Ace Hunt
GoSycamores.com
ST. LOUIS -- A pair of Sycamores have earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors as announced today by the league office following a postseason vote of head coaches, sports information directors and a media panel. Jake Odum was named to the All-MVC First Team while Manny Arop was a honorable mention selection.
Odum is a first team selection for the second consecutive season. He joins Wichita State's Cleanthony Early as the only repeat selections on the six-man first team. Odum is just the fourth Sycamore to earn consecutive All-MVC First Team honors, joining a group of Larry Bird (1977-78 & 1978-79), Carl Nicks (1978-79 & 1979-1980) and John Sherman Williams (1984-85 & 1985-86).
He has been named All-MVC in each of his four seasons in the program and is just the second Sycamore (John Sherman Williams the other (1983-1986)) to earn all-league honors in four different seasons.
"This is a great accomplishment for Jake," head coach Greg Lansing said. "There have been a lot of Sycamores who have won a lot of games but there have only been three others that have earned First Team All-MVC in back-to-back years. I know Jake would trade all of these honors for a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament and win this weekend in St. Louis. The name Indiana State Basketball means a lot more now than it has in recent years and Jake has played a big role in that."
Odum ranks seventh in the ISU all-time scoring chart with 1,511 points and is second in assists with 586 as well as fourth in steals with 200. His 571 career free throws is an Indiana State school record and Odum is the only player in MVC history with at least 500 career made free throws and 500 career assists. This season, Odum is averaging 13.0 ppg which ranks 13th in the MVC while his 4.6 assists per game average ranks second. He has hit 78.5 percent of his free throws to rank tied for ninth in the MVC and his 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks third in the conference. He was a First Team All-MVC Preseason selection as well as a member of The Bob Cousy Award Watch List and The Lute Olson Preseason All-America Team.
Odum is joined by Wichita State's Ron Baker, Cleanthony Early and Fred VanVleet as well as Evansville's D.J. Balentine and Northern Iowa's Seth Tuttle on the All-MVC First Team.
Senior guard Manny Arop joined Odum on the list with honorable mention honors. Arop heads into the conference tournament averaging 11.0 points and 4.6 rebounds to rank 15th in the league. He was a Preseason All-MVC Honorable Mention selection who posted 17 double digit scoring performances this season, including a season-best 25 points against IUPUI.
"We are really excited for Manny to be named honorable mention all-conference," coach Lansing said. "This has been a great year for him as he started off representing Canada at the World University Games and we are very proud of him for that accomplishment. He has been a very good player for us. Obviously everyone knows he can score, but he doesn't get enough credit for how hard he works every day and how well he plays on the defensive end."
Others on the All-MVC Honorable Mention list are Drake's Richard Carter, Loyola's Milton Doyle, Illinois State's Daishon Knight and Evansville's Egidijus Mockevicius.
The league's Specialty Awards will be announced this afternoon at 3 p.m.
The Sycamores own the No. 2 seed at this week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and will face the winner of the Bradley/Loyola matchup on Friday at 7:05 p.m. (ET) inside Scottrade Center. The quarterfinal matchup will be televised live on MVC TV as well as ESPN3.
