PEORIA, Ill. -- In addition to being named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week on Monday, today Bradley senior guard Jeremy Crouch (Pekin, Ill./Pekin H.S.) was named the Rivals.com Mid-Major Player of the Week, according to the weekly awards column posted on the popular college athletics website.
The newest award comes in honor of Crouch's play last week when he led the short-handed Braves (17-13, 9-8 MVC) to victories at then No. 16 Drake and at home versus Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Crouch averaged 23.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.0 steal in the two games last week, while making 10-of-16 (.625) of his 3-point field goal attempts. In the 72-71 win Feb. 19 at Drake, Crouch buried an 18-foot jumper with 11.4 seconds left to give the Braves their only lead of the second half. He finished with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including a 6-for-8 effort from 3-point range, and added six assists and four rebounds while playing on a swollen left knee that threatened to prevent him from competing. He came back with 24 points, a career-best eight rebounds, five assists and two steals in Saturday's 84-72 win against Wisconsin-Milwaukee while playing a complete 40 regulation minutes for the first time in his career.
The list of awards Crouch has received this week now include: Rivals.com Mid-Major Player of the Week, Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week, Prairie Farms/MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week and Country Insurance/Bradley Scholar-Athlete of the Week. In addition to his play on the court, Crouch boasts a 3.14 cumulative grade point average as a secondary education (history) major and has earned a spot on the Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll in six of his first seven college semesters.
Crouch, who went on to set the school single-season (91) and career (235) records for 3-point field goals in a 21-point effort last night versus Southern Illinois, is enjoying one of the best all-around statistical seasons in recent Bradley history. He now boasts 452 points (15.1 ppg), 114 rebounds (3.8 rpg), 88 assists (2.9 apg) and 46 steals (1.5 spg) so far this year. With four more steals he will join Bradley greats James Gillingham, Rob Dye, Hersey Hawkins and Mitchell Anderson as the only players in the 30 years Bradley has tracked steals to record 400 points, 100 rebounds, 75 assists and 50 steals in a season.
The Braves will close out the regular-season Saturday by visiting Creighton for a 7:05 p.m. Valley tussle in Omaha. Bradley, which has won nine of its last 12 despite last night's setback to Southern Illinois, will finish as either the fourth, fifth or sixth seed for next week's State Farm MVC Tournament at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
