Wichita State players unhappy with UNI awards

ST. LOUIS - Any insinuation that players and coaches don't care about postseason awards flew out the window on Thursday at Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

Yes, they're all here to win. Yes, they're all focusing on one day at a time. That much has always been true. But Wichita State players Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker let back the curtain on what will end up serving as apparent motivation for the No. 8 Shockers as the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament gets started.

'It's just time to focus. We've had a long year, a great successful year, and believe it or not it feels like we're almost proving ourselves all over again - which is always fun for me. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow,” VanVleet said. 'We just had an all-league banquet that we just attended. And that's all I'll say.”

The MVC Coach of the Year luncheon was held Thursday morning, where Seth Tuttle was given his Larry Bird Trophy as MVC Player of the Year, Wes Washpun was given his Sixth Man of the Year award, Nate Buss was given his Scholar Athlete of the Year award, and Coach Ben Jacobson was awarded his third MVC Coach of the Year award.

Tuttle received 38 of 47 first place votes for Player of the Year, totaling 123 points. Baker finished second with 71 points and received five first place votes. VanVleet, last year's POY, had 65 points and received the other four first place votes. Both VanVleet and Baker were named All-MVC First Team as well. Tekele Cotton was the only Shocker to garner a major specialty award, earning the Defensive Player of the Year.

In the Coach of the Year voting, Marshall - who had won the award three straight years before and won National Coach of the Year last year - finished second, with 86 points compared to Jacobson's 115. Jacobson collected 26 of the 47 first place votes, compared to 14 for Marshall.

And though Marshall didn't address either of the major awards, his star guard did - and didn't hold back.

'To be honest, we think some votes got slipped up and put in the wrong hat,” Baker said. 'It's just something we're going to have to look past.”

Predictably, Jacobson and his players didn't have much reaction to the Wichita State players feeling that way.

Jacobson chalked up the Shockers' frustration at their competitive spirit, and left it at that.

'I think everybody's pretty competitive,” Jacobson said. 'So I'll stay away from that. We've got competitive guys sitting up here, they've got competitive guys in their locker room, and I'll leave it at that.”

Players find motivation in many different ways, and bulletin-board-type things are often a way to do that - whether positive or negative.

Tuttle said he's never been one to find motivation that way, instead returning to the Panthers' mantra of this and every season under Jacobson.

'I don't think so. We just focus on what coach mentioned - we focus on the next game. If it's a win or a loss, we'll learn from it and go to the next one,” Tuttle said. 'That's been our focus from the start; our motto throughout the year.

'Coach always mentions, ‘Keep building.' We continue to build and build and build so we can be playing our best basketball now. I wouldn't say we put too much focus on anything other than the next game and what's to come.”

UNI plays either Drake or Bradley on Friday at 6:05 p.m. at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

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