Men's Basketball | 2/27/2017 4:55:39 PM

Kansas City, Mo. – Northwest Missouri’s Justin Pitts has been named the MIAA Men’s Basketball Player of the Year for the second straight season. Ben McCollum who led the Bearcats to their fourth straight regular season title has been named the league’s Coach of the Year as the teams were announced today.
 
Pitts, a unanimous selection, currently leads the league in assist to turnover ratio and is second in overall assists while averaging the fourth most points at 19.3 points per game. Pitts is joined on the first team by Rob Davis of Fort Hays State who is averaging 21.9 points per contest this season. Also earning first team honors is the league’s leading scorer in Lincoln’s Anthony Virdure who is averaging 22.1 points per game.
 
Washburn’s Brady Skeens also earns first team honors as he averages a double-double on the year with 13.8 points and 11.3 rebounds per game as he was also named the MIAA Defensive Player of the Year. Finally Trey Lansman of Nebraska-Kearney who averages 8.2 rebounds which is second in the league and is fourth in scoring at 19.4 points per game made the first team.
 
Missouri Southern’s Elyjah Clark has been named the MIAA Freshman of the Year and is averaging 14.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
 
The MIAA Men's Basketball Tournament gets underway tonight with the first four games on the campus sites of the higher seed. Tonight's winning teams will advance to Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City to face the tournament's top four seeds on March 2, 4-5.
 
Player of the Year
Justin Pitts, G, Jr., NWMSU

Defensive Player of the Year
Brady Skeens, F, Jr., WU

Freshman of the Year
Elyjah Clark, F, Fr., MSSU

Coach of the Year
Ben McCollum, NWMSU  

All-MIAA First Team
Justin Pitts, G, Jr., NWMSU**[r3]
Rob Davis, G, Sr., FHSU[r2]
Anthony Virdure, G, Sr., LU
Brady Skeens, F, Jr., WU
Trey Lansman, C, Jr., UNK
**Unanimous Selection
[r2] Two time repeat First Team Selection
[r3] Three time repeat First Team Selection

All-MIAA Second Team
Spencer Reaves, G, Jr., UCM
CJ Carr, G, Jr., MSSU
Zach Schneider, F, Sr., NWMSU
Chandler Diekvoss, F, So., LWU
Corbin Byford, F, Sr., UCO

All-MIAA Third Team
Jaylon Smith, G, Sr., LU
Chris-Ebou Ndow, G, Jr., NWMSU
Brandon Hall, G, So., ESU
Kyle Wolf, F, Sr., UCM
Logan Hovey, F, Jr., SBU

All-Defensive Team
Brady Skeens, F, Jr., WU
Marquiez Lawrence, F, Sr., UCM
JaQuan Smith, F, Sr, FHSU
Bakari Triggs, G, Jr., LWU
Chris-Ebou Ndow, G, Jr., NWMSU

Honorable Mention All-MIAA
Marquiez Lawrence, UCM
Jake Hammond, UCO
Josh Holiday, UCO
Josh Pederson, ESU
JaQuan Smith, FHSU
Hadley Gillium, FHSU
Jackson Price, LWU
Elyjah Clark, MSSU
JJ Cratit, MSSU
Lawrence Brown, MSSU
Cole Clearman, MWSU
Yashua Trent, UNK
Isaiah MaKay, UNK
Ty Daneilson, UNK
Montre’ Williams, NSU
Anthony Woods, NWMSU
D'Vante Mosby, NWMSU
Javion Blake, WU
Brian Patterson, SBU