ST. LOUIS – Following up on being named an All-Missouri Valley Conference First Team selection earlier this week by the conference office,
Tyreke Key today (March 5) picked up MVC Scholar-Athlete Second Team plaudits. The MVC Scholar-Athlete Teams are voted upon by the league's communications directors.
Key, a junior who carries a 3.20 GPA in Recreation and Sports Management, is joined on the honoree list by: Southern Illinois' Barret Benson, Northern Iowa's AJ Green & Austin Phyfe, Bradley's Nate Kennell, Koch Bar, Elijah Childs and Ja'Shon Henry, Loyola's Cameron Krutwig, Tate Hall and Bruno Skokna, Valparaiso's John Kiser, Drake's Garrett Sturtz and Evansville's Evan Kuhlman.
He earlier this week was an All-MVC First Team selection and third in league-wide voting for the Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year Award. Key averaged 15.3 points per game which ranked third-best in the league and his 1.9 3-pointers per game ranks ninth-best. Key ranked fourth-best in the league with an 84.6 percent mark from the free throw line while his 121 made free throws are third-most.
He made 32 consecutive free throws from November 17 through December 3 to set a new school record in the MVC era and tie for the 14th-longest in MVC history. He joined the 1,000 point club in 73 career games which is the fourth-fastest to the mark in school history. Key led the team with 21 points as he hit 12-of-14 free throws in the season opener at Dayton and also paced the team with 20 points and four 3-pointers at No. 4 Louisville. He set new career highs with 18 free throws made on 22 free throw attempts to lead the team with 31 points in the home win over Tennessee State.
Key went 10-of-11 from the free throw line, including a perfect 6-of-6 in the final two minutes to score 27 points and pull down nine rebounds in the road win over Missouri State. He went on to hit 7-of-11 shots from the field and scored 18 points in the home win over Loyola Chicago. Key tallied 20 points and went 9-of-15 from the field, with a pair of 3-pointers in the road win over Southern Illinois.
The criteria for the Missouri Valley Conference's Scholar-Athlete Team voting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade-point average (4.0 scale). Nominees in grad school must have a cumulative GPA of 3.20 or better both as an undergrad AND in graduate school. Nominees must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at an institution and must have completed at least one calendar year at the institution. True freshmen, red-shirt freshmen and ineligible athletic transfers are not eligible. Graduate students who are competing at a different institution than the one from which they earned their undergraduate degree are eligible even if they are in their first semester at the graduate institution. A nominee must have played in 50 percent of his team's games.
Indiana State hits the hardwood at the 30
th edition of Arch Madness on Friday, March 6 when they take on Missouri State at 9:35 p.m. (ET) from the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Indiana, Kansas City and Midwest Plus, NBC Sports Chicago (tape delay), ESPN+ and the Fox Sports Go app.
