ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Bradley sophomore guard Walt Lemon, Jr. (Chicago, Ill./Julian H.S.) was voted one of the most improved players in the Missouri Valley Conference, according to a league-wide vote of the 10 primary newspaper beat writers released Wednesday morning.

Lemon was one of six players named to the 2012 MVC Most-Improved Team, joining captain Ben Simons of Drake, Illinois State's Jackie Carmichael, Missouri State's Caleb Patterson and the Wichita State tandem of Joe Ragland and Garrett Stutz.

After averaging 6.4 points per game on 41.9 percent shooting from the field as a freshman in 2010-11, the 6-foot-3 Lemon is Bradley's second-leading scorer this year at 12.5 ppg and he leads the qualifying Braves in field goal percentage at 47.5 percent, including 52.4 percent from inside the 3-point arc.  Lemon also leads the Braves with 41 steals and is second with 79 assists.

He has been particularly impressive since moving into a reserve role seven games ago, averaging 17.6 points per game on 49.4 percent shooting from the floor, 38.7 percent from 3-point range and 78.6 percent from the free throw line.

The Braves (7-24, 2-16 MVC) are the No. 10 seed for this week's State Farm MVC Tournament at the Scottrade Center and will take on No. 7 seed Drake (16-14, 9-9 MVC) in a first-round game at 8:35 p.m. Thursday.  A rematch of the same game in the 2011 tournament, Thursday's game will be televised by the MVC-TV Network, though it will not be available on FS Midwest in Central Illinois due to a conflict with the St. Louis Blues game.  The telecast will air on Comcast SportsNet Chicago, as well as FS Indiana, FS Kansas City (outside Blues viewing areas), and will be streamed online by ESPN3.