Union College Athletics

A sharpshooter from both beyond the arc and the free-throw line, John Cagianello remains the all-time leading scorer in Union men's basketball history nearly 20 years after his graduation.
 
A three-time All-Conference honoree and one of Union's two two-time All-Conference first-team selections, he started off his career with Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (now Liberty League) Rookie of the Year laurels after averaging 14.5 ppg as a first-year. Cagianello needed only 63 games to reach quadruple figures midway through his junior year, knocking down a career-best 71 three-pointers at a 42.5 percent clip to become the seventh-fastest player in program history to score 1,000 points. He had his best season as a senior, becoming only the third Union player to score 600 points in a single season and averaging 21.6 points per game on 50.2 percent shooting from the field and 84.9 percent success from the line. As a result, he was named to the NABC All-District and D3hoops.com All-Region first teams, one of only five Union players to earn each honor.
 
Cagianello is the only player in program history to eclipse the 2,000-point mark for a career, finishing his time in Schenectady with 2,006 points in a program-record 114 games (17.6 ppg). He still ranks first all-time in three-pointers made (275) at Union and shot better than 40.0 percent from long range in his career, while also ranking second at the school by shooting 83.5 percent (319-382) from the charity stripe and sitting fourth in most free throws made. Union won at least 17 games in all four of his seasons, including the program's second Liberty League Tournament championship squad in 2005.
 
Cagianello is also one of the few Union players to make the leap to professional basketball after graduation, starring with the Manchester Magic of the European Basketball League and leading the team to a National Cup in 2007.