ST. LOUIS -- The 2016 MVC Larry Bird Player of the Year is senior Fred VanVleet of Wichita State. VanVleet, one of only three players in MVC history to reach 600 career assists and 200 career steals, is also one of just nine players in league history to win the Larry Bird Trophy twice. VanVleet also won in 2014 and finished third in the 2015 balloting.

 VanVleet received 100.5 total points to outdistance Evansville's Egidijus Mockevicius, who finished second with 68 total points. This marks the third-straight season that Wichita State has had two of the top three in the balloting. In 2014, three Shockers were 1-2-3 in the voting -- the first time in the history of the award that the top three point-getters were all from the same team. Last year, VanVleet was third and his backcourt teammate Ron Baker was second. Baker was third in the voting this year. Voting was conducted by coaches, sports information directors and a media panel (voters could not vote for their own student-athlete.) Including this year, 0 freshmen, 2 sophomores, 16 juniors (seven of whom repeated) and 30 seniors have won the award (spanning 1969-2016).

 Notably, VanVleet and Baker are the first pair of guards from the same team to earn first-team all-MVC honors three-straight seasons in the league's 109-year history. Only three other pairs of MVC teammates --- at any position -- have accomplished it: Junior Bridgeman/Allen Murphy, Louisville – 1973-74-75; Larry Finch/Ronnie Robinson, Memphis – 1971-72-73; Arthur Browning/Herb Bunker, Mizzou – 1921-22-23.

LARRY BIRD MVC PLAYER OF THE YEAR:   Fred VanVleet, Wichita State
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR:   Dequon Miller, Missouri State
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR:   Markis McDuffie, Wichita State
DEFENSIVE MVP:   Egidijus Mockevicius, Evansville
SIXTH-MAN OF THE YEAR:   Mislav Brzoja, Evansville
COACH OF THE YEAR:   Announced Thursday

 VanVleet moved into the top-5 on the MVC’s all-time assists chart on Saturday. His 617 career helpers are one more than Indiana State’s Steve Reed (1977-81). If he can tally just five more by the end of the year, he’ll have logged three of the top-10 single-season assist totals in Shocker history. If he finishes the year atop the league's leaderboard in assists per game, he'll join just three others in MVC history to lead the league in assists per game in three-straight years.

LARRY BIRD TROPHY -- VOTING BREAKDOWN

Student-Athlete, School	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Fred VanVleet, WSU	24.5	11.5	4	100.5
Egidijus Mockevicius, UE	11	13	9	68
Ron Baker, WSU	1.5	9.5	13	36.5
D.J. Balentine, UE	1	11	11	36
Anthony Beane, SIU	5	0	4	19
Wes Washpun, UNI	2	0	4	10

 

 Student-athletes received three points for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote and one point for a third-place vote. Panelists could not vote for the student-athletes on their team (or for media, the team they cover).  A total of 45 voters served on the 2016 panel, including four voters from each school and an MVC network panel, consisting of five additional voters. One voter split his first-place vote, giving half to Ron Baker and half to Fred VanVleet.

 The league's Freshman of the Year is Wichita State's Markis McDuffie. The first-year player from Paterson, N.J., is the fourth Shocker to win Freshman of the Year honors, joining Joe Griffin (1987), Jason Perez (1997) and Randy Burns (2003). The MVC began selecting a Freshman of the Year award in 1986. McDuffie is fifth for WSU's balanced attack with 7.4 points per game. He adds 3.1 rebounds per game and has contributed 24 assists and 22 steals while playing in 29 Shocker games this year.

 Missouri State's Dequon Miller is the MVC Newcomer of the Year. The junior from Charleston, W.V., is the top scorer for the Bears this year, averaging 12.7 points per game. He also leads the team in assists. He earned the league's Newcomer of the Week award five times this season, more than any other player and fourth-most in a season by any player in the history of the award. The MVC began its Newcomer of the Year program in 1969, and Miller joins Danny Moore (1997), Mike Wallace (2001), Spencer Laurie (2007) and Adam Leonard (2010) as MSU players to earn the honor.

 For the first time, an Evansville student-athlete has earned the MVC's Defensive Player of the Year honor, as senior Egidijus Mockevicius is this year's winner. The nation's top rebounder (14.0 rpg) also averages 16.6 points per game. He's one of just five players in league history to record 1,400 career points and 1,200 career rebounds, and he's the only player in MVC history to rank in the Top 5 in both career rebounds (1,218) and career blocks (291). The senior from Lithuania has 88 rejections this year, nearly double that of the league's second-best shot blocker. He also added 26 steals to rank third for Evansville. The league began selecting a Defensive Player of the Year in 1989.

 The MVC also selects a “Sixth Man Award” recipient, and this season’s honor goes to Evansville's Mislav Brzoja. The honor is presented to the league's top reserve player (one who has started fewer than 25 percent of his team's games). Brzoja, a junior from Croatia, has played in all 31 of UE's games, coming off the bench in all of them. Nonetheless, he ranks fourth in scoring for the team with his 8.0 points-per-game average. He also ranks second for the Aces in assists (101) and steals (28), while adding 3.5 rebounds per game. Brzoja is the third UE player to earn the Sixth Man Award, which was first chosen in 1997. Curt Begle (1999) and Ned Cox (2012) were the other Evansville players to be honored as "Sixth Man."

 In addition to the specialty awards, the conference announced its all-conference units (first-team, second-team and honorable mention), all-newcomer team, all-freshman team, and all-defense team. The all-bench and most-improved units have been selected by the league’s beat writers and will be announced Wednesday (March 2).

First Team
Ron Baker, Wichita State, Sr.
D.J. Balentine, Evansville, Sr.
Anthony Beane, Southern Illinois, Sr.
Egidijus Mockevicius, Evansville, Sr.
Fred VanVleet, Wichita State, Sr.

Second Team
DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell, Illinois State, Sr.
Devonte Brown, Indiana State, Sr.
Montel James, Loyola, Sr.
Brenton Scott, Indiana State, Sophomore
Wes Washpun, UNI, Sr.

Honorable-Mention Selections
Matt Bohannon, UNI, Sr.
Paris Lee, Illinois State, Jr.
MiKyle McIntosh, Illinois State, So.
Dequon Miller, Missouri State, Jr.
Jeremy Morgan, UNI, Jr.
Reed Timmer, Drake, So.

All-Newcomer Team
Dequon Miller, Missouri State, Jr.
Anton Grady, Wichita State, Sr.
Mike Rodriguez. Southern Illinois, Jr.
Markis McDuffie, Wichita State, Fr.
Everett Clemons, Indiana State, Jr.

All-Freshman Team
Markis McDuffie, Wichita State
Obediah Church, Missouri State
Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye, Bradley
Jarred Dixon, Missouri State
Luuk van Bree, Bradley

All-Defensive Team
Ron Baker, Wichita State, Sr.
Egidijus Mockevicius, Evansville, Sr.
Jeremy Morgan, UNI, Jr.
Fred VanVleet, Wichita State, Sr.
Paris Lee, Illinois State, Jr.