Concordia Stinger Damian Buckley, a six-foot-one point guard from Montreal, is the unanimous selection as Quebec Student Sports Federation (QSSF) Most Valuable Player in men’s university basketball.
The Stingers were awarded three of the five major honors given out by the QSSF. Concordia centre Jamal Gallier was named the league’s outstanding defensive player and John Dore was named the coach of the year.
Despite being the focus of every team’s defence, Buckley was able to put up superb numbers this season. He is third in the conference in scoring with 19.0 points a game, and leads the league in both steals (3.7/game) and assist-turnover ratio (1.8). Buckley is second in the province with 4.7 assists per game, and third in three-point shooting (0.429).
Buckley scored his 1,000 career point in the QSSF regular season on Feb. 7. His accomplishment was remarkable because it took just 56 career games to reach the mark.
Buckley has been named to the QSSF first all-star team in each of his four seasons. He was also a second team CIS all-Canadian in 2008.
Gallier is an all-round player with deceptive speed for a six-foot-seven, 275-pound athlete. The fifth-year man from Toronto anticipates the ball well and gets his hands on a lot of rebounds, blocks and steals. He leads the Stingers in rebounds and blocked shots.
Gallier was also named to the QSSF second all-star team.
Now in his 20th season as head coach of the Stingers, Dore has been named the outstanding coach in the Quebec Student Sports Federation conference on 12 occasions, including the 2008-‘09 season.
One final honor came to the Stingers. Adam Carneol, a shooting guard from Los Angeles, was named to the conference’s all-rookie team.
