RIVERDALE, N.Y. - Former Manhattan College basketball stars Keith Bullock '93 and Gina Somma '96 have been selected as members of the MAAC Honor Roll Class of 2013, the conference office announced on Wednesday. Bullock, Somma, and the honorees from each of the other nine MAAC schools will be inducted into The MAAC Experience exhibit at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame during the MAAC Tournament in March.
"The tremendous response from the 2012 honorees of families last March, reinforced within the MAAC the value and honor of being associated with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with this event," MAAC Commissioner Rich Ensor said. "The 2013 class of honorees is deep in basketball success, and the conference membership looks forward to their induction in March into the MAAC Basketball Hall of Fame Honor Roll."
The 1990 MAAC Rookie of the Year, Bullock helped lead a renaissance of Manhattan basketball. He was a key starter on the 1992 team that snapped the Jaspers' 15-year postseason drought by playing for the NIT. As a senior in 1993, he was the MAAC Player of the Year and MAAC Tournament MVP, as Manhattan won its first MAAC title reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1958. A three-time First Team All-MAAC selection, Bullock finished his career with 1,992 points and 1,012 rebounds, ranking him second all-time on both lists.
Somma led Manhattan to the 1996 NCAA Tournament after scoring a program-record 768 points. That season, she finished third in the nation in scoring (25.6 ppg) and was named MAAC Player of the Year, Metropolitan Player of the Year and Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American. She currently ranks third on the Jaspers' all-time scoring list with 1,838 points and second with a career scoring average of 16.7 points per game. Somma is also fifth all-time in both rebounds (819) and blocks (81).
Each school selected one of its basketball alumni from both the men's and women's programs to be recognized. The inductees will be honored at a private dinner at the Hall of Fame on Friday, March 8, where they will be added to The MAAC Experience. They will also be recognized at halftime of the men's No. 8 vs. No. 9 first-round game on Friday night, featured in a video presentation at The MAAC Experience, and profiled in the MAAC Championships game program.
"The Hall of Fame represents the best of the best in the game of basketball, and the MAAC's honorees are well represented in the conference exhibition," John Doleva, President and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame said. "We congratulate this year's honorees and welcome them to the Basketball Hall of Fame and to Springfield, Mass., for the 2013 MAAC Basketball Championships."
The MAAC Experience opened at the Basketball Hall of Fame last year to coincide with the MAAC Men's & Women's Basketball Championships moving to Springfield, Mass. Manhattan's inaugural MAAC Honor Roll inductees were Sheila Tighe '84, the all-time leading scorer in Manhattan basketball history (men or women), and Jack Powers '58, the captain of the Jaspers' 1958 NCAA Tournament team who later became head coach and athletic director.
