MIDDLEBURY — Alex Sobel, a senior forward on the Middlebury College men’s basketball team from Setauket, N.Y., has been named the D3hoops.com Player of the Year.

PANTHER MEN’S BASKETBALL forward Alex Sobel is an amazing shot blocker as well as play maker.
Independent file photo/Steve James

This season’s NESCAC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year — the first player in league history to earn both those honors in the same season — was also named a First-Team All-American by both the National Association of Basketball Coaches and D3hoops.com. He repeated as NESCAC Player of the Year.

Sobel is the first player in program history to earn national player of the year honors and was named to the NABC All-American first team for the first time in his career. Last year, Sobel was named to the D3hoops.com fourth team.

The senior had earned NABC First-Team All-District honors and D3hoops.com First-Team All-Region accolades for the second-consecutive year. The Panther had also already been named the NABC District 1 Player of the Year and the D3hoops.com Region 1 Most Outstanding Player.

Sobel was second in Division III this winter in blocked shots (101) and blocks per game (3.88), blocking at least one shot in his final 51 outings.

Sobel also ended his career with 1,227 points, placing him 11th in program history, and finished third in the program record books with 814 rebounds. He led NESCAC this season by averaging 19.4 points per game and in rebounding with 11.8 rebounds per game. Sobel also led Middlebury and ranked eighth in the league with 82 assists.

Sobel was twice tabbed the United States Basketball Writers Association Division III National Player of the Week, and was named the NESCAC Player of the Week three times this season.