Panel Set for Night of Champions

WILMINGTON, N.C. – Event registration and sponsorship opportunities are now available for the Night of Champions, a fundraiser hosted by the UNCW men's basketball program on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Holiday Inn Resort Lumina on Wrightsville Beach, highlighting several Seahawk icons.

This year's panel features Seahawk alums spanning four eras of championship excellence: Bill Mayew, Brett Blizzard, Craig Ponder and Shykeim Phillips. The four UNCW legends will join together with moderator and famed ESPN college basketball bracketologist Joe Lunardi to share stories, insights and memories from exciting chapters of Seahawk history.

The second-annual Night of Champions, a newly imagined spin on UNCW's longtime tip-off dinner, will introduce the 2026-27 team and staff and celebrate the program's championship history and proud tradition. Proceeds from the 7 p.m. dinner, featuring a 6 p.m. VIP cocktail hour for select sponsors, will benefit UNCW men's basketball.

Bill Mayew (1994-97)
Mayew began his career as a reserve for head coach Jerry Wainwright and developed into an All-CAA First Teamer by his senior year in 1996-97.

A co-captain as a senior, Mayew helped the Seahawks to their first CAA regular-season championship in 1997 along with all-conference and All-CAA Defensive team honors.

Mayew was selected as the team's Most Valuable Player and collected the Thomas V. Moseley Award as the school's top student-athlete. A four-time CAA Scholar-Athlete, he was UNCW's first recipient of an NCAA post-graduate scholarship, won the CAA's prestigious Dean Ehler's Leadership Award and captured UNCW's Chancellor's Cup for Academic Excellence in 1997.

Mayew's No. 35 jersey was retired in 1997, and he was selected by school officials to represent UNCW at the inaugural CAA Legends program at the CAA Men's Basketball Championship. He was inducted into the UNCW Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.

Brett Blizzard (1999-03)
The only four-time All-CAA First Teamer in conference history, Blizzard started all 125 games in his storied career and left with a basket full of school records unmatched by any player in the program's history, including the school's all-time leading scorer (2,144).

The Tallahassee, Fla., native guided UNCW to its first CAA championship in 2000 and landed two more NCAA berths in 2002 and 2003. Coupled with an NIT bid in 2001, the Seahawks reached the postseason in each of his four years in the program.

The two-time CAA Player of the Year and three-time CAA Tournament MVP was inducted into the UNCW Athletic Hall of Fame in 2026 and the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame in 2026. His iconic No. 11 jersey was retired in 2005.

Craig Ponder (2011-16)
The only person to win a CAA Championship as both a player (2016) and coach (2025), Ponder has been an instrumental part of restoring the Seahawks to national prominence twice this century.

A two-way guard who scored 1,160 points in just over four seasons at UNCW, he shot 38 percent from the three-point range in his career, including connecting at a blistering 45.1 percent clip in UNCW's resurgent 2014-15 CAA regular season championship season that saw the Seahawks boost their win total by nine games over the previous year.

Ponder guided the proud program to the NCAA tournament for the first time in a decade in 2016. The West Virginia native graduated with the most games played (130) in program history and averaged 11.5 points over his final two years that featured 43 wins, back-to-back CAA regular season crowns and the 2016 CAA title.

Ponder joined the staff in 2020 under head coach Takayo Siddle with strong results. The Seahawks have won two regular season crowns, the 2025 league tournament title and appeared in three postseasons, including winning the 2022 College Basketball Invitational Championship and advancing to the Second Round of the 2026 National Invitation Tournament.

Shykeim Phillips (2019-24)
A four-year starter who was a key cog in one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in school history, Phillips graduated in 2024 tied atop the school's games played leaderboard (130) with Ponder.

Phillips led the Seahawks to the CAA regular season championship in 2022 after being picked ninth in the preseason poll. The two-time All-CAA Defensive Team honoree helped UNCW to the 2022 College Basketball Invitational Championship, the school's first postseason championship in any sport, as well as to the CAA Championship Game in 2022 and 2023.

Phillips earned All-CAA Third Team honors in 2024 when he filled the stat sheet with 13 points, six rebounds, four assists and one steal to help the Seahawks to their first nationally-ranked road win at No. 12 Kentucky, as well as All-Rookie accolades in 2020. He graduated with more than 1,400 points scored and 218 steals. Phillips' clutch moments in late-game situations earned him the moniker "Shy Time" with the UNCW fanbase.

Joe Lunardi (Moderator)
College basketball's leading 'Bracketologist' Joe Lunardi, a 25-year veteran at ESPN, has been a staple voice and resource for NCAA Tournament field projections, 'bubble watch' and more since his first postseason NCAA Tournament Guide debuted in 1995.

In addition to Lunardi's contributions on ESPN.com, he provides real-time, in-season bracket analysis and updates during ESPN's game and studio coverage from his "Bracket Bunker." He also contributes to SportsCenter and other ESPN shows and platforms leading up to Selection Sunday. Last season, The Bracketology Show debuted on ESPN+, offering a deep dive into the projected bracket each week.

Prior to joining ESPN full-time, Lunardi spent more than 30 years as head of communications and marketing for his alma mater, Saint Joseph's University. Raised on Saint Joseph's and Philadelphia 'Big 5' basketball, he wrote for a number of Philadelphia-area publications before becoming long-time editor with the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. The addition of a postseason NCAA Tournament Guide in the Blue Ribbon ultimately led to the creation of Bracketology.

Lunardi continues as color analyst for Saint Joseph's broadcasts on ESPN+.

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Panel Set for Night of Champions