RICHMOND, Virginia - With the celebration of their USCAA National Championship still fresh in their minds, the Salem men's basketball team gets to add some more hardware to the cabinet for the 2023 campaign. In total, there were 8 awards for the Tigers, and one skills competition win.

For the Tigers, Stan and Rodney Smith have been a deadly 1-2 punch in the Salem backcourt all season. For their efforts this season, both players earned First Team USCAA All-American honors. For Stan Smith, it has been all about his scoring threat. He eclipsed 40 points in a game twice this season, and led the Tigers in both overall points and scoring average. For Rodney Smith, he has been pivotal for the Salem offense thanks to his ability to distribute the basketball from the point guard position. He leads the Tigers in assists, and has packed his own scoring punch as he was just behind Stan Smith all season in both scoring average and overall points. 

In addition to the All-American honors, 3 Tigers earn All-Tournament honors for their play in the USCAA Tournament. Justin Tene and Riley Heatherington earned nods to the All-Tournament team, and the aforementioned Stan Smith won the overall Tournament MVP award for his efforts in the Salem championship run.

Outside of the strong play on the court, Salem had three Tigers qualify for the USCAA All-Academic Team. Namely, it was Ashraf Tchadouwa, Walker Moreland, and Joe Patterson who all took care of business in the classroom this season. 

The final accolade of the Salem men's basketball 2022-2023 campaign was actually from the skills competition on March 12th. Fope Okuyiga won the Division I portion of the Dunk Contest held ahead of the USCAA Championship Tournament in Richmond. 

With these postseason awards and their USCAA Championship, the Salem men's basketball program certainly had a lot to be proud of this season. They will be looking forward to building on this success in the 2023-2024 campaign.