The Northern Star counts down the top 10 athletes of the year, as picked by the sports staff.

“I didn’t intend to do it,” said Darion “Jake” Anderson, of the NIU men’s basketball team. “It just happened that way.”

Anderson said he didn’t plan on becoming the first freshman to lead the NIU offense since T.J. Lux in the 1995-96 season.

He also didn’t plan on landing himself fourth among top-scoring freshmen in NIU history. The freshman guard, however, did both last season, tallying 320 points and averaging a MAC-freshman-high 11.9 points per game.

“He is a guy that showed the ability to play well against older, more experienced players,” said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton. “I think as we continue to add other pieces to our program, it is going to afford him to have even more success.”

After grabbing MAC Player of the Week on Feb. 18, Anderson was named the MAC Freshman of the Year, an accomplishment that hasn’t been awarded to an NIU player since 1985.

“Certainly, it’s an honor for any player to be selected as the best among their peers,” Patton said. “He is a guy that brought his hardhat to work every day, and is hungry to become a better player.”