ITHACA, N.Y. -- After finishing in second place in the Ivy League standings, three Cornell men's basketball players were named to the All-Ivy League teams on Wednesday afternoon following a vote by the conference's eight head coaches. Senior guard Nazir Williams and junior forward AK Okereke were selected to the second team, while junior guard Cooper Noard was an honorable mention pick and earned Academic All-Ivy honors.

Williams, a three-time All-Ivy pick and a repeat member of the second team, enters the conference tournament averaging 14.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists - all career highs - while shooting 51 percent from the floor, 38 percent from beyond the 3-point arc and 82 percent from the free-throw line. He has been in double figures in scoring in 13 of 14 league games, upping his numbers to 15.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists in Ivy contests. The senior ranks seventh in the Ivy League in scoring and fifth in assists while sitting in the top 100 nationally in field goal percentage. Williams ranks among the school's all-time leaders in scoring (14th, 1,213), assists (eighth, 302), field goals made (16th, 426), field goal percentage (20th, .484), 3-point field goals made (20th, 133), free-throw percentage (ninth, .778).

Okereke emerged as one of the conference's top all-around players as a junior, ranking in the top 20 in the league in scoring (13th, 14.3), rebounding (20th, 4.2), assists (fourth, 4.1), blocks (sixth, 1.1), steals (eighth, 1.2), field goal percentage (second, .625), free-throw percentage (ninth, .778), 3-point percentage (2nd, .458) in conference play despite not ranking in the top 25 in minutes played. He was in double figures in 21 contests this season with a career-high 30 points at Ivy champ Yale. Okereke was dominant in the Big Red's win at Cal, its first victory over an ACC school in nearly 60 years, with 24 pints, six rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocked shots to earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors.

Noard captured his first Ivy honor after averaging 13.6 points and 3.0 rebounds while starting all 27 contests on 50 percent shooting and 44 percent accuracy from beyond the 3-point arc. The junior leads the Ivy league in both 3-pointers per game (3.2) and 3-point percentage (.500) in league contests, as his numbers jumped to 14.5 points and 3.4 rebounds on 54-50-88 shooting. A two-year starter, the Big Red is 39-17 with Noard in the starting lineup. He ranks in the top 20 all-time in 3-point field goals made (19th, 141) and 3-point percentage (eighth, .408). Noard also excels in the classroom, posting a better than 3.0 grade point average in Applied Economics & Management.

The three All-Ivy selections are the most for any Big Red team since the 2009-10 NCAA Sweet 16 squad had four total players honored (Louis Dale '10, Jeff Foote '10 and Ryan Wittman '10 on the first team, Chris Wroblewski '12 honorable mention).

Cornell will square off with Dartmouth in the Ivy League Tournament semifinals on Saturday, March 15 at 2 p.m. at the Pizitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I. The contest will be televised on ESPNU.

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2024-25 ALL-IVY LEAGUE MEN'S BASKETBALL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Bez Mbeng, Yale (Sr., G)
 
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
*Bez Mbeng, Yale (Sr., G)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
*Robert Hinton, Harvard (Fy., G)
 
COACHING STAFF OF THE YEAR
Dartmouth
 
FIRST TEAM ALL-IVY^
Kino Lilly Jr., Brown (Sr., G)
Ryan Cornish, Dartmouth (Sr., G)
*Xaivian Lee, Princeton (Jr., G)
*Bez Mbeng, Yale (Sr., G)
John Poulakidas, Yale (Sr., G)
Nick Townsend, Yale (Jr. F)

SECOND TEAM ALL-IVY
AK Okereke, Cornell (Jr., F)
Nazir Williams, Cornell (Sr., G)
Brandon Mitchell-Day, Dartmouth (Jr., F)
Sam Brown, Penn (So., G)
Caden Pierce, Princeton (Jr., F)

HONORABLE MENTION
Chandler Piggé, Harvard (Jr., G)
Cooper Noard, Cornell (Jr., G)
 
*Unanimous Selection
^Team Extended Due To Tie In Voting