The Emory men’s basketball team enjoyed a solid campaign that saw the squad turn in the program’s third consecutive winning campaign including a finish in the upper half of the University Athletic Association.  Along the way, a number of team and individual records were set on a game, season and career basis, a further testament to the continual progress the program has shown during head coach Jason Zimmerman’s five-year stint as head coach.

Emory wound up the season with an overall slate of 19-6, the third winningest season in school history.  Included in the team’s record was an 8-6 effort in conference play that was good for a third-place tie.  The team’s showing in conference affairs marked the third consecutive campaign that Emory had enjoyed a record of .500 or better, a first in school history.   Over the past three seasons Emory has fashioned an overall ledger of 54-21 with the victory total representing the second-most amount of wins over a three-year stretch for the program, trailing only the 56 triumphs that the Eagles turned in from 1987-88 through 1989-90.  In UAA contests, the Eagles have churned out a 26-16 record over the past three years, tying them for the second-highest win total among league squads in that stretch. 

In addition to the information mentioned above, other key highlights from 2011-12 were:

** The program’s first-ever spot in the D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 Poll where it was ranked 13^th.

** Posting the school’s first-ever 12-0 start, bettering the previous start of 7-0 set by the 2002-03 and 2010-11 teams.  Emory would go onto tie the 1989-90 squad’s best 16-game mark in school history at 15-1.

** Achieved the program’s highest-ever national ranking when it was No. 4 in the D3hoop.com Jan. 24 poll.

** Leading the UAA and standing 17^th nationally among D-III programs in scoring average with an 84.1 points per game that placed third on the school’s seasonal ladder.

** Tied for the top spot in the UAA and 35^th on the national scene in scoring margin (+10.4).

** Knocked down 74.8 percent of its free throw attempts, second in the UAA, 21^st among D-III programs and second on the Eagles’ seasonal chart.

** Pacing the UAA in steals with an 8.8 per-game average.

** Topping the conference and standing eighth nationally in turnover margin (+5.84).

** Draining a league-high 9.3 three-point field goals per game, 17^th in the D-III ranks.

** Totaling a school-record 232 three pointers, surpassing the previous standard of 219 set by the 2010-11 team. Emory sank 10 or more from beyond the arc in 14 contests including three outings of 13 triples that tied the program’s seventh-highest game total.

** Won its eight opening home games of the season en route to building a 17-game win streak at the Woodruff PE Center.  Over the past two years, Emory has compiled a 23-2 record in home outings.

** Averaging a league-low 11.3 turnovers per contest, the 17^th-best effort in Division III during the year.

** Setting and then tying the school single-game record for field goal percentage (.633) in contests vs. Chicago (Jan. 27, 2012) and Case Western (Feb. 23, 2012).

** Seeing two of its players, Austin Claunch and Jake Davis, earn First Team All-UAA acclaim while Alex Greven garnered second-team recognition. 

** Having both Claunch and Davis land all-region honors – Claunch with second-team berths as chosen by the NABC and D3hoops.com while Davis brought home a third-team berth by D3hoops.com.

Senior Austin Claunch closed out a brilliant four-year career with the Eagles and firmly entrenched himself as one the school’s all-time premier performers, ranking among Emory’s top-10 performers in 17 statistical categories.  Claunch became the school’s all-time leader in assists in a Nov. 26 contest against LaGrange and wound up with a career total of 580.  Claunch also held down the No. 1 spot on the school’s all-time ladder in both assists average (5.8 apg) and minutes (3,132).  The dynamic point guard pulled in First Team All-UAA honors for the third straight season, making him just one of three players in school history to earn that distinction. Selected by both the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and D3hoops.com as a Second Team All-South Region honoree, Claunch dished out a conference-high 7.2 assists per outing with that mark placing fourth nationally and second on the school’s seasonal list.   In addition to his assists average, he paced the league in minutes (35.0 mpg) and assist/turnover ratio (2.9).  He was named by the Georgia Basketball Coaches Association as the Division III Player of the Year and his total of 180 assists were second most in school annals.  Claunch capped his stint as an Eagle with the top three seasonal marks in assists.

After a banner rookie season in 2010-11, Jake Davis made sure there was no “sophomore jinx” in his game, pumping in a team-high 19.0 points per game with that effort placing third on the UAA ladder and tying for second on Emory’s season chart.  A First Team All-UAA selection, the 6-foot-5 Davis topped the squad and ranked fourth among UAA cagers in rebounding (7.0 rpg) while also managing to record a conference-leading seven double-doubles.  A double-figure scoring in all 25 games, Davis converted a team-high 53.7 percent of his field goal opportunities en route to claiming a spot on the D3hoops.com All-South Region Third Team. He finished the year among the top 10 UAA performers in eight statistical categories, and 475 total points ranked him as the school's second-most prolific sophomore scorer and tied for the No. 3 overall spot on the school's seasonal ladder.

Junior Alex Greven rebounded nicely from an early-season injury that shelved him for five games and captured Second Team All-UAA kudos after ranking third on the team and 13^th among UAA players in scoring with a 12.4 per-game average.  The 6-foot-3 Greven totaled 11 double-figure scoring contests, 10 of which came during league play, and he produced four contests of 20 or more points.  A Georgia Basketball Coaches Association Second Team All-State selection, Greven’s production picked up considerably during UAA action where he averaged 14.4 points (11^th in the loop) while knocking down 42.6 percent from beyond the arc, good for 10^th place.  He continued to remain as one the league’s most proficient free throw shooters with his 89.1 percent showing (49-of-55) in overall play good for second place.  After three years, Greven is fourth all-time at Emory with an 85.3 percent mark from the stripe. 

Junior Michael Friedberg was steady, starting 23 of the 24 games he saw action in and ranking fourth on the team in scoring (11.4 ppg) while pulling down 6.0 boards per contest, second on the club and eighth on the UAA list.  The 6-foot-6 Friedberg maintained his reputation as one of the nation’s top shot blockers, rejecting an average of 2.5 opponent attempts per game, tops in the UAA and 11^th nationally.  He recorded one blocked shot in 21 contests and totaled 15 outings of multiple rejections including a season-high seven vs. NYU (Feb. 10) that tied the high-water mark by a UAA player during the campaign and ranked fourth on Emory's single-game list.  Friedberg’s 60 blocked shots were the second-highest seasonal total in school history and upped his career total to 129, good for third place on the Eagles’ all-time ladder.

In addition to Claunch, other Emory seniors bidding the program farewell included Alex Gulotta, Justin Resnick, Corey Spraggins and Chris Cohen.