In his first year as head coach, Kevin Keatts and the UNC Wilmington Seahawks accomplished tasks no one expected of them. Keatts led the Seahawks to a four-way tie at the top of the standings come season’s end after being picked to finish near the bottom of the Colonial Athletic Association, earning the conference’s Coach of the Year Award.

Now, for an unprecedented second year in a row, Keatts has been named Coach of the Year by the CAA. The announcement came on March 3, the same day the Seahawks flew to Baltimore, MD, to prepare for the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament.

UNCW was picked to finish sixth overall in the CAA less than a year after taking it by storm. After losing leading seniors Addison Spruill and Freddie Jackson, many thought the Seahawks would not experience the same amount of success that charged them through Keatts’s rookie season. They largely proved the doubters wrong.

Keatts’s first recruiting class, highlighted by freshman C.J. Bryce, proved that continued success was the only option for a program that won 20 games in a season for the first time since 2008. Bryce set a school record for number of CAA Rookie of the Week honors this season, being named four separate times.

“Most people thought that we would go backwards, instead of moving forward,” said Keatts to StarNews. “I have to give credit to the guys in the program and the coaches that have worked hard.”

A majority of UNCW’s production came from a source no one expected. Chris Flemmings, a redshirt junior transfer from NCAA Division II Barton College, has evolved from a non-scholarship walk-on to a full time starter in his first season wearing teal. Averaging nearly 16 points and six rebounds per game was enough to earn him first team All-CAA honors.

Flemmings barely missed out on being named CAA Player of the Year. That honor went to Hofstra’s Juan’ya Green who averaged 17.7 points per game and 7.7 assists per game. Flemmings was named the CAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, however, after he and the Seahawks defeated Hofstra 80-73—in overtime—in the conference’s championship game.

Denzel Ingram, a transfer guard from UNC Charlotte, was named to the CAA’s third team after becoming one of UNCW’s most consistent, reliable scorers. Being able to score from nearly anywhere on the court made Ingram a versatile weapon for the Seahawks, but his 52 3-pointers (2^nd in the league) were what kept the squad soaring for much of the year.

It was a buzzer beating shot by Ingram at Hofstra on Feb. 4 that kept an 11-game winning streak alive. That winning streak—the longest in school history—propelled the Seahawks to first place in CAA for a majority of the regular season. It wasn’t until late Feb. that two key losses to William & Mary and Hofstra would keep the Seahawks from claiming the season championship outright.

Claiming a berth to the NCAA Tournament, UNCW will learn of its first opponent on Sunday, March 13 after the NCAA Selection Committee announces the 68-team field that evening.