Illinois States Trey Guidry and Marcus Arnold headline the list of selections for the 2004 Missouri Valley Conference specialty teams for mens basketball. Guidry, a junior from Baton Rouge, La., has been named the leagues team captain for the All-Bench Team, while Arnold, a sophomore from Chicago, Ill., has been tabbed the Conferences team captain for the Most Improved Team.
The teams, which were selected by the leagues newspaper beatwriters, are comprised of a minimum of five student-athletes on each squad and feature an interesting mix of underclassmen and upperclassmen.
Marcus won this award for the work he did in the weight room this summer, Illinois State head coach Porter Moser said. I knew that Marcus was going to get a lot more touches this year based on what we run and establishing an inside presence. He worked really hard in the weight room bulking up and got himself from 220 to 240. All of his numbers in the weight room went way up and that allowed him to be a physical presence.
Moser also commented on Guidrys honor.
Since he leads us in minutes, Trey winning the sixth-man award is a little deceptive, Moser added. Hes not starting because there were guys in front of him, thats kind of the way its gone. He was playing better coming off the bench and he was giving us a scoring spark. Hes been a key guy for us all year.
This year marks the third time in the 10-year history of the awards that a team swept both the All-Bench and Most-Improved captain honors, and the second time by Illinois State. Following the 1996-97 season, the Redbirds Steve Hansell captained the All-Bench squad, while Rico Hill captained the Most-Improved unit.
Guidry, while starting just a handful of games, leads Illinois State in a host of categories. He tops the Redbirds and ranks among the league leaders in scoring and three-point shooting. He leads the conference in three-pointers made per game. Guidry is joined on the All-Bench team by Aaron Hogg of Wichita State, Kellen Miliner of Creighton, and LaMar Owen and Jamaal Tatum of Southern Illinois.
Arnolds scoring average has increased nearly five points per game from his freshman season (8.4 tallies a year ago). He is among the league leaders in scoring and also is among the league leaders in field goal percentage. Arnold has also improved from his freshman numbers in rebounds, blocks, assists and steals. He is joined on the unit by Ben Jacobson of UNI, Rob Kampman of Wichita State, Brad Korn of Southern Illinois, and Joshua Robinson of Drake.
