ST. LOUIS -- Bradley senior guard Will Franklin (Houston, Texas/Alief Hastings H.S.) and junior point guard Daniel Ruffin (Peoria, Ill./Central H.S.) both earned second-team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors and collected a pair of third-place votes for the Larry Bird MVC Player-of-the-Year Award, according to the annual announcement of the league's postseason awards by The Valley office this afternoon.
In addition to his two third-place player-of-the-year votes and second-team all-conference notice, Ruffin also landed on The Valley's five-player All-Defensive Team. Ruffin enters this weekend's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament second in the league in both assists (5.68) and steals (1.89) per game, while he also ranks fifth in 3-point field goals per game (2.25) and eighth in scoring at 14.1 points per game.
Franklin has been Bradley's leading scorer throughout the second half of the season, averaging 14.7 points per game, good for the fifth-best average in the league. The 6-foot shooting guard also ranks third in 3-pointers per game (2.65), fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.434), sixth in steals (1.39), eighth in assists (4.0) and eighth in free throw percentage (.797).
Despite the heavy personnel losses suffered by the Braves after their run to the 2006 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, the backcourt duo has helped Bradley (20-11, 10-8 MVC) to its first 20-win regular-season since 1988 and a fourth-place finish in The Valley regular-season race. The fourth-seeded Braves will face fifth-place Northern Iowa (18-12, 9-9) in Friday's 2:35 p.m. quarterfinal at the Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis.
The Valley's five-man all-conference first team was dominated by the league's top three finishers: Randal Falker and Jamaal Tatum of Southern Illinois, Creighton's Nate Funk and Anthony Tolliver and Missouri State's Blake Ahearn. Tatum, a senior shooting guard, edged out Funk and Falker for the Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year. Tatum collected 15 first-place votes and 70 points, compared to 10 first-place votes and 67 points for Funk and 14 first-place votes and 65 points for Falker.
Franklin and Ruffin were joined on the five-man second team by the UNI frontcourt tandem of Eric Coleman and Grant Stout, as well as Evansville forward Matt Webster. Five more players garnered honorable mention all-conference notice: Ajay Calvin (Drake), Tyler Chaney (Missouri State), P.J. Couisnard (Wichita State), Levi Dyer (Illinois State) and Kyle Wilson (Wichita State).
Ruffin also was joined on the Valley All-Defensive Team by Couisnard, Falker and Southern Illinois guards Bryan Mullins and Tony Young. Falker was named the league's Defensive Most Valuable Player in a vote of the league's 10 head coaches. The three other league specialty awards announced Tuesday included Newcomer of the Year (Spencer Laurie, Missouri State), Freshman of the Year (Osiris Eldridge, Illinois State) and Sixth-Man of the Year (Deven Mitchell, Missouri State).
On Wednesday, The Valley will announce the 2007 All-Bench Team, Most-Improved Team and Scholar-Athlete Team. The 2007 Rawlings MVC Coach of the Year will be announced during the annual pretournament luncheon Thursday at the Adams Mark Hotel in St. Louis.
