. Badmus averaged almost 7 ppg, a deceptive figure because he showed several times he was capable of scoring more if that had been his role. His 3.91 assists per game were second in the league, behind Thomas and he also was in the top 5 in steals and assists-turnover ratio.

Centers:
Tim Clifford, 6-10 Soph Holy Cross (R '05)– After a slow start, the Big Purple Dog came on in league play, averaging almost 10 ppg in conference action. Led the league in blocks, fifth in field goal percentage.

Brayden Billbe, 6-10 Jr. American – Good for 8 points and 5 boards a night. Ranked fourth in field goal percentage.

Power Forwards:
Andrei Capusan, 6-7 Sr. Lafayette – Not a great defender in the paint, but his ability to step away from the basket and hit the jumper helps stretch defenses. Averaged 12 points per game and ranked second in field goal percentage. Also averaged nearly 5 rebounds per game in conference play.

Matt Fannin, 6-7 Sr. Navy (HT '05)– We’ll find a sport for anybody who plays half the season on one leg and still averages 10 and 5. If we handed out a warrior of the year award, Fannin would win hands down.

Small Forwards:
Keith Simmons, 6-4 Jr. Holy Cross (HT '05)– If we followed the league model of choosing the best five regardless of position, Simmons would definitely be a first team choice. He is second team here only because he plays the same spot as Lee. Averaged 14 points and 5 rebounds per game, despite having his playing time limited much of the season due to a cramping problem. One of the best defenders in the conference, too. Perhaps Simmons’ most impressive stat: he shot almost 60 percent from the field in league play – an unheard of feat for a guard. Included in that, a 51.8 percent showing from the three-point arc.

Donald Brown, 6-6 Jr. Bucknell – Brown might actually see more time at the four than the three on this team. The league’s best sixth-man showed he could defend either spot while averaging 8 points and 6 rebounds per game in conference play.

Shooting guards:
Kevin Bettencourt, 6-2 Sr. Bucknell (HT '05)– A four-year starter for the Bison, Bettencourt’s leadership, defense and knack for making big shots in big games earns him a spot. Averaged nearly 13 ppg and led the conference in three-pointers with 79 (2.47 per game), finishing second on the league’s career three-pointers list.

Jerrell Brown, 6-2 Soph. Army – Likely to be the most controversial pick on this squad, we chose Brown over Lehigh’s Jose Olivero despite the fact that Olivero scored more (17.6 per game to 14.9 per game). Statistically, the two were close in most categories. We just liked what we saw from Brown more. Two factors weighed heavy in our decision: 1) Charles Lee calling J. Brown the second-toughest guy he has had to guard this season (after Hamilton) and 2) Comments early in the season from a writer who covered Lehigh, who told us he felt Olivero had cost the Mountain Hawks as many games as he had won for them in non-conference play.

Point Guards
Torey Thomas, 5-11 Jr. Holy Cross (HT '05)– An ironman all season for the Crusaders, who lacked a backup at the point after Pat Doherty’s foot injury wiped out Doherty’s season, Thomas averaged 11 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds per game. His only real flaw: head to head against Badmus, Thomas was 3-for-25 from the field in three games while Badmus was 6 for 12, even if you toss out his 0-for-3 showing in the championship game (discounting it because Thomas suffered a knee injury in the first half that had him doing a Matt Fannin imitation until Ralph Willard finally sat him down), Badmus still got the better of Thomas in those key games.

Joe Knight, 6-2 Sr. Lehigh – Knight’s ability to play the point gave him the edge over his teammate Olivero for what basically was the last spot picked on the team. Averaged 14.4 ppg after being forced to sit out half the season due to an administrator’s screw-up that cost him his eligibility. Also a better defender than Olivero.

LAST GUYS CUT:
Derrick Mercer, 5-9 Fr. PG, American – His day will come. Held his own against the league’s best all season.
Jose Olivero, 6-2 Jr. SG, Lehigh – A great scorer, Olivero will have another chance next season to prove he can carry his team. Failed in that role during Knight’s absence.
Kyle Neptune, 6-5 Jr. SF, Lehigh – 11 points and 5 boards per game. Could easily argue that D. Brown should be one of the three on the team at power forward, freeing a spot for Neptune at the three. But that would have meant leaving Fannin off the team, and we aren’t doing that.
Paulius Joneliunas, 6-11 Jr. C, American -- Lost out to teammate Billbe for backup center spot, but it was almost a flip of the coin. Their numbers were very similar, but Billbe did it the whole season, giving him the edge.

MVP: Charles Lee, Bucknell – There were times during the season, especially in conference play, when Lee picked his team up off the floor and carried the Bison to a victory.

Player of the Year: Kevin Hamilton, Holy Cross – The difference between Player of the Year and MVP is one that has been debated endlessly. We are awarding both, and frankly don’t really care which guy gets which honor – they are that even. If there was a third player even close to Hamilton and Lee, we might view it different, but there is not. These two were head and shoulders the best two players in the league. Rather than choose one over the other, we took the easy way out by honoring both.

Sixth man of the Year: Donald Brown, Bucknell -- Nobody contributed more off the bench. Joe Knight doesn’t count since he was a starter five times, including four of Lehigh’s biggest games of the season (both regular season games vs. Holy Cross and both league tournament games).

Coach of the Year: Fran O’Hanlon, Lafayette – Not many guys are coach of the year for finishing fifth in their league, especially not when another guy goes unbeaten in league play and wins in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But doing so with a non-scholarship roster filled with undersized, slow-afoot guys the way O’Hanlon did deserves a reward. Did more with less than any coach in the conference.

Rookie of the Year: Derrick Mercer, American – Alex Vander Baan was solid all season after being forced into a starting role for HC. Bucknell’s Jason Vegotsky showed he can hit the three. Kaleo Kina had a strong season for Navy. But none of the other freshmen contributed the way Mercer did, stepping in to fill the void for AU at one of the most crucial spots on the floor. Folks expected Mercer to get chewed up and spit out by the likes of Badmus and Thomas, but the Gary Coleman look-alike held his own against the league’s best, finishing third in the league in assists and fourth in assists-turnovers ratio. In conference play, Mercer shot 46 percent from the field, ranking eighth in the league, and he hit almost 52 percent of his three-pointers in PL games (ranks third). There are a lot of reasons for American to be optimistic about its future; Mercer is at the top of that list.

Note: Last year we named an All-Rookie team. We are not doing that this year. If we did, we'd pick the four guys mentioned above, but we'd be playing with no true small forward and there is no freshman center in the conference deserving of any postseason honors.