MVC Announces 2018 Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete Teams

Marcus Bartley, Aaron Cook named Second Team.

From the Missouri Valley Conference 

ST. LOUIS — Clayton Custer of Loyola and Reed Timmer of Drake highlight a list of 15 student-athletes honored as part of the 2018 MVC Scholar-Athlete Teams, announced by the league office.  For the first time in league history, two student-athletes share the top honor as both are being recognized as the MVC Enterprise Bank and Trust Scholar-Athlete of the Year.  Voting for the 2018 MVC Scholar-Athlete Team was conducted by league’s sports information directors.

Timmer is the first in league history to win the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award three times (three others have won it twice.)  And Custer, who earlier this week was named the Larry Bird Trophy winner, is the fourth MVC Player of the Year to win the league’s top athletic honor and top academic honor (joining Jamaal Tatum of Southern Illinois in 2007; Adam Emmenecker of Drake in 2008; and Adam Koch of UNI in 2010).  Timmer leads Drake in scoring and is second in the MVC with 19.6 points per game.  Earlier this season he became Drake’s all-time leading scorer.  Custer, meanwhile, is also his team’s top scorer, and he ranks in the Top 10 in scoring, field goal percentage, assists, assist:turnover ratio, free throw percentage, steals, three-point field goal percentage, three-pointers made per game and minutes played.

Custer and Timmer are joined on the first-team unit by Blake Simmons of Evansville; Ben Richardson of Loyola and Nick McGlynn of Drake.

The criteria for the Missouri Valley Conference’s Scholar-Athlete Team voting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting.  Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade-point average (4.0 scale).  Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true freshmen and redshirt freshmen were not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution.  He must have played in 75 percent of his team’s games.