McGill basketball's Noah Sincere merits U SPORTS all-rookie status

VANCOUVER, BC – Noah Sincere of the McGill University men's basketball team has earned U SPORTS all-rookie honours. The announcement was made on Wednesday night at the All-Canadian awards ceremony in Vancouver, site of both the men's and women's Final 8 tournaments.

A 21-year-old Arts freshman, majoring in education in global contexts, he becomes only the sixth McGill hoopster to merit national all-rookie status, and the first since Haris Elzovic in 2021-22. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound point-guard from Laval, Que., won rookie of the year honours in the RSEQ conference this season. He was one of four national finalists for the Dr. Peter Mullins Trophy as U SPORTS rookie of the year, which went to Ollie Engen of the Queen's Gaels.

Nate Petrone of the Calgary Dinos won the Mike Moser Memorial Trophy as player of the year,while UPEI's Kamari Scott took home the Ken Shields Award (student-athlete community service); Victoria's Sam Maillet was named the defensive player of the year; and Victoria's Murphy Burnatowski won the Stuart W. Aberdeen Memorial Award as the Fox40 Coach of the Year.

Sincere, despite his youth, was cool under pressure, leading the Quebec league in free-throw shooting with a stellar success rate of 82.5 per cent, making 33 of 40 attempts from the charity stripe. He tallied 41 assists to rank 10th among league leaders in assists per game (2.6). One of the team's top ball-handlers, he ranked eighth among RSEQ leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio (1:1).

Sincere played in all 16 regular season contests, earned four starts, averaged 19. 6 minutes per game and was credited with 14 steals. He averaged 6.7 points and 2.2 rebounds per outing, shooting 30.1 per cent from the field (31/103) and 27.3 per cent from three-point range (12/44).

Recruited out of College Montmorency in the Quebec CEGEP league, he was just the sixth McGill player to earn the Quebec conference's rookie-of-the-year award, joining a group that includes Haris Elezovic (2022), Kendrick Jolin (2017), Dele Ogundokun (2014), Olivier Bouchard (2010) and Yannick Chouinard (2006).

The 2024 INDOCHINO U SPORTS Women's and Men's Final 8s, presented by Victory Creative Group, get underway on Thursday at both the War Memorial Gym and the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at UBC. Play continues through to the gold medal games which will be at 1 p.m. (men) and 4 p.m. (women) Pacific Time on Sunday.

McGILLIANS TO EARN U SPORTS ALL-ROOKIE HONOURS

2005-06

Yannick Chouinard

2009-10	Olivier Bouchard
2013-14	Dele Ogundokun
2016-17	Kendrick Jolin
2021-22	Haris Elezovic
2024-25	Noah Sincere

2024-25 U SPORTS MEN'S BASKETBALL MAJOR AWARDS & ALL-CANADIANS

AWARD	NAME (UNIVERSITY)
Player of the Year:	Nate Petrone, Calgary
Rookie of the Year:	Ollie Engen, Queen's
Student-athlete Leadership Award:	Kamari Scott, UPEI
Defensive Player of the Year:	Sam Maillet, Victoria
Fox40 Coach of the Year:	Murphy Burnatowski, Victoria

First Team

Name	University	Pos	Year	Hometown	Academic Program
Nate Petrone	Calgary	G	4	Calgary, Alta.	Kinesiology
D.J. Jackson	StFX	G	3	Mississauga, Ont.	Human Kinetics
Aaron Rhooms	Toronto Metropolitan	G	4	Toronto, Ont.	Business Management
Charles Robert	Bishop's	F	4	Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que.	Mathematics
Renoldo Robinson	Victoria	G	3	Montreal, Que.	Human & Social Development

Second Team

Name	University	Pos	Year	Hometown	Academic Program
Shakael Pryce	Cape Breton	G	5	Pickering, Ont.	Business
Jaheem Joseph	Concordia	F	1	Ottawa	Theology
Nathan Bilamu	Lakehead	F	5	Burlington, Ont.	Arts
Dragan Stajic	Ottawa	G	5	Waterloo, Ont.	Marketing
Sultan Haider Bhatti	Brandon	G	4	Laval. Que.	Business Administration

All-Rookie Team

Name	University	Pos	Year	Hometown	Academic Program
Ryan Regault	Acadia	G	1	Scarborough, Ont.	Law & Society
Noah Sincere	McGill	G	1	Laval, Que.	Arts
Ollie Engen	Queen's	F	1	Kingston, Ont.	Kinesiology
Owen Kenney	Ottawa	F	1	Barrie, Ont.	Psychology
Kyle Varner	Alberta	G	1	Munich, Germany	Science