Horizon League Announces Men's Basketball All-League Teams and Specialty Award Winners
March 3, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
INDIANAPOLIS -- Butler University senior guard Mike Green took the spotlight as the Horizon League announced its men's basketball All-League Teams and specialty award winners Monday (Mar. 3). Green was named the Horizon League Player of the Year, while freshman teammate Matt Howard garnered Newcomer-of-the-Year recognition and Cleveland State University sideline boss Gary Waters and Wright State University mentor Brad Brownell shared Coach-of-the-Year honors.
All three awards are the result of voting by League head coaches and sports information directors plus selected media representatives from throughout the League.
Green was a unanimous First-Team selection and received 42 of 46 Player-of-the-Year votes after leading the Bulldogs to a 27-3 overall record and the League's regular-season championship (16-2 in loop play). The Philadelphia native is one of only a handful of players in the nation to lead his team in scoring (14.5 points per game, ranking seventh in the League), rebounding (ninth in the circuit with 6.4 per game) and assists (a League-best 5.13 per contest). He has posted three double-doubles this season and has reached the 20-point mark five times, including a 24-point, 13-rebound effort against the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 12. Green was the League's Newcomer of the Year in 2006-07, his first season at Butler after transferring from Towson University.
Howard averaged 12.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game during the regular season, leading the circuit with a .606 field-goal percentage. The Connersville, Ind., native reached the 20-point mark five times and had a 12-game double-digit-scoring streak at mid-season. He becomes the first true freshman to win the League's Newcomer-of-the-Year honor since T.J. Lux of Northern Illinois University in 1995-96.
Waters has guided CSU to a 20-11 record (12-6 in League play), making the Vikings only the second team in League history to post 20 victories in the season following a 20-loss campaign. (The Vikings finished 10-21 last season.) Cleveland State was picked to finish ninth in the League's preseason poll but secured the second seed for the Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship with a tie-breaker over Brownell's Wright State team. Brownell has directed WSU to a 20-9 mark, including a school-Division I-record 11-game winning streak this year. The Raiders have posted the program's first back-to-back 20-win campaigns since moving to Division I in 1987.
Green leads the five-player First-Team All-League squad that also includes senior backcourt mate A.J. Graves, along with Cleveland State University junior forward J'Nathan Bullock, University of Illinois at Chicago junior guard Josh Mayo and Wright State sophomore guard Vaughn Duggins. Graves' 13.5 points-per-game pace includes 83 three-point field goals, while Bullock powered the Vikings with averages of 14.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per outing. Mayo ranks second in the League in scoring at 17.6 points per outing and adds 3.40 assists per contest, with Duggins providing 13.9 points per contest for the Raiders.
The Second-Team All-League quintet features the League's leading scorer in senior guard Jon Goode of the University of Detroit Mercy as well as Howard and Cleveland State junior guard Cedric Jackson. University of Wisconsin-Green Bay junior forward Mike Schachtner and Milwaukee senior forward Paige Paulsen completed the five-player Second Team.
Goode's 19.3 points-per-game norm includes 15 games with 20 or more points. He had a career-high 35 points against UIC on Jan. 19, two days after a 30-point outburst versus Loyola University Chicago. Jackson added a spark to the Viking program following his transfer from St. John's University, providing 14.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.13 assists per game during the regular season. He also leads the League in steals (2.68 per game). Schachtner averages 15.8 points per game and has reached the 20-point mark nine times, while Paulsen's 13.5 points-per-game pace helped lead UWM to a 9-9 mark in League play despite having five players leave the team since the start of practice in October.
Joining Howard and Jackson on the All-Newcomer Team are Green Bay freshman guard Rahmon Fletcher, Milwaukee freshman guard Deonte Roberts and Youngstown State University freshman guard Vytas Sulskis. Fletcher averaged ten points and 3.21 assists per game, starting 25 of 29 contests for the Phoenix during the regular season, while Roberts led the Panthers with 2.34 assists per outing to supplement his 7.2 points-per-game scoring pace. Sulskis provided YSU with a long-range attack, leading the Penguins with 45 three-pointers this season while averaging almost 11 points per outing in League play. Jackson could become the first player to lead the League in assists and steals in the same season since Loyola's Earl Brown in 1997-98.
The five-player All-Defensive Team, seleced by the League's ten head coaches, includes Green and Jackson as well as Butler senior forward Drew Streicher, Green Bay junior forward Terry Evans and UIC junior center Scott VanderMeer. Evans earned All-Defensive Team honors for the third consecutive year and ranks second in the League in steals (2.00 per game) and third in blocked shots (1.17 per outing). VanderMeer leads the circuit with a rate of 2.67 blocks per contest---more than twice as many as any other Horizon League player---and also tops the loop charts with 7.4 rebounds per outing. Streicher's defensive contributions outweighed his statistics (3.9 points, 2.5 rebounds per game) for the Bulldogs, with the 6-8 Streicher often guarding the opposition's top player regardless of position.
The coaches also voted for the League's two newest individual awards, with Evans tabbed as the first Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year and Valparaiso University senior guard Jarryd Loyd selected as the circuit's inaugural Sixth Man of the Year. Evans became Green Bay's all-time career blocked-shots leader and is approaching the school's Division I record for steals in a career. Loyd started only one game during the regular season but ranks fourth in the League with a rate of 4.10 assists per game. He also averages 11.6 points per contest.
The 2008 Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship begins Tuesday (Mar. 4) with first-round games at campus sites. From there, action moves to Indianapolis and historic Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus for second-round games on Friday (Mar. 7) and semifinals on Saturday (Mar. 8), with Saturday's doubleheader slated for a national audience via ESPNU. The higher-remaining seed after Saturday earns the right to host the championship game next Tuesday (Mar. 11). The Horizon League's automatic entry into the NCAA Tournament is on the line in that (9 p.m. Eastern time) contest, which airs live on ESPN.
2007-08 Horizon League All-League Men's Basketball Teams (listed alphabetically by school)
All-League First-TeamA.J. Graves, Butler (6-1, Sr., G)Mike Green, Butler (6-1, Sr., G)J'Nathan Bullock, Cleveland State (6-5, Jr., F)Josh Mayo, UIC (5-11, Jr., G)Vaughn Duggins, Wright State (6-3, So., G)
All-League Second-TeamMatt Howard, Butler (6-8, Fr., F)Cedric Jackson, Cleveland State (6-2, Jr., G)Jon Goode, Detroit (5-10, Sr., G)Mike Schachtner, Green Bay (6-9, Jr., F)Paige Paulsen, Milwaukee (6-7, Sr., F)
All-Newcomer TeamMatt Howard, Butler (6-8, Fr., F)Cedric Jackson, Cleveland State (6-2, Jr., G)Rahmon FletcherGreen Bay, (5-10, Fr., G)Deonte Roberts, Milwaukee (6-3, Fr., G)Vytas Sulskis, Youngstown State (6-7, Fr., G)
All-Defensive TeamMike Green, Butler (6-1, Sr., G) Drew Streicher, Butler (6-8, Sr., F)Cedric Jackson, Cleveland State (6-2, Jr., G)Terry Evans, Green Bay (6-5, Jr., F)Scott VanderMeer, UIC (7-0, Jr., C
Player of the Year: Mike Green, ButlerNewcomer of the Year: Matt Howard, ButlerCo-Coaches of the Year: Gary Waters, Cleveland State; Brad Brownell, Wright StateDefensive Player of the Year: Terry Evans, Green BaySixth Man of the Year: Jarryd Loyd, Valparaiso
Note: All-League and All-Newcomer awards are voted upon by Horizon League head coaches and sports information directors plus selected media; The All-Defensive Team, Defensive Player of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year are selected by head coaches only.
