It was already a good week for the University of Evansville men's basketball program, with various all-Missouri Valley Conference honors for
Shy Ely,
Jason Holsinger,
Nate Garner and
Kaylon Williams. Today, the good news continued.
Holsinger was chosen as co-recipient of the MVC Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year award along with Southern Illinois' Bryan Mullins, and head coach
Marty Simmons finished third in the MVC Coach of the Year balloting.
For Holsinger, it was his third honor in the last 10 days. He was chosen a first team selection on the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America Team on Feb. 25, and on Tuesday was chosen as honorable mention all-MVC. The senior guard from Lapel, Ind. will graduate in May with a degree in economics.
The improvement in UE's program was reflected in voting for the Rawlings Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year. Only Ben Jacobson from co-champion Northern Iowa and Dana Altman from co-champion Creighton earned more votes than Simmons, in balloting done by league coaches, media and sports information directors.
Jacobson earned 34 first place votes (3 points each) and five second place votes (2 points) for 112 total points. Altman was second with 51, and Simmons, who earned two first place votes, 13 for second and 14 for third, finished with 46. Jim Les of Bradley was fourth with 11 points, followed by Wichita State's Gregg Marshall (10), Illinois State's Tim Jankovich (7), Chris Lowery of Southern Illinois (1) and Kevin McKenna of Indiana State (1).
Evansville made the biggest jump of any MVC team from last season, moving up from 10th to a tie for fifth. The Aces made the third biggest jump compared to their pre-season ranking, going up three spots from eighth in the MVC pre-season poll. Only Northern Iowa (1st after being picked 6th) and Wichita State (9th to 5th) finished higher than predicted compared to UE.
"Whatever success we've had is a direct result of the players," Simmons said. "They have bought into what we are trying to do as a coaching staff, and they have worked hard and worked together as a team all season to improve our program."
After finishing 9-21 a year ago, the Aces take a 17-12 record into Friday's MVC Tournament quarterfinal game against Illinois State at 8:35 CST at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
