KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University sophomore guard Justin Pitts has been named the 2015-16 MIAA Player of the Year. Pitts becomes the program’s sixth student-athlete to win the conference’s highest honor. Coach Ben McCollum earned his third MIAA Coach of the Year honor, winning back in 2011-12 and sharing the award in 2014-15. Pitts was one of four unanimous first team All-MIAA performers. Senior Conner Crooker was named All-MIAA second team, junior Zach Schneider was named third team and sophomore Chris-Ebou Ndow earned honorable mention accolades.
Pitts joins DeShaun Cooper (’14), Hunter Henry (’07), Kelvin Parker (’04), Shakey Harrington (’98) and Carl Jenkins (’71) as Northwest players to win league MVP honors. He has put together a stellar season, scoring in double figures in all 26 games he has appeared in and has surpassed 20+ points 16 times. He ranks second in the MIAA in assists (4.8 apg), assist-to-turnover ratio (2.6) and minutes played (36.2). He is third in field goal percentage (54.1%) and is also third in three point field goal percentage (46.6 %). He is fifth in the MIAA in scoring at 20.9 points per game. The sophomore surpassed the 1,000 point plateau on Feb. 24 in his 53rd career game. He was the 2014-15 MIAA Freshman of the Year and was also a first team All-MIAA performer.
Crooker earned his second-straight All-MIAA second team honor. He was an honorable mention performer as a sophomore in 2013-14. Crooker now ranks second in Northwest history with 197 career three pointers. He is the program’s all-time leader in free throw percentage (86.1) and his 1,282 career points is tied for 10th all time. He has scored in double figures 19 times this year and has gone over 20 points twice.
Schneider set the Northwest career three-point record which now stands at 251. This year, he has scored in double figures 12 times and has gone over 20 points once, hitting six three pointers against Northeastern State on Feb. 13. He ranks fifth in the MIAA at 44.4 percent from three-point range (80-of-180) and is eighth in minutes played at 35.1 per game. Schneider was an honorable-mention performer last season and was the 2013-14 MIAA Freshman of the Year.
Ndow was named honorable mention All-MIAA in his first year with the Bearcats. The Stavanger, Norway, native has scored in double-figures 13 times this year and has recorded one of the three Northwest double-doubles. He has appeared in all 27 games, starting the past 23 times. He ranks eighth in the MIAA in offensive rebounds (2.0) and is ninth in total rebounding (6.3).
McCollum helped lead the Bearcats to the program’s third-straight MIAA regular season title. He has now won 20 or more games in each of the past five seasons, the only MIAA team to do so. This year, Northwest tied the MIAA record with 19 conference victories.
— MWSU Athletics —