The 2018 MVC Larry Bird Player of the Year is junior Clayton Custer of Loyola. Custer has engineered the Ramblers to one of the most historic seasons in school history, which includes a 25-5 overall mark and 15-3 MVC record. Loyola became just the 11th MVC school since World War II to win the league title with a four-game advantage over the second-place team, and the Ramblers have earned their most wins since the 1984-85 squad reached the Sweet 16 and went 27-6.
All-Conference Team and Specialty Winners (PDF)
Custer received 125 total points to outdistance Alize Johnson of Missouri State (55 points) and Drake’s Reed Timmer (52 points). Four different student-athletes received first-place tallies, including Custer, Johnson, Timmer, and Milik Yarbrough of Illinois State. 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, 17 juniors (seven of whom repeated) and 31 seniors have won the award (spanning 1969-2018).
The junior guard from Overland Park (Kan.) Blue Valley Northwest High leads the Ramblers in a host of categories, including scoring (14.2 ppg), three-point percentage (.462), assists (106) and steals (42). He ranks among the league’s Top 10 in those four categories as well as field goal percentage (.544), free throw percentage (.806) and three-point field goals made per game (1.9). After missing five games due to an ankle injury, Custer returned to action at UNI on Jan. 7 and the team has lost just once since. Notably, Loyola has gone 23-2 when Custer has played this season, compared to 2-3 when he was sidelined. The regular-season title is the first for Loyola as an MVC member (joined the Conference for the 2013-14 season), and Custer is the first Rambler to earn the league’s top player honor.
Custer and Ben Richardson were high school teammates at Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park and helped the program to back-to-back state titles and a remarkable 94-6 record during their four-year careers. They have competed on the same team since the third grade. Richardson joins Custer as a top award winner, too, as he is the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Richardson also missed significant playing time this year (10 games with a broken hand). A top perimeter defender, Richardson typically garners the toughest assignment on defense for the Ramblers. For the season, Richardson recorded 22 steals and eight blocked shots while helping the Ramblers to the best scoring defense in MVC games (61.6 points per game allowed). Loyola also ranked among the MVC Top 5 in field goal percentage defense and in three-point percentage defense. He’s the first Loyola player to earn MVC Defensive Player of the Year honors. The league began selecting a Defensive Player of the Year in 1989, and this marks Loyola’s fifth year in the Conference.
The league’s Freshman of the Year is another Rambler — Cameron Krutwig. A native of Algonquin (Ill.) Jacobs High, he becomes the second Rambler to earn the league’s top rookie honor (Milton Doyle in 2014). The MVC began selecting a Freshman of the Year award in 1986. Krutwig has scored in double digits in 12 of the last 13 outings and is the first Loyola freshman to score in double figures in 10 straight games since Doyle (11 games) in 2013-14. He leads the MVC in field goal percentage (.603) and is sixth in rebounding average (6.3). For the season he is averaging 10.8 points and has added 56 assists.
Illinois State’s Milik Yarbrough is the MVC Newcomer of the Year. The native of Zion (Ill.) Zion-Benton Township High is a transfer from Saint Louis University. He is averaging 16.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game, and is the only active player in the country to average such numbers. If he continues those stats through the end of the season, he will be the 11th such player since 1992-93 to average those numbers or better. He earned the league’s Newcomer of the Week award five times this season, more than any other player. The MVC began its Newcomer of the Year program in 1969, and he joins Reggie Wilson (1991), Tarise Bryson (1999), Lorenzo Gordon (2005), Chamberlain Oguchi (2009) and DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell (2015) as ISU players to earn the honor.
The MVC also selects a “Sixth Man Award” recipient, and this season’s honor goes to Southern Illinois’ Tyler Smithpeters. The honor is presented to the league’s top reserve player (one who has started fewer than 25 percent of his team’s games). Smithpeters, a senior guard from Harrisburg (Ill.) High, is the fourth SIU player (Joshua Cross, 2000; LaMar Owen, 2004; Tony Young, 2005) to earn the award, first chosen in 1997. While making just five starts in 31 SIU games, Smithpeters contributed 7.5 points per game and was second for SIU with 72 assists. He’s hit a team best 45 three-point field goals.
In addition to the specialty awards, the conference announced its all-conference units (first-team, second-team, and third-team), 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 (February 28). A complete listing of all-conference honorees and previous season specialty award winners is attached.
