PEORIA, Ill. – The Missouri Valley Conference has released the 2023-24 Men's Basketball All-Bench and Most-Improved Team. Bradley's Darius Hannah and Connor Hickman were both named to the 2023-24 Most-Improved Team
Hickman, a junior from Bloomington, Indiana, increased his per-game numbers in nearly every category despite missing four weeks of the season due to an ankle injury. Hickman displayed his ability with a larger role of running the offense with six 20-point games in the last three months of the season. In comparison, Hickman finished the 2022-23 campaign without a 20+ point game. Hickman finished the 2023-24 regular season averaging 14.1 PPG, 3.3 APG, 3.1 RPG, and 1.3 SPG.
Hannah, a senior from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, may have made the biggest jump of any Bradley Brave this season. In his first season of regular starting minutes, Hannah appeared and started in all 31 contests during the regular season. He finished the 2023-24 regular season averaging 11.7 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 1.7 APG, and a shade under 1.5 for blocks and steals per game. Hannah also finished top ten in both blocks and steals in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Going into Arch Madness, these are the first two specialty all-conference awards for Bradley, Hickman was named to the MVC All-Scholar Athlete 1st team earlier this week.
Fellow members of the 2023-24 Most-Improved team included Xavier Johnson (Southern Illinois), Jayson Kent (Indiana State), and Ja'Kobi Gillespie (Belmont). Xavier Johnson was named as the most improved team captain after leading the MVC in both scoring and assists in the 2023-24 season.
