2020-21 D2CCA Division II All-America Team
2020-21 NABC Division II All-America Team
2020-21 NABC Division II All-Region Team and Regional Coaches of the Year
The Hillsdale College men's basketball team had a historic 2020-21 season.
Its success is leading to more history-making individual honors for the Charger basketball team as well.
On Tuesday, sophomore forward Patrick Cartier became the first consensus All-American in the NCAA Division II era of Charger basketball. Cartier earned third-team All-American honors from the Division II Conference Commissioners Association and became the first Charger in program history to earn a spot on the National Association of Basketball Coaches' All-American team for the 2020-21 season as well
That news comes just a day after Cartier earned NABC first team All-Atlantic Region honors, one of just six players from the region to make the list, and Hillsdale head coach John Tharp was named the Atlantic Region Coach of the Year for 2020-21 as well.
NABC honors are voted on by the member coaches of the organization at the NCAA Division II level. Just 16 players earn Division II All-American honors, and only eight coaches earn regional Coach of the Year honors. The D2CCA All-American team is voted on by Sports Information Directors from across Division II and awards 15 athletes divided into first, second and third teams, as well as a group of honorable mention players.
Cartier is Hillsdale's first All-American and first-team All-Region honoree since Kyle Cooper in 2016. He joins a short list of Charger legends, all in the past decade, who earned NCAA All-American honors, including Cooper, Tim Dezelski (2014) and Brad Guinane (2012). Cooper, Dezelski, and Guinane all earned their All-American Status through the D2CCA, but Cartier is the only player of the four to receive recognition from both organizations.
Including NAIA All-Americans from Hillsdale teams prior to joining the NCAA in 1990, Cartier is the 14th All-American in program history, and as a sophomore, one of the youngest in that prestigious group.
He earned his spot with a stellar season, leading the Chargers to their second-straight Great Midwest Athletic Conference regular season title, the top seed in the Atlantic Region of the NCAA Division II Tournament, and the Atlantic Regional Final after earning the team's first NCAA tournament victory in 20 years in a 67-48 semifinal win over Mercyhurst.
Individually, Cartier earned G-MAC Player of the Year honors, leading the league in scoring with 20.5 points per game and also topping the G-MAC in field goal percentage with 65.1%, while finishing eighth in free-throw shooting percentage (77.7%) and 12th in rebounds per game (6.2).
The big man from Brookfield, Wisconsin scored in double-figures in all 24 games he played in for the Chargers, with 14 20-plus point games and five double-doubles. He saved his biggest games for crucial moments, scoring 30 points in an 83-79 double-overtime win over Cedarville, a career-high 32 points to stave off an upset on the road at Tiffin in an 85-83 win, and 29 points on 10 of 12 shooting from the floor in the team's historic NCAA tourney win over Mercyhurst that propelled the Chargers to the Sweet 16.
Cartier's efficiency from the floor was unmatched in the nation in Division II, and unprecedented in the history of the Hillsdale College basketball program. His 65.1% field goal percentage is seventh-best in Division II, and that's with nearly twice as many shot attempts on the season as anyone ahead of him on the list.
The sophomore's career field goal percentage of 64.7% is also the best in program history by over 3 percentage points, surpassing Charger legend Tim Kissman's mark of 61.2% set from 1990 to 1994. At 943 points for his career, Cartier should become the 39th Charger to surpass the 1,000-point mark early next season, and, if he keeps his production up and stays healthy over the next two years, has a very real chance to threaten Hillsdale's all-time career points mark of 2,174 held by Charger Hall of Famer Eric Allaire ('89).
Tharp's Atlantic Regional Coach of the Year honor is also a momentous one for the 14-year leader of the Hillsdale men's basketball program. It's his first NCAA regional honor in his time at Hillsdale, and just the third in program history, joining Midwest Regional Coach of the Year awards won by Bernie Balikian in 1992-93 and Ed Douma in 2000-01.
With three other seasons of 20 or more wins and two prior NCAA Tournament appearances, Tharp has had several great teams during his time at Hillsdale, but there's a case to be made that this 2020-21 group is his best work.
Dealing with the lingering effects of the pandemic, Tharp guided the Chargers to a 19-1 regular season record and a G-MAC regular season title by three games over the next closest competition.
Hillsdale also earned the top seed in an NCAA regional for the first time in school history, picked up just its second-ever NCAA Tournament win with the victory over Mercyhurst and reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.
The Chargers posted the best single-season winning percentage in school history (87.5%) and became the first team in program history to have all five starters earn postseason conference recognition.
On a personal level, Tharp also surpassed multiple coaching milestones this year, earning his 450th win as a college coach and his 250th win at Hillsdale. By completing his 14th season with the Chargers, he also became the longest-tenured head coach in Hillsdale College history, surpassing Dwight Harwood, who coached in two stints at Hillsdale from 1926-34 and 1940-46. He'd already become the winningest coach in Charger basketball history multiple seasons ago.
Tharp also became the first coach in Hillsdale men's basketball history to win conference Coach of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons with his second-straight G-MAC Coach of the Year award this season.