Winnipeg’s Jeff Foreman was selected recipient of the Moser. The 22-year-old averaged 23 ppg and 9.3 rpg on the season while leading the Wesmen into the CIS tourney. The 6-8 fifth-year forward was a member of the silver-medal winning World Student Games team and a member of the senior men’s national team. Shot .652 from the floor, third best in the country and .800 from the line, while earning repeat selection as a first-team All-Canadian. He was player of the year in the GPAC for the second consecutive season and a GPAC all-star for the fourth time.
Alberta coach Don Horwood earned his second Aberdeen. Horwood was sitting at the awards dinner and read in the press kit that his Golden Bears “are a well-balanced team guided by CIAU coach of year Horwood.” He then had to pretend to be surprised when he was named the winner. The 47-year old Newfoundland-born Horwood led the Bears to an 18-2 conference record and wins over Calgary and UBC en route to national tourney. “It’s a real honor,” he said. “I’m very proud to win it. I’m happy for the team because no coach wins this award without his players having an exceptional year. …The award is an honor for the team based on the outstanding effort of its players. Because of them, I’ve been honored.” Horwood also won the Aberdeen in 1987 but said this one is sweeter. “This is much nicer. The first time was early in my career. I kind of thought ‘Geez, this is easy.’ That was wrong. I just didn’t realize it at the time. There’s 40 different coaches in Canada and if a different person wins it every year, it’s 40 years until your turn comes again. This doesn’t happen every couple of years, so it’s special. To win it once is an honor. To win it twice, and be judge by the people you compete against, is really an honor.” Horwood was in his 11th year at the Golden Bears helm, with a Canada West regular season career record of 94-86, winning eight conference titles. “Obviously, the major reason for their choice is the fact that they would look at our team and notice that we had no All-Canadians or star players and we still managed an 18-2 record in Canada,” said the Carbonear, Newfoundland native. “The Bottom line is that those guys won me the award and I’m very thankful for it. The other nominees (winners of the coach of the year awards in their respective conferences) wee: Tim McGarrigle (Cape Breton); John Dore (Concordia); Peter Campbell (OUA East); Joe Raso (McMaster); and James Hillis (GPAC).
Lethbridge guard Danny Balderson was selected the national rookie of the year. The 6-4 rookie averaged 15.3 ppg and shot .810 from the line.
Joining Foreman as 1st team All-Canadians were: Will Njoku (St. Mary’s); David Picton (Brock); Jack Vanderpol (McMaster) and Dean Wiebe (Saskatchewan). …………………………………………………… Njoku was winner of the 1993 Moser. …………………………………………………… Vanderpol set a CIAU rebounding record with 16.7 rpg and averaged 17 ppg for the top-ranked OUA champs. “I don’t care how tall or how big (the other guy is) because the biggest thing in getting rebounds is desire,” he said. “Dennis Rodman said it best: when a shot goes up, you just go after it. If you don’t get it, what do you waste? Nothing.” Second-year McMaster coach Joe Raso said Vanderpol put up incredible numbers. “That’s the one thing on this team that has remained consistent. Offensively some players have it one day and don’t the next. But Jack’s rebounding is the key and the most consistent aspect of our play this year.”
The second team selections were: Alex Beason (Ryerson); Keith Vassell (Brandon); Robert Ferguson (Concordia); Richard Bohne (Calgary); and John Ryan (Cape Breton). …………………………………………………… Beason was the country’s leading scorer at 33.4 ppg. A high school star at Scarborough’s West Hill Collegiate Inst and Toronto’s Bathurst Heights Secondary School in the 1980s, he’d accepted a scholarship to Southeast Missouri State in 1991-92. As a rookie, he averaged nearly 12 points a game and was the second leading scorer for SE Missouri. In the summer, Beason returned home to Toronto and participated in the armed robbery of a Scarborough jewelry store with two other men in August/92 and was sentenced to a 2.5-year prison term at the Collings Bay Penitentiary. He served 14 months before being paroled in Sept/93. “I guess I lost focus when I came back home for the summer,” the 6-7, 230 pound forward said. “I was just hanging around guys who I’d been hanging around for a long time since I was a kid and I just got influenced and went astray. So, I made a mistake.” In 1993, Beason was paroled and entered a halfway house, enrolled at Ryerson and joined the Rams. In his first season as a Ram, 93-94, Ryerson finished 9-3, their first winning record in OUA play and Beason averaged 33.4 ppg. Often hounded by fans, including jailbird chants at Laurentian and the tossing of handcuffs onto the floor. …………………………………………………… Bohne earned first-team Canada West laurels, while averaging 26.2 ppg, fifth in the nation and second best in Canada. …………………………………………………… Concordia point guard Richard Ferguson was named MVP of the QUBL, after averaging 12.1 ppg, 5 rpg and 5 apg while leading the Stingers to a 12-0 regular season record.
The honorable mentions included: Emerson Thomas (Concordia); Sean Vankoughnett (Waterloo), Michael Lynch (Western Ontario); Shawn Plancke (Dalhousie); and Troy Jones (Cape Breton).