Joshua Johnson Named a Team Captain of Kutztown University Men's Basketball

2016 May 20

Joshua Johnson of Norristown, PA, has been named a team captain of the Kutztown University men's basketball team for the 2016-2017 season.

Austin Beidelman and Josh Johnson return as captains for the second straight year, and will be joined by fellow senior Ryan Connolly.

Beidelman has started in 81-of-84 career games in his three years at Kutztown. He has grown into one of the top distributing guards in the conference, ranking among the leaders in the PSAC in assists and assist/turnover ratio last year. He also hit the boards better-than-ever last year, grabbing a career-high 3.9 per game.

The Schnecksville native averaged 8.7 points last year, right at his career average of 8.8. He posted his first 100-assist season with 104, 13th in the PSAC last year and the eighth player in school history to dish out 100 assists in a season.

For his career, Beidelman ranks eighth in KU history with 274 assists, as another 100-assist season would put him in the top-five. He has scored 741 career points, right on pace for a potential 1000-point career as a Golden Bear.

Johnson, last year's Team MVP and the 2016 PSAC East Athlete of the Year, led the Golden Bears with team-highs of 14.4 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. He earned his second straight All-PSAC honor and first First Team nod. He burst on the scene regionally last year, earning All-Region Second Team honors and All-Tournament Team recognition at the NCAA Atlantic Region Tournament.

A Norristown native, Johnson is the 24th player in KU history to go over the 1,000-point mark. He enters his senior year 12th at KU with 1,245 career points, an average of 14.1 per game. He grabbed a career-high 8.5 rebounds per game last year, lifting him to 10 double-doubles, for a career rebounding average of 7.6 per game. His 256 boards last year rank seventh at KU and his 666 career rebounds rank sixth.

Johnson and Beidelman have both been starters since the time they first stepped on campus. Johnson has started in 84-of-88 career games and has made a living on high field goal percentage close to the basket at a career-clip of 58.8 percent. He added the 3-point weapon to his arsenal last year with nine on the season. Johnson ranks in the top-12 at KU in scoring, scoring per game, free throws, field goals, field goal percentage and blocks. He ranks seventh at KU with 94 career blocks.

Connolly earned All-PSAC East Second Team honors last year for his tremendous return to the court after missing more than a year of basketball due to injury. He started in all 29 of his appearances, was third on the team in scoring with a career-high 12.2 points per game and was one of the top 3-point shooters in the PSAC. He ranked third in the PSAC with 67 3-pointers and was fourth in 3-point percentage at .420. Connolly scored in double-figures 19 times and posted a career-high 29 points in a win over Gannon.

For his career, Connolly has scored 815 points in his three seasons, a career average of 10.3, while starting in 76-of-79 career games. He buried a career-high 67 3's last year and has 152 for his career, ninth in school history. At the free throw line, he nearly broke the school-record last year by shooting 88.9 percent from the line, second-best in school history. For his career, he ranks fifth at KU with an 84.2 percent clip.