PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's basketball center
Clifford Omoruyi has been named to the All-Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association First Team and guard
Caleb McConnell has been tabbed All-Met Third Team.
Omoruyi becomes the second-straight player to be named to the first team after forward
Ron Harper Jr. was named the Lt. Frank J. Haggerty Award winner last season, given to the best player in the best player in the metropolitan area. Omoruyi is the third player at Rutgers under current head coach
Steve Pikiell to be named to the first team joining Harper Jr. and guard
Geo Baker (2020).
Big Cliff had a highly decorated season in 2022-23. Omoruyi became the first player in Rutgers basketball history to be selected Preseason First-Team All-Big Ten in 2022-23. At the completion of the season, the Benin City, Nigeria native was selected to First-Team All-Big Ten Defensive Team and to the Second-Team All-Big Ten (media). Omoruyi averaged 13.2 points-per-game, 9.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks for the Scarlet Knights. His 72 blocks on the year were good for 15th in the nation and third in the Big Ten. His 325 rebounds were tied for 17th in the country.
He became the first Rutgers player to lead the team in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots since Keith Hughes did so in the 1990-1991 season. Omoruyi led the country in dunks heading into the NCAA Tournament last season and was one of the nation's best dunkers in 2022-23. Omoruyi had 73 dunks on the year, the sixth-most in the country. Omoruyi racked up double-doubles in 13 of the 34 games played this season. Omoruyi was also chosen as a member of the semi-finalist watch list for the 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, consisting of the top 10 centers in the country. The USBWA selected Omoruyi to their All-District II Team.
Omoruyi declared for the 2023 NBA Draft on March 23 and will workout over the next few weeks before making his decision for next season.
McConnell adds the All-Metropolitan honor to his trophy case of awards this past season. McConnell became the first player in Rutgers history to win the Lefty Driesell Award and became the first RU player to win a national defensive player of the year award twice this past season. He also beat out all the defenders in the nation for the 2022-23 ESPN College Gameday National Defensive Player of the Year Award earlier this month. McConnell was awarded the best defensive player in the Big Ten Conference with his consecutive Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Award alongside Northwestern's Chase Audige.
McConnell missed the first five games of the season with a knee injury but returned right back to form averaging 9.1 points. 5.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists-per-game. McConnell averaged 2.5 steals-per-game with 71 steals, good for second in the conference. His 2.56 steals-per-game were good for sixth in the nation and first in the Big Ten Conference. McConnell finished his career first all-time on the Rutgers steals list (221) after tracking down the great Eddie Jordan's 220 career steals with two steals in his final game at RU.
McConnell is in the midst of preparing for NBA workouts and plans to explore playing basketball at the professional level next season.
