Basketball (Men's)
Pace is the MIAA MVP and Defensive Player of the Year
By
Feb 26, 2006, 21:08

Sheldon Pace swept the MIAA awards as the MIAA MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

[MIAA Awards]

OVERLAND PARK, KS.  ... Earning most of the MIAA hardware for this season's play, Southwest Baptist University took the MIAA MVP, the MIAA Defensive Player of the Year, and the MIAA Freshman of the Year.  SBU won the outright MIAA Championship on Saturday, February 25, in Kirksville.

For his actions on the court, senior Sheldon Pace was voted the MIAA MVP and then the MIAA Defensive Player of the Year.  He was also the only unanimous choice for the all-MIAA First-Team and the only repeat selection for the all-MIAA Defensive Team.  He was joined by Central Missouri State's MIchael Hicks and Pittsburg State's Eddie Jackson as repeat selections on the all-MIAA First-Team.  Pace is just the second SBU player to be named to the all-MIAA First-Team as Ernest Hall earned the honors in the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons.

Pace is leading the MIAA In assists per game (8.4), steals (2.3), and assist/turnover ratio (2.40).  He is second in field goal percentage (.527) and ninth in scoring (13.7 ppg).  He has been named the MIAA Player of the Week three times this season and five in his career while at SBU.

Frans Steyn was voted onto the MIAA all-Defensive team and all-MIAA 2nd Team.

In the NCAA Division II, Pace is 4th in assists and 21st in steals.  He is one of two NCAA Division II selections for the Bob Cousy Award which is given to the best point guard in the country for NCAA Division I, II, III.  As of February 26, he was second in the fan poll voting with 23.4% of the vote (268,427 votes). 

"He is a pretty special player to win both of those awards.  In the two years he has been here (SBU) he has grown a lot as a player, person, and student and I would hate to see where we would be without him on our team," says head coach Jeff Guiot.  "The great thing about Sheldon is that those awards do me something to him but the team means a lot more.  Winning the MIAA Championship means more to him than the MIAA MVP or Defensive Player of the Year.  That is what makes him a special player to coach."

Pace set the SBU single season record for assists with 228 assists and for assists in a game with 17 vs. Central Missouri State.  He is just seven steals shy of breaking the SBU single season record for steals as he has 62. 

Senior Frans Steyn was voted onto the all-MIAA Defensive Team along with being named to the all-MIAA Second-Team.  Steyn leads the MIAA in blocks per game (2.07) and is 3rd in rebounds per game (7.7).  He is 13th in scoring and led the MIAA for most of the season in field goal percentage.  He has blocked 56 shots on the year which is second all-time in a single season for SBU and third overall on the career list for blocks.  He is currently 17th in the nation in blocks and 61st in rebounding. 

Taking MIAA Freshman of the Year honors was Colt Blair as he is the first Bearcat to ever receive this award.  He led all freshmen in scoring with an average of 7.6 ppg and was 4th in 3-point shooting percentage and 10th in 3-pointers made per game (1.78).  He started two games for SBU and was the leading scorer in three games this year. 

Colt Blair is the first SBU player to be named the MIAA Freshman of the Year.

This was the first MIAA Championship won by SBU since the 1990-91 season and the second overall.  SBU is currently 23-4 on the year and won the MIAA with a record of 12-4.  Jeff Guiot is only in his second year at SBU and is the first coach to win the MIAA Championship in his second year since Tom Smith did it at Missouri Western in the 1989-90 season.  There have been atleast five coaches win a MIAA Championship in their first year in the MIAA. 

SBU will be the #1 seed in the MIAA Tournament and will face Pittsburg State on Friday, March 3, at 12 p.m. in the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.