My ballot for First Team All-Missouri Valley Conference
MBB: These are the ten players I voted for to earn All-Conference honors
Earlier this week, I was given the opportunity to vote for a variety of Missouri Valley Conference postseason awards. For the All-Conference team, we are asked to pick our top ten players and rank them 1-to-10. Note: Voters affiliated with a school are not allowed to vote for any of their own players, so I couldn’t for any Racers.
When it comes to my vote, prepare to be angry. Once I got past my top two picks, there was very little separation in my mind from 3-to-13 on my list … but I could only vote for ten. This whole deal was way harder for me than it probably should have been.
In terms of my voting methodology, I only looked at how the players performed in conference play. What they did in the non-conference was not relevant to how I voted. My votes were also swayed by how these guys performed against the Racers. Seeing them with my own eyes certainly affected what I thought of them.
Now that all the qualifiers are out of the way, prepare to be annoyed with me:
Bennett Stirtz (Drake) — This is the easiest Player of the Year vote I can remember since I started covering this league. It’s easy to just give this award to the best player on the best team, but Stirtz has been so much more than that. He leads the league in scoring (20.2 PPG), 7th in field goal percentage (51.3%), 4th in three-point shooting (42.6%), 2nd in assists (5.9 APG) and 1st in steals (2.1 SPG). To say Stirtz never comes off the floor is underselling it a lot. Drake played a total of 420 minutes in conference play, and Stirtz played in 404 of them. He never played fewer than 36 minutes in any Valley game, and Stirtz played the full 45 minutes in all four of Drake’s overtime games in the conference. He’s the main reason the Bulldogs won an outright title and are in contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament if they can’t cut down the nets in St. Louis.
Tytan Anderson (Northern Iowa) — Part of how I voted for players is how terrified I was any time they had the ball. When Anderson would attack the basket, I was terrified with a capital T. He is nothing short of a freight train going to the rim, and his aggressiveness on both ends of the floor is a game-changer for UNI. Anderson is 6th in the Valley in scoring (16.5 PPG) and 4th in rebounding (6.8 RPG). He’s a force of nature that helped UNI stay afloat this year while some key players were hurt. The Valley’s 2023 Most Improved Player should earn First Team honors this season.
Jonathan Pierre (Belmont) — The Memphis transfer scored in double-figures in 17 of 20 conference games. At 6’9, he presents a ton of matchup problems on the wing, as he’s able to overpower smaller guards. Even though Pierre is able to finish around the rim, you have to respect his three-point shot as he knocked down 37.7% from beyond the arc this year. His 15.0 points and 5.6 rebounds per game make him a key piece to the Belmont attack.
Duke Deen (Bradley) — I’ve been a Duke Deen non-believer for the last two years. I think part of it was every time I watched him play, either on TV or in person, he never seemed to played that well. I’d see anecdotal evidence of him having good games, but never when I was watching. That all changed two weeks in Peoria. In Bradley’s 85-83 overtime win over Murray State, Deen went nuclear, scoring 20 points in a six-minute stretch in the second half where the Braves dug out of a 16-point hole to come back and win. He also hit a game-winner to beat UIC in Chicago. Deen has shown his offensive ceiling, when he goes on a heater, might be higher than anybody in the league.
Cooper Schwieger (Valparaiso) — Some might question having a player from the 11th best team in the league this high on the list, but I believe Schwieger is that good. In the regular season finale at UIC, Schwieger put up 33 points, 18 rebounds and five assists. He’s the first player in the country since 2011 to have that stat line in a regulation game. Schwieger is 8th in scoring (16.3 PPG), 2nd in rebounding (7.5 RPG), 8th in field goal percentage (49.8%), 4th in free throw percentage (86.0%), and 2nd in blocks (2.0 BPG). He does everything for the Beacons, and is good enough to get them at least one win in St. Louis by himself.
Chase Walker (Illinois State) — Walker was hurt and didn’t play in early January when the Redbirds won at Murray State. Once he got back healthy, Walker showed that he’s not only one of the most improved players in the league this year, he’s simply one of the best. The 6’9, 290-pounder averaged 15.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, while shooting 57.0% from the field. He also showed he can come up big in high-leverage spots, as his basket in the final seconds at Missouri State helped Illinois State slip by the Bears. Walker had some dominant games this season, including 27 points and nine rebounds against Northern Iowa, and 31 points and nine boards at UIC. He’s as good of a true center as there in this league.
Samage Teel (Indiana State) — Teel lit up the Racers in Terre Haute back in December, scoring 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting. He’s 3rd in the Valley in scoring this year with 17.5 PPG. Teel shot 45.0% from the field, 78.8% from the line, and was 3rd in the league with 5.7 assists per game. He’s one of those guys that once he sees the ball go in once or twice — look out! Teel had 36 points in a win over Illinois State three weeks ago, so he’s more than capable of carrying the Sycamores to a win.
Kennard Davis (Southern Illinois) — The 6’6 guard is another one of those players that gives you “Oh no!!” vibes when he’s got the ball and he’s attacking the basket. Davis averaged 23.0 points and 8.5 rebounds in SIU’s two games against Murray State last month. He’s 4th in the Valley in scoring with 17.4 PPG, and is the Top 20 in field goal percentage, three-point percentage, rebounding, and free throw shooting. Davis has developed into a extremely effective offensive threat for the Salukis.
Tyler Lundblade (Belmont) — There might be some recency bias with this one, but if the goal of the game is to put the ball in the basket, Lundblade does that as well as anybody I’ve seen in years. The 6’6 guard from Dallas is one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen — ever! His ability to catch the ball going away from the basket and, without dribbling, square himself to the goal while in the air and making incredibly difficult three-pointers is nothing short of remarkable. Lundblade is 8th in the country with 100 three-pointers this season, and is #1 nationally making 48.3% from deep. In February, Lundblade made at least six triples in a game five different times. He’s the definition of an elite shooter.
Tayshawn Comer (Evansville) — The league’s #2 scorer (18.5 PPG) is one of the most difficult players in the Missouri Valley for defenders to stay in front of. One of the fastest players in the conference, Comer averages more than six free throw attempts per game, shooting 81.5% from the line. In Evansville’s 78-74 win over Murray State in late January, Comer went 13-for-14 at the stripe to highlight his 27-point performance. The 6’1 guard is also 7th in steals (1.4 SPG) and 5th in assists (4.5 APG) this season.
The official postseason awards will be announced on Wednesday starting at 8:30am.
Great job!!!