Sophomore point guard Jamir Billings turned in another top all-around season in the storied history of College of Wooster men’s basketball, and the Fighting Scots’ star was rewarded with second-team National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 7 and third-team D3hoops.com All-Region 7 honors, as announced by the respective organizations on Tuesday.
Billings was elevated to first-team All-North Coast Athletic Conference status after a dynamic all-around year. He ranked fourth on a very balanced conference championship team with 10.8 points per game, tied for the team lead at 5.2 rebounds per game, passed out 5.2 assists per game, and led the league with 2.6 steals per game. Billings’ 69 steals and per-game average rate in the top-25 nationally, and he is in the top-30 within Div. III in assists per game. Billings’ 69 steals are the third-most in single-season program history, trailing his single-season program record 84 from the 2021-22 campaign and Antwyan Reynolds’ 75 from the 2000-01 season. Billings joined Reynolds as the lone Scots in program history with multiple seasons with at least 65 steals.
When it comes to assists, Billings’ 140 rate as the fifth-most in single-season program history, and he is the only Scot to have two seasons with at least 140 assists. At 304 career assists, he is just eight shy of joining the program’s top-10 leaderboard. He tied the single-game program record and career-high with 12 assists against seventh-ranked University of Rochester in December in what was his second game with 12 assists and fifth-career game hitting double figures.
Billings scored a career-high 30 points against Wabash College in the championship game of the NCAC Tournament, with all the points coming on three-pointers. His 10 triples broke Rick Hochstetler’s single-game program record of nine, which stood since 1997. Billings scored in double figures 15 times on the year, logged 13 games with at least six assists, and had nine games with at least four steals, including a season-high six against Oberlin College, in what marked fourth-career game with at least six steals.
Billings was previously the D3hoops.com Region 7 Rookie of the Year, the NCAC Top Defensive Player, the NCAC Newcomer of the Year, and an honorable mention All-NCAC selection following the 2021-22 season.
Wooster went 21-6 this year, won its NCAC-leading 19th conference title, and hit 18 wins for the 34th consecutive full season.