Story by
The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
Belmont sweeps MVC's top awards for best player, coach
- Story byThe Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
- Belmont sweeps MVC's top awards for best player, coach
Belmont's Tyler Lundblade has been named the Missouri Valley Conference's Larry Bird Trophy Winner, honoring the top MVC men's basketball player of the season.
The league announced that honor and others Wednesday.
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Belmont, the conference's regular-season champion, also picked up the MVC Coach of the Year award, which went to Bruins coach Casey Alexander.
The league began honoring a Player of the Year for the first time in 1969 and the honor eventually was named for former Indiana State great Larry Bird.
In addition to the Bird and Coach of the Year awards, the MVC also announced its All-Conference first, second and third teams, as well as its All-Newcomer team, All-Freshman team and All-Defense team.
Indiana State, which finished 10th in the standings at 4-16 in Valley play and 11-20 overall, did not receive any spots on the All-Conference or specialty teams.
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Voting was conducted by coaches, sports information directors and a media panel (voters could not vote for their own student-athlete.) Including this year, no freshmen have won the Larry Bird Trophy, while four sophomores, 20 juniors (eight of whom repeated) and 34 seniors/grad students have won it.
Wednesday's announcement by the Valley includes the latest honors unveiled in the run-up to the MVC Tournament, which runs from Thursday through Saturday at St. Louis.
Lundblade entered this week leading the nation with his 93.4% free throw accuracy, fifth-best in MVC history. Lundblade also ranks in the top 10 in the NCAA in 3-pointers attempted and 3s made with 112, sixth-best in MVC history. Lundblade is only player in America to walk-on and earn a scholarship at three different schools (SMU, TCU, Belmont).
Alexander is in his seventh season as Belmont's head coach and was earlier named a finalist for the 2025-26 Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award. Alexander has led Belmont to 26 victories this season and a top-50 national ranking.
