Who Is The MVC’s Player of the Year?

(St. Louis, MO) – Closing in on the end of the season brings us closer to post season honors and I’ve begun to wonder who will be the “Larry Bird – Player of the Year” in the Missouri Valley Conference?  Who deserves to be the winner of that coveted award may not be the same as who will win it?

Often the MVC’s highest post-season honor goes to the best player from the first place team. At times the Larry Bird winner is simply the player with the highest scoring average. Some years the award goes to the league’s most complete player.

This is will be a difficult year for Valley media members to know how to vote.

Let’s look at some of the candidates.

The ‘star’ of first place Wichita State is Cleanthony Early. The senior forward is having an outstanding year scoring 16 points and grabbing six rebounds per game. Early is the player that each of the Shockers’ opponents game plans against. He epitomizes the Shocker slogan ‘play angry’ and is an intimidating force for Gregg Marshall’s undefeated team.

Evansville’s D. J. Balentine is the most dominant scorer in the Valley. Balentine is the highest scoring sophomore in the nation netting 23 points a night and handing out four assists. Night after night he has been unstoppable. The Kokomo native has tallied 29 or more points seven times.

Bradley’s Walt Lemon Junior and Indiana State’s Jake Odum do everything well. Lemon will go down as one of the best all-round players in Valley history. By the time you read this he may have become the third player in MVC history to have scored 1,500 points, handed out 350 assists while recording 200 steals.  Odum is the only player among the candidates to average double figures in points while accumulating over 100 rebounds and 100 assists.

Indiana State has won at least 18 games in each of Odum’s four years in Terre Haute. That had never happened in the 118 year history of Sycamore basketball.

Normally Early would be the odds on favorite to win the trophy and he would be the Bird recipient, but I believe this vote will be one of the closest in recent years. Why? The Shockers have two other star players.

Point guard Fred Van Vleet is being hailed by many across the country as one of the very best point guards in the USA. The sophomore has one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the country. He has been ‘Mr. Clutch’ in several of the Shockers’ tight games. Swing man Ron Baker is something of a fan and media darling and is second to Early in scoring, to Van Vleet in assists and has grabbed the attention of many of the voters.

How will this play out? It’s anyone’s guess, but I believe Balentine or Odum will end up carrying Larry Bird out of the award ceremony. Why? I believe Early deserves the award, but the Wichita State vote will get split between those three outstanding players.

Odum is a sentimental pick and plays for the second place Sycamores and there is no denying the production of Balentine. Normally this vote is extremely predictable, but this year could be the ceremony of surprises.

Do Good