PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Caleb McConnell has done it again.
The 2021-22 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year has won the award for a consecutive season, sharing the honor with Northwestern’s Chase Audige.
McConnell leads the conference in steals-per-game (2.6) and has been the anchor to Rutgers featuring one of the best defensive units in all of college basketball.
He becomes the first player in almost 20 seasons to win the award back-to-back seasons. Kenny Lowe of Purdue last won the award for the second-straight year in 2004. He is the fifth player ever to win the award in two-straight seasons and the sixth player ever to win the award more than once in the conference.
“Caleb McConnell is not only the best defender in the conference, but the best in the whole country,” head coach Steve Pikiell said. “I can do so much more defensively with McConnell’s ability to guard positions 1 through 5. People always want to talk about scorers in this league. They should be talking about the amount of points Caleb takes off the board for the other team. He is paramount to our team’s defensive success night in and night out.”
McConnell was awarded the ESPN College Gameday National Defensive Player of the Year last week and is a top-ten semifinalist for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year announced at the end of the month.
The Rutgers defense is currently seventh in the nation in points allowed per-game (60.4) and has established itself as the best defense in school history in the shot clock era. The team is eighth in the nation in field goal percentage defense (39.3) and leads the Big Ten Conference in every major defensive category.
McConnell is now 2nd all-time on RU’s steals list (2014 steals) and trails the legendary Eddie Jordan by six steals for first place all-time.
The 2022-23 Rutgers men’s basketball team is well-decorated in many other Big Ten Conference Awards.
Rutgers junior center Clifford Omoruyi was selected to First-Team All-Defense alongside McConnell. Omoruyi averaged 2.1 blocks-per-game and complied 65 blocks in the regular season. His blocks and blocks-per-game are good for 23rd in the nation and third in the conference.
Omoruyi has also been awarded Second-Team All-Big Ten by…
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