New York University's first-year head coach Dave Klatsky and assistants Chris Thompson, Maurice Kearney and Ethan Feldman have been named University Athletic Association (UAA) Men's Basketball Coaching Staff of the Year, announced by the league office this afternoon.

Graduate student guard Spencer Freedman was named First Team All-UAA as well after transferring to NYU from Harvard and taking the Association by storm.

The Coaching Staff of the Year award is the fourth in the history of the program and first in over a decade while Klatsky becomes just the second NYU head coach to receive the honor. Longtime head coach Joe Nesci and his staffs won the accolade in 1992-93, 93-94 and 2011-12.

Freedman's First Team selection gives the Violets back-to-back years with a first-teamer after Bobby Hawkinson '22 earned a nod last year.

Klatsky came to NYU after 11 years as an assistant at Division I Colgate University and won the most games as a first-year head coach in NYU program history. The 2022-23 Violets ended the regular season with an 18-7 overall record and 7-7 mark in the league, securing the team's most UAA wins since the 2015-16 season while NYU finished .500-or-above in the UAA for the first time since that year as well. NYU placed fourth in the Association this year after being picked last in the preseason coaches poll.

The Violets received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for their first NCAA postseason appearance since the 2015-16 campaign, beginning the Association slate with a 2-7 record before winning their last five games to make the Tournament.

NYU currently leads all of Division III in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.59), ranks fourth in the nation in both three-point percentage (39.8) and three-pointers per game (12.3), eighth in free-throw percentage (78.0) and 11th in the country in assists per game (18.0), leading the UAA in each category.

Freedman has made an immediate impact since arriving in New York City, boasting the second-best three-point percentage in Division III (49.6) while ranking among the top-20 nationally in assists per game (5.7). His 16.9 points per game are third in the UAA and he's fourth in the league in field-goal percentage (53.4). Freedman is nearly having a 50/40/90 shooting season with an 83.7 percent clip from the stripe.

The California native and Ivy League alum has scored in double figures in all but four of his 25 appearances, recording 20-or-more points nine times. He's dished out multiple assists in all but one game with 17 outings of five-or-more assists. Freedman produced 23 points and a career-high 13 assists in a win over Old Westbury on November 28 while pouring in a career-high 26 points twice this year. He's also tied for the team lead with 1.3 steals per game.

Klatsky, Freedman and the rest of the Violets begin NCAA Tournament play on Friday, March 3, against Lancaster Bible College on the campus of the University of Mount Union in Alliance, OH. Tip is scheduled for 5:10 p.m.