Missouri Valley post-season awards - Drake's Darian DeVries named Coach of the Year

[MikeCash]

Here are my final projections:

FIRST TEAM:
Marques Townes
Darrell Brown
Nick McGlynn
Armon Fletcher
Tulio Da Silva

SECOND TEAM:
Tyreke Key
AJ Green
Cameron Krutwig
Milik Yarbrough
Phil Fayne

THIRD TEAM:
Clayton Custer
Brady Ellingson
Kavion Pippen
Elijah Childs
Jarred Dixon

ALL NEWCOMER
AJ Green
Brady Ellingson
Tulio Da Silva
Tremell Murphy
Keandre Cook

ALL FROSH
AJ Green
DJ Wilkins
Ja’Shon Henry
Cooper Kaifes
Javon Freeman

ALL DEFENSE
Javon Freeman
Clayton Custer
Nick McGlynn
Dwayne Lautierre-Ogunleye
Isaiah Brown

MOST IMPROVED
Tyreke Key
Marty Hill
Derrik Smits
KJ Riley
John Hall

ALL BENCH
Cooper Neese
Cooper Kaifes
Anthony Murphy
Spencer Haldeman
Nate Kennell

COACH
Darian DeVries

Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year: Marques Townes, Loyola
Newcomer of the Year: Tulio Da Silva, Missouri State
Freshman of the Year: AJ Green, Northern Iowa
Defensive MVP: Isaiah Brown, Northern Iowa
Sixth Man of the Year: Nate Kennell, Bradley

[tornado]

Mike - can't argue much with any of your reasoning..
but I might differ a couple places...

-first - I think Fayne deserves 1st Team
- and McGlynn has been so consistent and has little consistent help to go with him, that he had to carry that team, so
I think McGlynn will get the nod at Player of the Year
-I hope Childs can break thru on the 2nd team - I'm not convinced that Key & Green deserve 2nd Team nor that Custer should even be on 3rd
-and I hope Ja'Shon gets All Frosh but I fear he came on too late for some of the opponents to have seen how good he is - thus he won't get their votes. Over the last 7 games Ja'Shon averaged almost 10 ppg and 4.3 rpg.

[tornado]

as noted elsewhere - one MVC writer has already posted his ballot - https://www.tribstar.com/sports/down...560b6a997.html

There's a few puzzling comments - not the least of which is that he claims Marques Townes plays for Bradley

but - one other major disagreement I have with Golden's logic...
He places Valparaiso's Daniel Sackey on the All Freshman Team.....WHY??
He was a barely noticeable sub on a near-last-place team?
...he didn't even average 4 ppg despite getting 18 minutes/game -
compared to Ja'Shon Henry who averaged almost 10 ppg & 6 rpg in the last half of Valley play and who was quite noticeable down the stretch

[Da Coach]

He admitted that "Sackey is a bit of observation bias as I really liked the way he played in the ISU win at Valparaiso", so he was impressed in one of the games Valpo played against Indiana State. I wouldn't expect too many other voters who will list Sackey among the top 5 freshmen. I actually think he had another purpose in mind. By selecting a couple borderline players in Sackey and Kaifes of Loyola, it might help his own team's player Cooper Neese, who he is not able to vote for.

[tornado]

The Missouri State beat writer says he picked Nick McGlynn for Player of the Year
and also says "I have only heard Nick McGlynn's name come up as the MVC Player of the Year. He's my pick.", and
I'm sure he's talked with other people who vote...

https://twitter.com/WyattWheeler_NL/status/1102763605542535168

[tornado]

....Ja'Shon Henry who averaged almost 10 ppg & 6 rpg in the last half of Valley play and who was quite noticeable down the stretch

The MVC All Freshman Team consisted of:

AJ Green 15.2 ppg & 3.1 rpg
DJ Wilkins 11.1 ppg & 3.0 rpg
Javon Freeman 10.9 ppg & 4.2 rpg
Cooper Kaifes 5.6 ppg & 1.3 rpg
Cooper Neese 8.4 ppg & 3.2 rpg

Ja'Shon Henry - averaged 4.3 ppg, 2.4 rpg but was very impressive down the stretch - with 10 ppg & 6 rpg down the stretch
...and he was clearly a big impact on both offense & defense...helping us win big games...to overcome our 0-5 start.
....only two of those guys (Kaifes & Wilkins) were on teams that finished better than us in the standings.
Too bad Ja'Shon didn't come on sooner - likely some of the voters just didn't even get to see him.
The Indiana State guy even voted Sackey (3.9 ppg & 1.6 rpg) ahead of Ja'Shon

The Indiana State beat guy really has no excuse for naming Sackey ahead of Ja'Shon...
did he not watch the game his Sycamores got pummelled by Bradley with Ja'Shon the Player of the Game with 17 points, 5 rebs, zero turnovers? When they played Valpo and clobbered them 70-53, Sackey played 22 minutes and was scoreless.

[Da Coach]

The Indiana State beat guy really has no excuse for naming Sackey ahead of Ja'Shon...

He probably did have a reason. As I noted 3 posts above, he couldn't cast a vote for his own team's player (Cooper Neese). So, by picking an unlikely candidate like Sackey, instead of a more deserving candidate getting his vote, it could have helped Neese get on the All Freshman team.

[tornado]

Drake's Darian DeVries gets Coach of the Year

DeVries was picked first on 44 ballots, while Missouri State's Dana Ford finished 2nd in voting and had three 1st place votes
Porter Moser finished 3rd in the voting.
..but we know there were 49 voters so I guess I am truly stumped how two of the voters could imagine anyone else should get this award!
Maybe two guys gave their votes to Barry Hinson thinking it might help save his job there...

[egib52]

Drake's Darian DeVries gets Coach of the Year

DeVries was picked first on 44 ballots, while Missouri State's Dana Ford finished 2nd in voting and had three 1st place votes
Porter Moser finished 3rd in the voting.
..but we know there were 49 voters so I guess I am truly stumped how two of the voters could imagine anyone else should get this award!
Maybe two guys gave their votes to Barry Hinson thinking it might help save his job there...

According to the Valley article Moser got the other 2, so DeVries-44, Ford-3, Moser-2.