There was little surprise regarding one category today in voting for the All-Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Team. The University of Evansville's Colt Ryan is MVC Freshman of the Year.

The league's second leading scorer with a 14.8 scoring average and 429 total points, Ryan easily broke Jason Holsinger's four-year-old University of Evansville freshman scoring record of 365 points. In fact, Ryan already has more points than any MVC freshman in the past decade. He'll have a chance to keep increasing the tally this week in the State Farm MVC Tournament at St. Louis, where the Purple Aces play Missouri State in the first round Thursday at 8:35 CST. The winner plays #2 seed Wichita State on Friday at 6:05.

"Colt has a combination of outstanding skills and very keen basketball knowledge," says his coach, Marty Simmons. "He has also become a leader on our team, which speaks for the respect that his teammates have for him."

As those who have watched him know, Ryan is more than a scorer. He has ranked among the MVC's top 10 most of the season in steals and assists, and his 4.3 rebounds per game are the third most on UE's team. The 6'5" Ryan was also chosen as the only freshman on the five-man MVC All-Newcomer Team, which included one senior and three juniors. Ryan is Evansville's first MVC Freshman of the Year.

"It's a very difficult jump, but I've just tried to learn and give a good effort," Ryan said when asked about the move from high school basketball to the Division I level. "The speed and athleticism are very different from high school. Here we run off of screens and there's a lot to learn about the offense. It's demanding physically, too. My body went through a lot of different things this season that it hadn't gone through before.

"But it's been a good experience, especially since we've won some games here late in the season. We wanted to make sure we got some momentum going, and if you catch a hot streak, which we hope to do, there's no telling how far you can go in the tournament."

Northern Iowa's Adam Koch was the clear choice as the Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year, leading UNI to its second straight regular season championship and first outright title in school history. Other first team selections included Defensive Player of the Year Dinma Odiakosa and Osiris Eldridge of Illinois State, Clevin Hannah of league runner-up Wichita State and Josh Young of Drake.

The All-Bench and Most Improved Teams will be announced Wednesday, and the Scholar-Athlete Team and Coach of the Year will be announced Thursday at the tournament banquet at the Hilton At The Ballpark Hotel in downtown St. Louis.

Click here for a complete look at the All-MVC Teams.