This decade saw Green Bay reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years. It was a productive decade for the Phoenix. Here are the 12 players who make up my All-Decade team for Green Bay.
Point Guards: Keifer Sykes, Carrington Love
There was not one player who meant more to Green Bay basketball this past decade than Keifer Sykes. From day one, he was exciting to watch and you knew the program would be in good hands with him at the point. People around the program knew how good he was early on, but the conference was introduced to how great he was in the conference tournament in 2013 at Valpariaso. Despite losing on a buzzer beater, Sykes poured in 31 points on 11-of-20 shooting. That performance set the stage for two incredible years. He averaged at least 18.6 points per game in each of his final two seasons, including 20.3 as a junior in 2013-14, leading the Phoenix to the Horizon League regular season title. Sykes won the conference Player of the Year award as both a junior and senior, the first two-time winner of the award since Detroit's Rashad Phillips in 1999-00 and 2000-01. Quite simply, he was one of the best players in school history.
After Keifer's graduation, Carrington Love took over the point and did something Sykes fell short of doing: lead the Phoenix to the NCAA Tournament. Love was not a full-time starter until his junior season, but averaged double figures both of his final two seasons. His final season, under Linc Darner, Carrington averaged 17 points per game, shooting a career-high 35 percent from deep. His shining moment came as a senior in the tournament semifinals against Valparaiso, as Love scored 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting in the upset over the top-seeded Crusaders. Love was a really solid guard for the Phoenix and deserves to be on this team.
Shooting Guards: Rahmon Fletcher, Khalil Small, JayQuan McCloud
Rahmon Fletcher was the point guard in the early part of the decade, but he is too good not to have as a starter. I put him as the shooting guard since he was a tremendous shooter for the Phoenix. In his four years, he played in 128 games with 123 starts. In his last two years when it was part of the decade, Fletcher started 64 games of the 65 he played in. A four-year starter, Rahmon averaged double figures in each season. In his final two seasons, he averaged more than 15 points per game in both seasons. Fletcher shot more than 47 percent in his career, including 37.6 percent from deep. He is not only a hell of a player, but consistent as well, and that gets him a starting nod on this All-Decade team.
Khalil Small was a solid player for Green Bay whose coming out party was in the NCAA Tournament against Texas A&M as a sophomore. In the game, he poured in a game-high 22 points in the 92-65 loss. After three solid years with the Phoenix, Khalil turned it up a notch as a senior. Thrust into more of a scoring role, Small averaged 18.2 points on 44 percent shooting. He also was a sniper, connecting on more than 38 percent of his attempts from deep. In his final season, he led the team in points, rebounds, assists and steals.
Hey, you, get off of McCloud. Despite only playing two years for the Phoenix, JayQuan still scored 1,058 points. He saved his best season for his last, averaging 17.1 points per game and led the team in points, rebounds and assists. He scored at least 30 four times as a senior, helping lead the Phoenix to the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament and an appearance in the semifinals.
Small Forwards: Sandy Cohen III, Amari Davis, Bryquis Perine
There are many times when the player you were so excited to get turns out to be a flop when he plays for you. Sandy Cohen was not one of those players for the Phoenix. Coming in as a transfer from a few hours down south at Marquette, Cohen was not eligible to play until mid-season in 2017-18. Even though he only played 60 games for GB, he racked up 1,020 points, averaging 17 per contest. As a senior, he averaged 17.5 per game on 47.5 percent shooting. He was a great offensive player and was a great defender as well with his log arms. Sandy was the do-it-all player for the Phoenix in his final season, leading the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks en route to a First Team All-Horizon League honor. His tremendous play carried to the post-season, as he willed the Phoenix to the CIT Championship game. In CIT play, he averaged 20 per game on 55 percent shooting, including knocking the down the game-winner against Texas Southern in the semifinals. I wonder what would have happened had he played all four years in Titletown.
The only current player to make the list is Amari Davis.....and he just finished his freshman season, so we could very easily see him on the next All-Decade team as well. Amari broke the record for most Horizon League Freshman of the Week awards, which unsurprisingly, earned him Freshman of the Year honors. He is a throwback player, as he made exactly zero 3-pointers on the season. He was a mid-range and attack the basket player.....and he is good at it. The 6-3 guard (yeah, I know, I put him out of position in this team. I could not leave him off) shot 51.4 percent from the floor and averaged nearly 16 per game. The best is yet to come for Amari.
Another guy who is playing out of position on this team, Bry Perine played second fiddle to Rahmon Fletcher on some good Phoenix teams. He and Fletcher stayed with the team, even after Tod Kowalczyk left Green Bay for Toledo and the Phoenix hired Brian Wardle. Bry averaged double figures both years he was a full-time starter. Perine's best moment was the game-winning shot on Senior Day against a Valparaiso team with a chance at the top seed in the conference tournament. Perine was a solid player who deserved to be on this team.
Power Forwards: Jordan Fouse, Greg Mays
During his time with the Phoenix, Jordan Fouse played more small forward, but he could very easily play power forward on this team. Fouse was never a big-time scorer, although he did average 12.7 points per game as a senior. He started 133 games out of 134 games he played in during his career and did everything he could to help the team win. The ultimate glue guy. Early in his sophomore year, the Phoenix played Virginia and former Green Bay legend Tony Bennett. Late in the game, the Phoenix led by two and Fouse deflected a pass off a trap and scored on a layup to give Green Bay a four-point lead and the Phoenix won 75-72 in one of the biggest wins in program history. His accomplishments speak for themselves in his career. He was a starter on one of the best teams in program history, which went 24-7 and won the regular season conference title and was a part of a team that broke a 20-year NCAA Tournament drought. Fouse led the team in points in both the semifinals and the finals during that run. He was an All-Horizon League Defensive team choice all four years in Titletown, one of just two players in school history to accomplish the feat, joining Terry Evans from 2006-09. Jordan is also the only player in NCAA history with 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 350 assists, 250 steals and 175 blocks. Quite simply, No. 4 for Green Bay was a beast. And this time I am not talking about Brett Favre.
Mays was a steady presence for the Phoenix, starting on the 24-7 2013-14 team. Mays had a deadly mid-range shot and was known for his dunking ability. Along with Keifer Sykes, Mays was a headline dunker for a team the Anchorage Daily News referred to as Pho Slamma Jamma, His best season came in that 2013-14 season when he averaged 10.3 points per game on nearly 59 percent shooting. In the NIT game for Green Bay against Belmont, Mays dropped in a team-high 15 points in the loss. Greg was a very steady contributor for the Phoenix on some of the best teams in program history.
Centers: Alec Brown, Brennan Cougill
Alec Brown was an obvious choice as the starting center for this team. From day one, he was a starter and major contributor. Brown started 125 games in his illustrious Phoenix career. He averaged double figures in every single season. Through two seasons, he was 6-of-25 from deep, but he transformed himself into one of the top 3-point shooters in the country. In his final two seasons, he made 72 triples and had shot 42.4 percent from deep. He was the absolute perfect complement to Keifer Sykes. Keifer was more of an attack-the-basket type point guard and Alec was more of a jump shooting 7-footer. He was a First Team All-Horizon League selection his last two seasons and was named the Defensive Player of the Year as a senior. Brown was also a fierce rim protector, as he rejected 309 shots in his career, which was tied for the Horizon League record at the time of graduation. Alec was a part of the first recruiting class Brian Wardle brought in and he set the tone for what would be a terrific tenure.
Brennan Cougill, a transfer from Iowa, was a solid big for the Phoenix for his two seasons, averaging at least nine points per game both seasons. Cougill was one of the emotional leaders of the team, getting the crowd pumped after big shots. His best year was his junior season when he averaged 9/7, starting 21 games. His seven rebounds per game was second on the team to Alec Brown. He edged out a few players for this backup center spot.
Player of the Decade: Keifer Sykes
Coach of the Decade: Brian Wardle
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