The year-end awards for men’s basketball in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) were released on Tuesday, and the Hofstra Pride was well represented.

Redshirt-senior guard Aaron Estrada was unanimously named the conference’s Player of the Year for the second straight season. Estrada was the league’s second-leading scorer, averaging 20.3 points per game to go along with 5.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists. Estrada is the first player in the conference to win the award in back-to-back years since Justin Wright-Foreman did it with Hofstra in 2018-19 and 2019-20. In addition, Estrada was also selected to the all-conference first team.

On the sidelines, Speedy Claxton was named the conference’s Coach of the Year after leading the Pride to a regular season championship and the first overall seed in the upcoming CAA tournament.

While Claxton and Estrada took care of the personal honors, a few other members of the Pride received all-conference recognition.

Redshirt senior Tyler Thomas was named to the all-CAA second team in his first year in the conference. After transferring over from Sacred Heart University to begin the year, Thomas quickly emerged as Hofstra’s second scoring option, amassing 16.2 points per game.

Finally, sophomore point guard Jaquan Carlos was picked to the conference’s all-defensive team. Carlos was regularly tasked with defending the opponent’s top scorer in each of Hofstra’s games this year, stealing the ball 47 times in 2023. Carlos is the only underclassman in the conference to garner all-defensive honors.

With plenty of hardware in tow, the Pride will arrive in Washington, D.C., for the conference tournament with all the momentum it can possibly ask for.

Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Lee S. Weissman