ST. LOUIS - Bradley sophomore guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards (Peoria, Ill./Washington H.S.) is one of the five most-improved players in the Missouri Valley Conference, according to a vote of the league's 10 primary newspaper beat writers announced Wednesday.

Simms-Edwards averaged 5.4 points and 1.7 assists per game as a freshman in 2009-10 and had a cold-shooting start to this season as he adjusted to the starting point guard role.  In the first eight games of the 2010-11 season, Simms-Edwards was averaging 5.4 points and 2.9 assists per game, while shooting 30.6 percent from the field and 56.3 percent from the free throw line.

The 6-foot-3 guard suffered a knee injury prior to the Dec. 8 game at Duke, but since he returned to the regular rotation for The Valley opener Dec. 29 at Indiana State, Simms-Edwards has averaged 12.7 points and 3.9 assists per game in the last 19 games, while shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 78.6 percent from the free throw line.  He has scored at least 15 points in seven of the last eight games, beginning with a career-best 22 points Feb. 1 against Creighton.  Heading into this week's State Farm MVC Tournament, he is Bradley's third-leading scorer at 10.2 points per game and he leads the Braves with 98 assists.

Simms-Edwards and the Braves will open play in the 2011 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Thursday with an 8:35 p.m. first-round game versus Drake.  The first-round matchup will be a rematch of Saturday's regular-season finale, a 90-64 Bradley win, and will be the "rubber game" in the season series, which the teams split.