FORT SMITH, Ark. — It's been the one award to elude St. Mary's
Kevin Kotzur all these years.
But at long last, it's finally his.
Kotzur, the Rattlers' decorated forward/center, was named the Heartland Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year on Thursday during a banquet kicking off the league's postseason tournament.
A Preseason All-American, Kotzur (Sr., La Vernia, Texas) has lived up to the hype this season, as the three-time All-Region selection has averaged 18.1 points and 10.0 rebounds in leading St. Mary's (19-7) to postseason play. His 65.8-percent shooting percentage ranks No. 2 in all of NCAA Division II, while his 15 double-doubles are tied for sixth most in the country.
“It's nice (to win the award),” said Kotzur, who just last week was named to the NABC Allstate Good Works Team, a national honor awarded to only 10 men's college basketball players from across all divisions for their work in the community. “It shows everybody around the conference respects what I've been able to do. But it's been mostly my teammates that have helped out with this.
Joking, Kevin added: “I can't take
all the credit for the award.”
Kotzur, who has totaled nine Heartland Conference Player of the Week awards over the past two seasons, became the conference's all-time leading scorer and rebounder this season, amassing career totals of 1,924 points and 977 rebounds. He becomes the second Rattler to earn the Heartland Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year award, joining J.J. Edwards, who won the honor following the 2004-05 season.
“We feel like he's been deserving (to win the Player of the Year award) every year he's been here,” St. Mary's head coach
Jim Zeleznak said. “It's really neat to see him being able to get it in his senior year. There have been so many accolades over the last month for him, but to get the Most Valuable Player in the league award, it's very much a team thing.”
St. Mary's, the second seed in the tournament, will take on No. 3 seed Newman (20-6) in the semifinals of the Heartland Conference Tournament at 5 p.m. Friday at Arkansas-Fort Smith's Stubblefield Center.
Kotzur, who was named to the All-Heartland First Team, was joined on the All-Conference Team by teammates
Daryell Taylor (Sr., Houston) and
Moses Sundufu (Sr., Hopkins, Minn.), who made the All-Conference Second Team and All-Conference Honorable Mention, respectively.
Taylor has averaged 12.4 points for the Rattlers, while Sundufu has added 10.5 points per game while shooting 37.1 percent from 3-point range.
“They're both very deserving,” Zeleznak said. “They've been good players the two years they've been here. They've bought into what we try to do. They've bought into how we want to play and they play on both ends of the floor. I'm really tickled those three seniors were recognized in front of our conference tonight.”
The Rattlers now want to ensure this is not the only hardware they gather at this year's conference tournament.
Last season, Kotzur seemingly used the perceived slight of being overlooked as the conference's MVP as motivation in the postseason tournament. He got the last laugh, being named the Tournament MVP after shooting 23 for 27 from the floor for 52 points over two games as the Rattlers won the postseason title.
As Kotzur's new award shows, this isn't last season. But the Rattlers say they'll just as ready as they were a year ago.
“Last year's last year,” he said. “We're the defending champs here and we've got to play like it tomorrow.”
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
