KANSAS CITY, Mo. – North Carolina Central University men’s basketball senior forward Jordan Parks and senior point guard Nimrod Hilliard have been named to the NABC Division I All-District Team, while NCCU head coach LeVelle Moton has been selected as the NABC District 15 Coach of the Year, the National Association of Basketball Coaches announced Friday, March 27.
Voted on by member coaches of the NABC, Parks (Queens, N.Y.) is a member of the NABC All-District First Team, while Hilliard (Madison, Wisc.) received Second Team honors.
Parks was named MEAC Player of the Year by College Hoops Daily and Breitbart Sports, and was chosen to the Lou Henson Award Watch List, an award honoring the Division I mid-major player of the year. He was also voted to the MEAC All-Tournament Team and received All-Conference Second Team honors by the MEAC. The 6-7, 200-pound high-flyer ranks third in nation in field goal percentage (66.0%), and is the MEAC’s third-leading rebounder (8.3 rpg) and seventh-leading scorer (15.6 ppg), including a game-high 25 points versus Miami in first round of NIT. Parks finished the season with 13 double-doubles.
Hilliard was voted All-MEAC First Team as top playmaker in the conference with 196 assists, ranking 10th in NCAA Division I with 6.3 assists per game. He also leads the MEAC and ranks 24th in the nation with a free throw percentage of 86.9 percent. The 6-0, 155-pound point guard also ranks second in the conference in three-point field goal percentage (41.8%) and ninth in field goal percentage (48.3%), while ranking 18th in the league in scoring (12.0 ppg).
In his sixth season as head coach at NCCU, Moton guided the Eagles to a 25-8 overall record, including a 19-3 mark during the final three-and-a-half months, as well as the school’s first appearance in the National Invitation Tournament. The 2014-15 squad made history by becoming the first men's basketball team in school history to post an unbeaten regular-season conference record at 16-0 to repeat as MEAC regular-season champions. The Eagles are among the top five defenses in Division I, ranking second in field goal percentage defense (behind Kentucky), fourth in three-point field goal percentage defense and fifth in scoring defense. NCCU also owns the second-longest home win streak in Division I at 35 victories in-a-row (behind Arizona). Moton joins hall of fame coach John McLendon and national championship coach Michael Bernard as the only coaches in NCCU men’s basketball history to lead the Eagles to three straight 20-win seasons. As a credit to the program’s recent success, NCCU boasts the best regular-season conference record during the last three seasons at 46-2, a winning percentage of .958.
About the National Association of Basketball Coaches
Located in Kansas City, MO, the NABC was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, the legendary basketball coach at the University of Kansas. Allen, a student of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, organized coaches into this collective group to serve as Guardians of the Game. The NABC currently has nearly 5,000 members consisting primarily of university and college men’s basketball coaches. All members of the NABC are expected to uphold the core values of being a Guardian of the Game by bringing attention to the positive aspects of the sport of basketball and the role coaches play in the academic and athletic lives of today’s student-athletes. The four core values of being a Guardian of the Game are advocacy, leadership, service and education. Additional information about the NABC, its programs and membership, can be found at www.nabc.com.