Charleston Southern’s Taje’ Kelly and High Point head coach Alan Huss have been voted the 2024-25 Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively, by the league’s head coaches and media panel.
The panel voted USC Upstate’s Mister Dean the Freshman of the Year, High Point’s Juslin Bodo Bodo the Defensive Player of the Year, while UNC Asheville’s Jordan Marsh was selected as the Newcomer of the Year. Asheville’s Fletcher Abee was voted Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s Sports Information Directors.
No player from Radford University was named to the first or second team. Jarvis Moss did receive honorable mention honors.
Kelly is Charleston Southern’s first Big South Player of the Year honoree since his head coach, Saah Nimley, won the award in 2014-15. Kelly entered this week second nationally with 230 field goals made, and is just one of three players in Division I to lead his conference in both scoring and rebounding, as he tops the Big South with averages of 20.8 points and 8.9 rebounds. Kelly is the first Buccaneer to lead the Big South in scoring since Nimley in 2014-15, as well as the first CSU player to be the league’s top rebounder since 2020-21.
Kelly is also the first player to lead the conference both categories since former two-time Big South Player of the Year Drew Pember did so in 2022-23, and is on track to become the first Charleston Southern Buccaneer to clinch the Big South’s scoring and rebounding titles in the same season since 1989-90. Kelly’s 625 points scored this season ranks seventh in the nation, while he is eighth in points per game and 25th with 268 rebounds. In Big South games, Kelly was second in the league with 22.5 points and 9.3 rebounds.
Huss becomes the first back-to-back Big South Coach of the Year honoree since Towson State’s Terry Truax in 1992-93/1993-94, and just the third overall. The second-year head coach led the Panthers to their second consecutive outright Big South regular-season championship with a 14-2 record, and a 26-5 overall mark — tying the Big South record for most regular-season victories.
Dean becomes the second Upstate player in four seasons to earn Freshman of the Year honors. Dean ranked fifth overall in the Big South with 15.7 points, third with a 57.0 field goal percentage and was tops with 2.1 steals per game.
Bodo Bodo is the third consecutive back-to-back winner of the Big South Defensive Player of the Year award. He ranks No. 1 in KenPom offensive rebound rating (18.3) and No. 7 in defensive rebound rating (29.3), is 22nd nationally in rebounds (266), and is second in the Big South with 8.6 rebounds — which increased to a league-best 9.8 per game in conference action.
Bodo Bodo received 10 first-place votes and 40 points in Defensive Player of the Year voting, ahead of UNC Asheville’s Toyaz Solomon (four first-place votes, 26 points) and Radford’s Brandon Maclin (13 points, one first-place vote).
Marsh is the second Big South Men’s Basketball Newcomer of the Year, as the award was added in 2023-24 to recognize the top non-freshman transfer playing in the Big South for the first time. The sophomore transfer immediately impacted Asheville, as he has led the Bulldogs in scoring 15 times, led the Bulldogs in assists 15 times, and reached double-figures 26 times. Marsh scored 30 points or more three times — the most 30-point efforts in the Big South this season.
He collected 16 first-place votes and 60 points in Newcomer of the Year voting, followed by High Point’s Bobby Pettiford Jr. (21 points) and Radford’s Jarvis Moss (10 points).
Abee is a 3.829 double major in business and sustainability. He has been ranked among the NCAA leaders in 3-point field goal percentage most of the season, and has been recognized on the Division I-AAA ADA Scholar-Athlete Team (2023, 2024), the NABC Honors Court (2023), College Sports Communications Academic All-District (2023, 2024) during his time at Asheville, and is now a three-time Big South Men’s Basketball All-Academic Team member (2023, 2024, 2025).
The entire 2024-25 All-Conference team is as follows:
First-Team All-Conference
Taje’ Kelly, Charleston Southern
Jordan Marsh, UNC Asheville
Kelton Talford, Winthrop
Kezza Giffa, High Point
Kimani Hamilton, High Point
Second-Team All-Conference
Kobe Stewart, Presbyterian
Toyaz Solomon, UNC Asheville
D’Maurian Williams, High Point
Darryl Simmons II, Gardner-Webb
Juslin Bodo Bodo, High Point
Honorable Mention All-Conference
Kory Mincy, Presbyterian
Josh Banks, UNC Asheville
KJ Doucet, Winthrop
Jarvis Moss, Radford
Kasen Harrison, Winthrop
All-Freshman Team
Mister Dean, USC Upstate
Kameron Taylor, UNC Asheville
Paul Jones III, Winthrop
Carmelo Adkins, USC Upstate
Iverson King, Presbyterian
All-Academic Team
RJ Johnson, Charleston Southern
Shahar Lazar, Gardner-Webb
Simon Hildebrandt, High Point
Trey Hicks, Longwood
Kaleb Scott, Presbyterian
Jarvis Moss, Radford
Fletcher Abee, UNC Asheville
Karmani Gregory, USC Upstate
Ryan Jolly, Winthrop
Big South Conference
