Horizon League Awards Announcement, 2016

[SanityLost17]

Individual Awards in a team sport are pretty stupid.  An otherwise average player can look GREAT on a bad team and a great player can look average on a really good team.  It all just depends on a players role.  Dixon's role on UIC was to score early and often, but it didn't help them win.  Trade Shane Hammink for Dixon and Dixon's numbers go way down playing as a role player on our team while Shane's numbers go way up as the go to guy in the UIC system.   I wouldn't stress out about any of this.  It is what it is.   

[SanityLost17]

BTW.  I think Dixon is a better player than Hammink.  I was just using him as an example of what happens when players change roles.  Bryce would not let Dixon take nearly as many shots and would expect him to get his offense in the flow of the system.  It is about winning, not stats.

[vu72]

How about "point guardy" stats like assists, shooting, etc.?

Carter finished 3rd in assists and 2nd in assists to turnover ratio. The two guys who finished 1 and 2 in assists  were ranked No. 1 and 3 in minutes played.  Carter?  Not in the top ten in minutes played.  Shooting?  Keith was ranked 13th in 3's made and 3 point percentage made.  Felder and Johnson didn't make the top 15.

[agibson]

Someone should ask Kampe for his ballot, perhaps with explanation. He seems like a talkative, thoughtful guy who does sometimes answer fan email.

[arsenal926]

Someone should ask Kampe for his ballot, perhaps with explanation. He seems like a talkative, thoughtful guy who does sometimes answer fan email.

send a tweet with the hashtag #askkampe and he'll answer it on his radio show Wed at 7 . You could email him too. Don't know if he'll answer it this week, but he's very good at getting back to everyone.

[a3uge]

So today I learned: all these other teams have better individual players, but Bryce Drew winning with all these inferior players wasn't impressive. Also, from Twitter: defensive rating is a joke, isn't really indicative of good defensive play, and Vashil shouldn't have won DPOY in either year.

Maddening.

[arsenal926]

So today I learned: all these other teams have better individual players, but Bryce Drew winning with all these inferior players wasn't impressive. Also, from Twitter: defensive rating is a joke, isn't really indicative of good defensive play, and Vashil shouldn't have won DPOY in either year. Maddening.

Well I'm like 10% of this so probably better to address here than twitter. Anyone who thought Dante Williams should have got DPOY over Vashil is crazy. Anyone who thought Odiase should have won this year is even crazier.

I already mentioned this, but my all defensive team would have been whatever 4 Valpo players Bryce wants and Jordan Fouse. I also would have replaced Keith Carter with Dixson on the 2nd team.I had a rather long rant on why Dixson was so ridiculous on the OU board. Anyways, If going a legit 9 deep is the price to pay for foregoing individual awards I think all of the Valpo fans on this board would take that trade-off.

And the 140 character limit has me confused with what you're talking about. Kenpom's adj D is a completely useful statistic. And I certainly have no problems with that.  But it's not an individual statistic. I thought you were talking about individual dRtg which is a obscure stat at the college level. Pretty sure it was a misunderstanding on my part.

Individual defensive rating, I'm not even sure how that's being tracked at the college level. In the NBA it's done by assigning usage to each defensive possession. In other words they're able to calculate the points per possession each individual defender gives up when he's defending a shot. They use synergy sports for that. Very few CBB even have that software.

My issue with a number of individual defensive ratings is there are so many different ways a player can impact the game. Take our last game together where Tevonn Walker shut down Max Hooper to the point he only took 4 shots. When you look at the box score that won't show up like Fernandez's blocks will.

That was what my example of the corner who gets 10 picks vs cb who doesn't get thrown at.

[wh]

Personally, I'm not interested in what the spinmeister from Oakland has to say. We know all we need to know. The second best defense in the country that completely rolled the Horizon League for the second consecutive year with the best defense the HL has ever seen received only 1 all-conference and 1 all-defensive player among 15 names.  It's painfully obvious that there were 2 groups of culprits - those who dishonestly loaded up their ballots in favor of "their" players, and those who cluelessly under valued Valpo's defensive superiority.

[HailVU2014]

Going through different HL write-ups, twitter conversations, other fan boards, etc., it has become incredibly clear that there is just no respect for our team that has performed to expectation, has one of the superior defenses in the country, won the Horizon League by 3 games, and swept 8 of the 9 HL teams. The theme for us seems to be how beatable we are, rather than how we won 10 of the last 11 games or 16 of the last 18, including five in a row on the road. Clearly, defense isn't sexy enough to merit any additional votes and our "unraveling" with giving up more than 1 point per possession in the last four games against the top half of the league did us in as well. And if you look beyond this board, the griping for Fouse not getting DPOY and Donlon not getting COY is rampant (Speaking of...also seems like Wright State also gets no respect as well, especially since they are the only team in conference to beat us. Donlon should be COY, regardless of road loss to UIC.) I just do not understand how all of the votes broke down. 

As an aside, looking at these same sources, many people are noting the "neutral court" of the HL Tourney and are assigning an early exit to WSU and/or a Valpo upset to boot. Makes me wonder if I have watched the same HL season as some of these fans and writers. Doubt that Bryce and the team would let awards or positive publicity towards other teams get to them, but I hope that we play with a nice chip on our shoulder to finish off our Horizon League business in Detroit. Maybe KC can play unbelievable like EB in 2013 in the HL Tourney and get the MVP?

[a3uge]

So today I learned: all these other teams have better individual players, but Bryce Drew winning with all these inferior players wasn't impressive. Also, from Twitter: defensive rating is a joke, isn't really indicative of good defensive play, and Vashil shouldn't have won DPOY in either year. Maddening.

Well I'm like 10% of this so probably better to address here than twitter. Anyone who thought Dante Williams should have got DPOY over Vashil is crazy. Anyone who thought Odiase should have won this year is even crazier.

I already mentioned this, but my all defensive team would have been whatever 4 Valpo players Bryce wants and Jordan Fouse. I also would have replaced Keith Carter with Dixson on the 2nd team.I had a rather long rant on why Dixson was so ridiculous on the OU board. Anyways, If going a legit 9 deep is the price to pay for foregoing individual awards I think all of the Valpo fans on this board would take that trade-off.

And the 140 character limit has me confused with what you're talking about. Kenpom's adj D is a completely useful statistic. And I certainly have no problems with that.  But it's not an individual statistic. I thought you were talking about individual dRtg which is a obscure stat at the college level. Pretty sure it was a misunderstanding on my part.

Individual defensive rating, I'm not even sure how that's being tracked at the college level. In the NBA it's done by assigning usage to each defensive possession. In other words they're able to calculate the points per possession each individual defender gives up when he's defending a shot. They use synergy sports for that. Very few CBB even have that software.

Edit DAMNIT - realized you just said "Anyone who thought Dante Williams ***should*** have got DPOY over Vashil is crazy. Anyone who thought Odiase ***should*** have won this year is even crazier." Ugh - wasted an hour of sleep. My reading comprehension is hard. Anyways this is what I wrote for the people that thought Vashil shouldn't have been back to back DPOY:

I'm going to copy what I said last year in response to an Oakland fan:

"I haven't watched every Oakland game this year and I know he hasn't seen every Valpo game - and even if you have, it's much better to look at stats than relying on your emotions as you're more likely to believe what you want to believe. The fact that this guy has a remarkably poor defensive rating, and only the 5th best on his team doesn't sit right with me. Plus he's one of the worst rebounding forwards in the entire conference. Felder actually has over double the rebounding percentage as him.

When I watch Oakland, the last thing I think about is how great defensively they are. When I watch Valpo, I see a good defensive team. The stats prove that - Valpo is 1st in opponents PPG and Oakland is in the bottom half of the league. Vashil is inarguably the best defender on the best defensive team, so seeing him win DPOY is a no brainer. But Vashil actually has numbers to back him up. As a rim protector, he's helped limit defense to under 90 points per 100 possession when he's on the floor. He's blocking shots at an astonishing rate and is one of the best shot blockers in the entire country. His rebounding is also okay, and has the best rebounding numbers on one of the best rebounding teams in the conference.

I actually think the more compelling argument is Vashil vs Grady more than Vashil vs Williams. Grady has awesome defense stats across the board and would be far more deserving than Williams."


I can't find my other post, but looking at Dante Williams stats again, he only had a steal % of 1.4 with 0.9 steals per 40, and a rebounding % of 4.8. To put that in perspective, Jubril Adekoya this year had a steal % of 2.2 with 1.5 steals per 40 and a rebounding % of 12.3. And obviously Jubril is more of an offensive player. There's really not a single defensive metric I can find that places Dante Williams as an above average defender, let alone as the Horizon's defensive player of the year.

I recall Oakland fans lobbying for him because certain star players put up low totals vs Oakland. That argument never made sense because the players a) played completely different positions and b) the sample size was that of a few games vs an entire season of data showing teams really scored at will vs Oakland, especially when Dante Williams was on the court.

Also, sports-reference has these individual stats readily available - the team defensive rating essentially determines pace/possessions by a teams fga, tov, and rebounds, and defensive rating is opponent's points per possession. Individual dRtg uses a more complex algorithm. Certainly not perfect and still dependant on your teammates - but still a better indication on defensive impact while on the floor than "steals per game"

One final point: looking at TEAM ratings is important to understand how individual players impacted the team. Clearly Valpo has been the best defensive team the past two years - this passes the eye test, as well as any number of statistical defensive rankings out there. Vashil was, by far, the best defensive player on the team, from the eye test, and on paper. It absolutely makes sense to correlate the two and reward him for his contributions.

[arsenal926]

I'll just go with what Kenpom has to say. But maybe you know better. And remember I agree 100% that Valpo got snubbed on a number of occasions with these awards. You can make strong arguments for Fernandez, Carter, and Hammick to all be on 1st/2nd team. My only point in all of this was individual defensive statistics kind of suck. Are they right some of the time? yeah. But it's not the end all of assessing a players defense.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/21fkg3/i_am_ken_pomeroy_proprietor_of_kenpomcom_and/cgcj857

[Commissioner]

I'm just feeling all kumbaya this morning, so I though you all might appreciate a post I put on the general HL forum. Post below.

Love, Commish
-----

I just note that on the team boards around the league almost everyone--except, of course, at Valpo--seems to think COY should have gone to Green Bay's Linc Darner or WSU's Billy Donlon. While you can make a good case for both (I'd prefer Darner), I think people are selling Bryce Drew short.

The common line is "Valpo was the favorite, and they won." Or "he just had to stay out of the way."

Well, I don't think being the preseason favorite should lower your odds of post-season recognition. Note nobody says "well, Kay Felder is quicker and a better passer than anyone else in the league, so he just had to do his thing. Why name him POY?" And you have to ask, "how did Valpo come to be the conference favorite?" It came to be the conference favorite largely because of Drew's recruiting and coaching. But we're not going to give him COY when he recruited Peters, Adekoya, Carter, and Fernandez. And now we're not going to give him credit for coaching them?

Further, Drew actually had significant challenges this year. He lost his projected back-up center, 7-0 freshman Smits, before the season began. Valpo had injuries that forced Victor Nickerson and David Skara each to miss about a quarter of the season, and play hurt in other games. Tevonn Walker was also slowed for several games, missing a few. Drew took Valpo through a non-conference schedule that involved opening the season with 7 games in 11 days, including a trip to the West Coast.

And Valpo was one of the top 3 defensive teams in the nation, by any criteria. Getting players to play tough defense and do it well is, to me at least, one of the toughest things a coach can do. It requires players to be willing to give up the glory of gaudy top stat lines (how many more points would Alec Peters have scored if Valpo just let it go and played at the pace of OU or Green Bay? Would he have scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds per game and been POY? Would Keith Carter have made all-conference with 6 assists and 15 points per game? etc.). It is hard work--not as fun as fast breaks and knocking down pull up threes. Drew also had to keep happy a bunch of players who might have had substantially more playing time playing elsewhere.

And Valpo was remarkably consistent. Though Wright State had their goat, Valpo never played a really bad game. One of their WSU losses was by 11, but their other 4 losses were by a total of 15 points. They took Oregon down to the final 30 seconds on the road. Their road win over Oregon State was probably the conference's best win (possibly rivaled by Milwaukee over Wisconsin, though Wisconsin at the end of the season is clearly not the Wisconsin that Milwaukee played). This type of consistency and mental toughness is also a tribute to coaching. Donlon did fine work at Wright State, but losing to UIC? Valpo never had a slip up like that. Linc Darner's club lost to a so-so Georgia Tech team by 30. Valpo never fell apart like that in a game.

Taking nothing away from Darner or Donlon (or Greg Kampe, who did a good job this year merging a bunch of transfers, or John Brannen, who exceeded most expectations at NKU), I actually thought the selection of Drew as Coach of the Year was one of the easier choices for post-season recognition.

[a3uge]

I'll just go with what Kenpom has to say. But maybe you know better. And remember I agree 100% that Valpo got snubbed on a number of occasions with these awards. You can make strong arguments for Fernandez, Carter, and Hammick to all be on 1st/2nd team. My only point in all of this was individual defensive statistics kind of suck. Are they right some of the time? yeah. But it's not the end all of assessing a players defense.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/21fkg3/i_am_ken_pomeroy_proprietor_of_kenpomcom_and/cgcj857

Yeah, I edited my post - I misread what you said. My brain is parsing all these Oakland fans together. I do agree that individual defensive rating and dbpm is not the most telling stat - and I don't think it's the be-all end-all. But I think it really validates what I see with Valpo's overall defense: Carter is quick and is able to prevent guards from driving to the hoop, and Vashil is a friggen goalie back there when they do. I think they're clearly the top 2 defenders on the team and their defensive ratings really reinforce that.

[a3uge]

I'm just feeling all kumbaya this morning, so I though you all might appreciate a post I put on the general HL forum. Post below.

Love, Commish
-----

I just note that on the team boards around the league almost everyone--except, of course, at Valpo--seems to think COY should have gone to Green Bay's Linc Darner or WSU's Billy Donlon. While you can make a good case for both (I'd prefer Darner), I think people are selling Bryce Drew short.

The common line is "Valpo was the favorite, and they won." Or "he just had to stay out of the way."

Well, I don't think being the preseason favorite should lower your odds of post-season recognition. Note nobody says "well, Kay Felder is quicker and a better passer than anyone else in the league, so he just had to do his thing. Why name him POY?" And you have to ask, "how did Valpo come to be the conference favorite?" It came to be the conference favorite largely because of Drew's recruiting and coaching. But we're not going to give him COY when he recruited Peters, Adekoya, Carter, and Fernandez. And now we're not going to give him credit for coaching them?

Further, Drew actually had significant challenges this year. He lost his projected back-up center, 7-0 freshman Smits, before the season began. Valpo had injuries that forced Victor Nickerson and David Skara each to miss about a quarter of the season, and play hurt in other games. Tevonn Walker was also slowed for several games, missing a few. Drew took Valpo through a non-conference schedule that involved opening the season with 7 games in 11 days, including a trip to the West Coast.

And Valpo was one of the top 3 defensive teams in the nation, by any criteria. Getting players to play tough defense and do it well is, to me at least, one of the toughest things a coach can do. It requires players to be willing to give up the glory of gaudy top stat lines (how many more points would Alec Peters have scored if Valpo just let it go and played at the pace of OU or Green Bay? Would he have scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds per game and been POY? Would Keith Carter have made all-conference with 6 assists and 15 points per game? etc.). It is hard work--not as fun as fast breaks and knocking down pull up threes. Drew also had to keep happy a bunch of players who might have had substantially more playing time playing elsewhere.

And Valpo was remarkably consistent. Though Wright State had their goat, Valpo never played a really bad game. One of their WSU losses was by 11, but their other 4 losses were by a total of 15 points. They took Oregon down to the final 30 seconds on the road. Their road win over Oregon State was probably the conference's best win (possibly rivaled by Milwaukee over Wisconsin, though Wisconsin at the end of the season is clearly not the Wisconsin that Milwaukee played). This type of consistency and mental toughness is also a tribute to coaching. Donlon did fine work at Wright State, but losing to UIC? Valpo never had a slip up like that. Linc Darner's club lost to a so-so Georgia Tech team by 30. Valpo never fell apart like that in a game.

Taking nothing away from Darner or Donlon (or Greg Kampe, who did a good job this year merging a bunch of transfers, or John Brannen, who exceeded most expectations at NKU), I actually thought the selection of Drew as Coach of the Year was one of the easier choices for post-season recognition.

Well said! I might also add that I don't think Green Bay or Wright State had good enough overall seasons. Green Bay finished 5 games out and WSU 3 games - in a really weak year. We have 4 teams that would be the worst team any other year - that's 8 extremely winable conference games. Winning those games and splitting the rest would make a team 13-5, which I think would make an average conference team this year. Wright State did just that. Green Bay still went 11-7. For this year's weak bottom of the league, awarding coach of the year to a team that finished 3 or more games out doesn't feel right.

And Wright State seems to get a complete pass for their dreadful OOC season. I understand they had injuries, but the coach of the year overcome injuries, not lose 7 straight and finish with an OOC RPI of 249.

If Wright State or Green Bay took a below average team (certainly would argue before the season they'd still be better than YSU, NKU, UIC, and CSU) and made them an NIT team, or even a top 100 team, I could definitely see it, but really, their coaches took a slightly below average NCAA team and made them a slightly above average NCAA team.

[agibson]

I'll just go with what Kenpom has to say. But maybe you know better. And remember I agree 100% that Valpo got snubbed on a number of occasions with these awards. You can make strong arguments for Fernandez, Carter, and Hammick to all be on 1st/2nd team. My only point in all of this was individual defensive statistics kind of suck. Are they right some of the time? yeah. But it's not the end all of assessing a players defense.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/21fkg3/i_am_ken_pomeroy_proprietor_of_kenpomcom_and/cgcj857

Interesting!

I'm still not sure (poking around) what sports-reference.com's individual drtg is, but I do notice that Vashil's current 83.1 is very impressive.
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/leaders/def-rtg-player-season.html
If it had come last season, it would have been good for 14th best season in all of D1 basketball over six seasons.

OK - here we go.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/about/ratings.html

Looks pretty complicated, but it seems that the basic philosophy is "use box score individual defense stats like blocks and steals, and assume that everybody on the team has the same share, per minute, of credit for things we can't attach to individuals like turnovers and missed shots".

So, a good defender on a bad defensive team is probably going to have a bad individual drtg. And, everybody on a good defensive team is going to have a good individual drtg. (I notice Valpo now has the top six individual drtg's, with Shane joining the party.)

You probably can't do so much better without some beyond-the-box-score information.

That site specifically mentioned

Out of necessity (owing to a lack of defensive data in the basic boxscore), individual Defensive Ratings are heavily influenced by the team's defensive efficiency. They assume that all teammates are equally good (per minute) at forcing non-steal turnovers and non-block misses, as well as assuming that all teammates face the same number of total possessions per minute.

Perhaps as a byproduct, big men tend to have the best Defensive Ratings (although Oliver notes that history's best defensive teams were generally anchored by dominant defensive big men, suggesting that those types of players are the most important to a team's defensive success). A corollary to this is that excellent perimeter defenders who don't steal the ball a lot — for instance, Joe Dumars or Doug Christie — are underrated defensively by DRtg, and are prone to look only as good as their team's overall defense performs.

[agibson]

For what it's worth, another advanced-looking defensive stat, "defensive box plus/minus" paints a somewhat different picture
http://www.sports-reference.com/blog/2015/02/adding-box-plusminus-bpm-to-college-basketball/
http://www.sports-reference.com/blog/2014/10/introducing-box-plusminus-bpm-2/

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/conferences/horizon/2016.html

Vashil #1, Fouse #2, Odiase #3.  Look at that, Keith Carter #4. No sign of Love.

A number of these advanced stats might indeed give the edge to Felder over Peters (though Alec takes Offensive Rating and Effective Field Goal Percentage, though not Efficiency). They also make a case for Vashil and Keith for second or even first team...

And... maybe Joe Thomasson for second team? But it really is harder to find leap-off-the-page candidates for Wright State.

[arsenal926]

It'll be interesting how defensive stats develop over the years. Problem in college is many of the non P5 teams don't have the technology to track player movement for 100% of the game. I'm fairly sure Oakland has Synergy sports which can break down things like PPP on ball screen. PPP based on certain lineups. etc.

Anyway's here is Kampe's Ballot/ explanation.

http://www.wdfn.com/media/play/26779948/

1st team
Vashil Fernandes
Alec Peters
Tevonn Walker
Jordan Fouse
Matt Tiby


2nd team
JT Yoho
Carrington Love
Keith Carter
Chris Jenkins
Cameron Morse

All Defensive Team
Fernandez
Tai Odiase
Keith Carter
Jordan Fouse
Matt Tiby

Vashil Fernandez POY - said he's the gamechanger in the league. Reason is he affects every single possession.

Hammick- 6th man. But it might of been Darien Walker.  Doesn't remember.

[ValpoHoops]

Since its been brought up a couple times in this thread:

At this point, all D1 schools are using Synergy. Its a great tool. Perhaps some don't use the full breakdown in house, but I've been on there and you have access to the full breakdown of every D1 game, regardless of the teams...which suggests everyone is using the full Monty.

I've played around with it a bit and you can literally find whatever you want. I could look up specifically possessions where Alec took a late-clock three off of a sideline inbounds.

[agibson]

http://www.wdfn.com/media/play/26779948/

A bit of intro re all-leage around 2:15 or so, and then getting into it for real about 6:50.

The (repeated) shout-out amused me, if that's what it was, but my tweet used a deferentially quoted "snubs" rather than "jilted" or "cheated".

1st team
Vashil Fernandes
Alec Peters
Tevonn Walker
Jordan Fouse
Matt Tiby

2nd team
JT Yoho
Carrington Love
Keith Carter
Chris Jenkins
Cameron Morse

All Defensive Team
Fernandez
Tai Odiase
Keith Carter
Jordan Fouse
Matt Tiby

Vashil Fernandez POY - said he's the gamechanger in the league. Reason is he affects every single possession.

Hammick- 6th man. But it might of been Darien Walker.  Doesn't remember.

I think you mean Trayvonn Walker. Or maybe it was Hamrink. I suppose coaches don't spend much time listening to play-by-play! Funny that he can know a fair bit about players, but not know how to pronounce their names.

Re 6th man, it made me wonder if perhaps he'd forgotten to vote!

I suppose we've know that Kampe's a Valpo fan, from years back. So, maybe no surprise that there's a fair bit of Valpo love on his ballot. And I believe he voted from his heart - but I wonder a little if his heart might be canny enough to vote for Vashil in part, just a little bit, so that Alec's denied a vote competing with Felder.

A fun listen, for sure.

[arsenal926]

Since its been brought up a couple times in this thread: At this point, all D1 schools are using Synergy. Its a great tool. Perhaps some don't use the full breakdown in house, but I've been on there and you have access to the full breakdown of every D1 game, regardless of the teams...which suggests everyone is using the full Monty. I've played around with it a bit and you can literally find whatever you want. I could look up specifically possessions where Alec took a late-clock three off of a sideline inbounds.

I wasn't clear myself. Was trying to say that Oakland uses Synergy, while a select number of college teams are using sportsVU which the all NBA teams use now. Wisconsin's main blog wrote an awesome piece about the technology last year.

I would hope everyone's using Synergy now. It's expensive sure, but I would imagine in the thousands compared to the apparent million + sportsVU costs.

http://www.buckys5thquarter.com/2015/4/15/8419969/sportvu-college-basketball-nba-stats-llc

[wh]

Personally, I never got all that invested in post-season player awards. Accolades are nice and if they make the players happy, sure. But I care much more about the team at the top of the standings than the player who got named all-conference.

I see why we're upset over KC et al.'s snubbing, but I'll be much more upset if we don't take care of business a week from now.

Side note: somewhat surprised that Bryce won Coach of the Year over Donlon. I'm not saying he's not the top coach in the league, but Donlon made a contender out of Wright State. Bryce returned the most talent he's ever had to work with.

Of course the most important thing is what happens in the tournament. There isn't a soul on this board that would disagree with that. That, however, does not render individual post honors meaningless. Our guys have worked their tails off to get where they are, and they should receive every form of recognition - both individually and collectively - that they have rightfully earned. Don't think for a minute that the players don't know that they got royally screwed on this sham list and are bothered by it.

Men's basketball
Drew, Fernandez repeat as Horizon League award winners
Paul Oren Times Correspondent Updated 7 hrs ago 

Junior forward Alec Peters was Valparaiso's lone All-Horizon League representative Tuesday. He was named to the All-League First Team.

Valparaiso junior forward Alec Peters shoots a 3-pointer against Northern Kentucky on Thursday at Valparaiso.This despite Valparaiso finishing 16-2 in the conference.Alec Peters was Valparaiso's lone All-Horizon League representative Tuesday as he was named to the All-League First Team.

VALPARAISO — As outrage emanated from all corners of the Horizon League footprint on Tuesday afternoon, Valparaiso junior Alec Peters took a moment to add some brevity to the moment.

Peters spoke on Tuesday after being named Valparaiso's lone All-Horizon League representative. The Valparaiso junior lost out to Oakland's Kay Felder for Player of the Year. Valparaiso's Bryce Drew was named Coach of the Year and Vashil Fernandez became the first player in league history to earn multiple Defensive Player of the Year honors.

"It's a team game and I think the people that vote on these awards sometimes lose sight of that. Individuals don't win games, teams win them, Peters said. "Congrats to Kay. He's had an amazing season. He's very deserving and could be the national player of the year. I've said this countless times, but at the end of the day I'm happy looking at the ring on my finger and sitting with the No. 1 seed in the Horizon League tournament."

Peters wasn't the only Valparaiso player to get snubbed on Tuesday as neither Fernandez nor senior point guard Keith Carter were named to the All-League First or Second teams. This despite Valparaiso finishing 16-2 in the conference. Oakland, Milwaukee and Green Bay, three teams that went a combined 0-6 against the Crusaders this season, each had two representatives on the All-League teams.

Paris Bass (Detroit), Matt Tiby (Milwaukee) and Carrington Love (Green Bay) rounded out the First Team while Jalen Hayes (Oakland), Jordan Johnson (Milwaukee), Jordan Fouse (Green Bay), Cameron Morse (Youngstown State) and Dikembe Dixson (UIC) were named to the Second Team. Dixson was also named Freshman of the Year.

"Of course I wanted to (be included), but I don't get a vote," Carter said. "I just want to win games and get to the NCAA tournament and win games in the NCAA tournament."

Fernandez was once again named the Defensive Player of the Year, but again the Crusaders were snubbed with the selection of the All-Defensive team. Fernandez was the only inclusion while Green Bay, a squad that gave up 21.3 more points per game than Valparaiso, got two players (Love, Fouse) on the team.

"Definitely," Fernandez said when asked if he felt snubbed. "I strive to be the best that I can be. This just gives us more fuel. You don't want to get complacent and all athletes always want to keep that competitive edge. We'll use this as motivation."

While the players could only shake their heads at some of the awards, they were thrilled to see Drew honored as the Coach of the Year for the third time in five years. Drew became just the second league coach to repeat the honor, following in the footsteps of Butler's Brad Stevens.

"This is a team award," Drew said. "The players have bought into our system and it's a blessing to have such a selfless group of guys. The players earn the award and the coaches get honored."

"(Drew) deserved it and it should've been unanimous," Peters added. "We only do half the work. It's his strategy, it's his work and it's his staff of people that he has put together."

The Crusaders returned to the practice floor on Tuesday in preparation for the upcoming conference tournament. Games begin Saturday at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, but Valparaiso won't take the court until Monday night after receiving a double bye to the semifinals.

2016 Horizon League Award Winners

Player of the Year: Kay Felder, Oakland (Jr., G)

Defensive Player of the Year: Vashil Fernandez, Valparaiso (Sr., C)

Freshman of the Year: Dikembe Dixson, UIC (F)

Sixth Man of the Year: Max Hooper, Oakland (Sr., G)

Coach of the Year: Bryce Drew, Valparaiso

All-League First Team

Kay Felder, Oakland (Jr., G)

Alec Peters, Valparaiso (Jr, F)

Paris Bass, Detroit (So., G/F)

Matt Tiby, Milwaukee (Sr., F)

Carrington Love, Green Bay (Sr., G)

All-League Second Team

Jalen Hayes, Oakland (So., F)

Cameron Morse, Youngstown State (So., G)

Jordan Fouse, Green Bay (Sr., F)

Jordan Johnson, Milwaukee (Jr., G)

Dikembe Dixson, UIC (Fr., F)

All-Freshman Team

Dikembe Dixson, UIC (F)

Drew McDonald, Northern Kentucky (F)

Rob Edwards, Cleveland State (G)

Josh McFolley, Detroit (G)

Jordan Andrews, Youngstown State (G)

All-Defensive Team

Vashil Fernandez, Valparaiso (Sr., C)

Jordan Fouse, Green Bay (Sr., F)

Tai Odiase, UIC (So., F/C)

Joe Thomasson, Wright State (Sr., G)

Carrington Love, Green Bay (Sr., G)

[HC]

As long as they don't try to do too much to prove a point I like that these guys feel short changed. Go make a statement the next couple days!

[nkvu]

I think they should wait until after the conference tournament to give out these awards, particularly for coach of the year. When everything is so centered on getting the bid to the dance, how do you not give more consideration to the coach who brings his team to a peak in the conference tournament?  I think the coaches of Green Bay and Wright State deserve as much credit as Bryce ( who has some players injuries as an excuse) and more than Kampe who has no excuse for not getting to the final.