Penn senior Ibrahim Jaaber has been named Big 5 Player of the Year, a source with knowledge of the proceedings said yesterday.
The source, who spoke on the record on condition of anonymity, said that an official release would come soon. Other officials, reached by telephone yesterday, said that the actual announcement would likely come some time today.
Jaaber is the first player from Penn to win the award since Tony Price in 1979. That year, the Quakers went 3-1 in the Big 5, 25-7 overall and reached the Final Four.
With the Quakers' 68-52 loss to Texas A&M; in this year's Tournament, Jaaber wrapped up his career at seventh on Penn's all-time scoring list. The Elizabeth, N.J. native is also the Ivy League's all-time leader in steals, and his 162 assists his senior year tied the program's single-season record set by David Klatsky seven years ago. Jaaber also became only the fifth person to win Ivy League Player of the Year in consecutive seasons.
But his main competition for that award was classmate Mark Zoller, who led Penn and the League in scoring (18.2 points per game) and averaged 7.5 rebounds. Jaaber averaged 15.9 points and 4.5 boards along with his assist and steal totals.
For this one, he beat out Villanova's Curtis Sumpter, who had a scoring average of 17.4 while playing primarily in the Big East conference, Temple sophomore Dionte Christmas (20 ppg) and Owls junior Mark Tyndale (19.4 points on 54 percent shooting), among others.
But Jaaber excelled in the Big 5 this year, scoring 19, 27, 21 and 15 points as the Quakers went 2-2.
