March
4, 2009
CEDAR
RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
(IIAC) announced today that Buena Vista University senior guard
Andre Wagner (Omaha, Neb./Northwest) has been named
the 2008-09 IIAC Men’s Basketball Most Valuable Player
and Cornell College head coach Mike DeGeorge
has been named the 2008-09 IIAC Men’s Basketball Coach
of the Year.
Wagner
averaged 16.6 points, 3.81 assists, and 1.8 steals in 26 contests,
leading Buena Vista in scoring 13 times. He led the Conference
in assists, steals, and assist-to-turnover ratio, ranked second
in scoring, and ranked fifth in free-throw percentage (79.8
percent, 87-of-109). Wagner also averaged 2.12 3-pointers per
game, ranking fourth in the IIAC.
In
16 Conference games, Wagner averaged 16.5 points, 3.75 assists,
and 1.63 steals, and shot 81.7 percent (58-of-71) from the free-throw
line. He led the league in assists, steals, and assist-to-turnover
ratio (1.25), and ranked fourth in scoring and sixth in free
throw percentage. Wagner is the fifth BVU player to be named
IIAC Most Valuable Player, totaling six honors, and the first
since Scott Weber in 2004.
DeGeorge
led Cornell to a runner-up finish with a 12-4 Conference record,
the school’s best finish since joining the Iowa Conference
prior to the 1997-98 season. The Rams enter their seventh NCAA
Tournament overall, and first since 1994, with a 21-6 record.
The 21 wins is a Cornell school record. In conference games,
Cornell led the IIAC in scoring defense (60.2 points/game),
field goal percentage defense (38.9 percent), and 3-point field
goal defense (29.8 percent) and ranked second in scoring offense
(68.2 points/game), scoring margin (+8.1), blocked shots (4.06
blocks/game), field goal percentage (47.3 percent), and turnover
margin (+1.62). This is the first time DeGeorge has been named
IIAC Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year.
The
IIAC also announced today the 2008-09 Men’s Basketball
All-Conference Team. The 15-member Team includes eight repeat
All-Conference performers including Wagner, Cornell’s
Griffin LaDew, and Loras’ Rick
Kolze who become the 60th, 61st, and 62nd three-time
All-Conference picks. Cornell, Loras, and league champion Buena
Vista each had three players selected, while Central, Coe, Dubuque,
Luther, Simpson, and Wartburg each had one player selected.
The
complete 2008-09 IIAC Men’s Basketball All-Conference
Team is
here.
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