March 3, 2005
St. Louis -
A day after being named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team, Illinois State junior Neil Plank encompassed the term "student-athlete" by earning All-Bench Team honors for his athletic prowess on Wednesday night.
The All-Bench Team, which was selected by the league's newspaper beatwriters and released to them exclusively Wednesday, was comprised of a minimum of five student-athletes on each squad and feature an interesting mix of underclassmen and upperclassmen.
The Mount Zion, Ill., native has played in 22 games for the Redbirds, all as a reserve. He is averaging 7.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. Joining Plank on the team were Kyle Wilson of Wichita State, who was voted the team captain, Blake Ahearn of SMS, Lawrence Wright of Bradley and Tony Young of Southern Illinois.
