The College of Wooster's Jamir Billings, Danyon Hempy, and Doug Thorpe were named to the North Coast Athletic Conference's Men's Basketball 40th Anniversary All-Decade Team on Monday.
Billings earned the NCAC's Top Defensive Player award as a first-year and was also the NCAC's Newcomer of the Year. Wooster's current point guard exploded onto the scene with a single-season program record 84 steals, which ranked sixth nationally. The two-time All-NCAC performer introduced himself to one of small college basketball's greatest rivalries by tying the program's single-game steals record with seven in his first Wooster-Wittenberg University showdown and upped the single-game record to 10 at Hiram College later in the season. Billings' 10 steals against Hiram were the third-most in a Div. III game for the 2021-22 season.
More recently, Billings became the program's all-time leader with 445 assists, breaking the school record held by Erich Riebe (1988-92) and Antwyan Reynolds (1998-02) in the final seconds of last Saturday's game at Wabash College. Billings' 80 steals entering the week are fourth nationally, and just five behind Rowan University's Khalif Meares for the national lead. Billings is fifth nationally with 3.2 steals per game, ranks eighth with 141 assists, and 11th with 5.6 helpers per night. He is second all-time at Wooster with 233 steals, trailing just Reynolds' 259.
Billings, part of teams that are 56-24, helped lead Wooster to the 2022-23 NCAC title and will be looking to do likewise this week in the Scots' pursuit of a NCAC Tournament crown.
Hempy, a 2020 alumnus, capped his standout career as a first-team National Association of Basketball Coaches All-American. He joined Wooster greats Bryan Nelson (2002-03, NABC Player of the Year), Tom Port (2006-07), Ian Franks (2009-10), and Thorpe (2013-14) as first-team NABC All-Americans, and the program's five different first-team selections in the 2000s are the most of any NCAA Div. III program. The NABC Div. III Great Lakes District Player of the Year as a senior is one of the most electric scorers in program history. He graduated third all-time with 2,031 points, 690 of which were scored as a senior, a total that ranks as the second-most in single-season history. Hempy's 23.8 points per game as a senior marked the 16th-highest total in Div. III for the 2019-20 season, and his 690 points were the eighth-most within the division.
The NCAC Player of the Year dropped 40 points against DePauw University in the final regular-season home game of Steve Moore's legendary coaching career and went on to score 90 points during the NCAC Tournament en route to helping the program to its NCAC-leading 17th title. He broke the 34-year-old NCAC Tournament record for most points in a tournament. The Reese's Div. III College All-Star Game selection's 23.8 points per game were the most since Tom Dinger's 24.4 per-game average in the 1970-71 season. The three-time All-NCAC performer made the second-most field goals in single-season program history at 243, while his 148 free throws are the sixth-most all-time at Wooster. He logged 21 20-point games as a senior, had 15 games with at least four assists, 11 games with at least six rebounds, and averaged 24.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.1 assists over seven games against NCAA Tournament qualifiers.
Hempy, who helped the program make its NCAA Div. III record 18th consecutive (29th overall) appearance in the NCAA Div. III Championships, led the program to a 24th consecutive 20-win season as a senior. He played on teams that went 88-29, made four NCAA Tournaments, won one NCAC title, and won two NCAC Tournament titles.
Thorpe, one of eight named a first-team NABC All-American following the 2013-14 season, is one of the program's greatest success stories. His career spanned from seeing limited action as a first-year to being the team's fifth-leading scorer as a sophomore (6.3 points per game) to blossoming into one of the top offensive players in the Great Lakes Region as a junior and senior. Thorpe averaged career-highs in almost every category as a senior with 14.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 0.7 steals per game, and really stepped up in clutch moments. He scored the final 10 points for the Scots in a 77-73 win over then-No. 5 Wheaton College (Illinois), then dropped a game-high 21 points during an 81-78 victory over No. 21 Marietta College.
The 1,045-point scorer came on strong down the stretch as a junior, averaging 15.6 points over the last 18 games of the season, which included five 20-point efforts. He connected on 11-of-19 three-pointers (57.9 percent) as part of a 16.7 scoring average during three NCAA Div. III Championships games, and twice scored a career-high 24 points, including in the NCAC Tournament championship game against Ohio Wesleyan University. Those performances helped Thorpe gain recognition as a first-team All-NCAC and second-team All-Great Lakes Region selection. He earned an elevation to Great Lakes Region Player of the Year as a senior.
The member of Wooster's national runner-up team during the 2010-11 season played on teams that went 107-18 and helped the Scots to three appearances in the NCAA Div. III Championships Sectionals ("Sweet 16"), three NCAC championships, and two NCAC Tournament titles.
A NCAC Player of the Year honor, a NCAC Top Defensive Player honor, or at least three first-team All-NCAC selections between the 2013-14 and 2022-23 seasons were the eligibility criteria for the NCAC 40th Anniversary All-Decade Team.