ST. LOUIS -- For the second consecutive season an Indiana State Sycamore has captured the title of the Missouri Valley Conference's Most Improved Player as sophomore Tyreke Key was named team captain of the MVC's Most Improved Team.

Key earlier this week was named to the All-MVC Second Team after earning MVC All-Freshman plaudits one year ago. Key became just the fourth-ever Sycamore to lead the MVC in overall scoring averaging 17.3 points per game and tallying 518 points. He joins Larry Bird, John Sherman Williams and David Moss as the only four in the history of the program to lead the Valley in scoring. His 44.3 percent mark from 3-point range ranked fourth in the league and his 34.2 minutes played was tops in the conference. 

In MVC only games, Key averaged 17.5 points per game which was third-best while his 79.6 percent mark from the free throw line was 10th. He played 34.6 minutes per game which was third-most in the league. He scored a career-high 32 points in the road overtime victory over Valparaiso and hit four 3-pointers in the dominating home win on February 20 against Illinois State. Key recorded 26 double digit scoring games this year and went over the 20-point mark 10 times and the 30-point standard once.

Key has played in all 30 games this season and is averaging 17.3 points and 3.6 rebounds in 34.2 minutes per game,  after averaging 8.3 ppg and 4.2 rpg as a freshman in 28.1 minutes per game. Key hit 82-of-228 from the field (36.0 percent) and 23-of-71 from 3-point range (32.4 percent) last year while hitting 174-of-331 (52.6 percent) and 39-of-88 from distance (44.3 percent) this season. 

He was joined on the MVC Most Improved Team by Elijah Childs (Bradley), Luke McDonnell (UNI), Nick McGlynn (Drake), K.J. Riley (Evansville) and Derrik Smits (Valparaiso).

Indiana State has earned the No. 8 seed at Arch Madness this week and will take on Valparaiso at 7:08 p.m. (ET) from the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The game will air live on the MVC TV Network (Fox Sports Indiana, NBC Sports Chicago, ESPN+ and Fox Sports Go). A pre-game reception is scheduled for 4 p.m. (Central) at the Hilton Downtown on Olive Street prior to the game.