THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014
PAGE 9B
+
No.2 Wichita State dominates Valley awards
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wichita State's Chadrack Lufile (0) celebrates getting fouled by Missouri State's Devon Thomas, at center right with the ball, with teammates Cleanthony Early, middle and Nick Wiggins during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Wichita, Saturday, March 1.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Wichita State was just about as dominant in the Missouri Valley's postseason awards Thursday as the unbeaten Shockers were in running roughshod through the league schedule.
Fred VanVleet beat out teammates Cleanthony Early and Ron Baker for the conference player of the year award, the first time that a school swept the top three spots. VanVleet received 22 of a possible 36 votes cast by coaches, athletic department officials and the media.
All three of them were voted first-team all-conference, while the Shockers' Tekele Cotton made the second team and was voted the league's defensive player of the year.
"We're happy for these accolades and these awards, and it's a great accomplishment," VanVleet said, "but with this week coming up, we know we have a lot of work to do, and these awards won't mean anything if we don't take care of business and finish the way we want to finish out."
The Shockers (31-0, 18-0) are the top seed and have a firstround bye in the Missouri Valley tournament, which starts Thursday. Wichita State hasn't won the tournament since 1987.
VanVleet joins Doug McDermott of Creighton as the only sophomores to win the player of the year award, named for former Indiana State star Larry Bird. VanVleet also the fourth player from Wichita State to win the award, joining Antoine Carr, Xavier McDaniel and Paul Miller.
"It's really amazing, and J
can't really put it into words right now," said VanVleet, who was "90 percent sure" that one of the Shockers would win it. "That's pretty good company to be in, and if that's any indication for the future, I'm pretty excited about what lies ahead."
VanVleet, Early and Baker were joined on the all-conference first team by Evansville's D.J. Balentine, Jake Odum of
Indiana State and Seth Tuttle of Northern Iowa. There was a tie for the fifth vote-getter, which is why there were six members.
Cotton was joined on the second team by Jarmar Gulley of Missouri State, Walt Lemon Jr. of Bradley and Anthony Beane and Desmar Jackson of Southern Illinois.
Milton Doyle of league newcomer Loyola of Chicago was voted the top freshman and top newcomer, the seventh time a player has swept both awards. The last to do it was McDermott in 2011.
"It means a lot," Doyle said on a conference call. "It means I've had a good year so far, played well, but it would mean a lot more to go to the Valley tournament and do well."
The Shockers, at 31-0 are the first team to enter their league tournament unbeaten since Saint Joseph's in 2004, have plenty to play for in Saint Louis this week. If they run the table, they're virtually assured of having a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
"They know it's possible to lose to these teams," Shockers coach Gregg Marshall said. "We played these teams twice and the way you go 31-0 is you have a healthy respect for your opponent, and you know if you don't play well against them, you can lose."
Wichita State will play the winner of a first-round game between Drake and Evansville.
INTERNATIONAL
Once-calm witness cries at Pistorius murder trial
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PRETORIA, South Africa For two days, the witness in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius kept her composure. Then, just as her testimony was about to finish, she broke down in tears at what she said was the memory of the screams she heard on the night the double-amputee athlete fatally shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in his South African home.
Michelle Burger, a neighbor of Pistorius who took the stand on the second day of the trial, remained calm through intense questioning by the chief defense lawyer. In a final exchange with the lead prosecutor on Tuesday, however, emotion washed over her as she recalled what she described as the terrified screams of a woman early on Valentine's Day last year.
"When I'm in the shower, I relive her shouts," Burger said in an apparent reference to her trauma just after the shooting, when a police captain took her statement. When Gerrie Nel, the prosecutor, asked her about her emotions at the time, she said the experience
was "quite raw" and her voice broke.
Nel asked her how she was coping now.
I m coping fine," Burge, insisted. "It's been a year."
Burger testified that she heard a man and a woman shouting, then the sound of four gunshots. She said the woman's screams continued during the gunshots and quickly faded away after the final one. She was the first witness called by the prosecution, which contends that Pistorius intentionally killed Steenkamp after a loud argument.
Her testimony contradicts Pistorius' account. He says he fired four times through the toilet cubicle door, hitting Steenkamp three times in the head, arm and hip or side area after thinking she was a dangerous intruder. He has pleaded not guilty.
The defense contends that Burger may have been asleep when the gunshots were fired, and then mistakenly thought she was hearing gunfire when in fact it was the sound of Pistorius breaking the toilet cubicle door with a cricket bat after realizing he had shot his girlfriend.
During cross-examination of Burger, chief defense lawyer Barry Roux suggested that she was mistaken in saying that she heard a woman screaming and that it was actually Pistorius shouting for help in a high voice after accidentally shooting Steenkamp.
Roux said Steenkamp was shot in the head, which would have resulted in brain damage and "no cognitive function" and so she wouldn't have been able to scream just after the last bullet struck, as Burger testified.
Burger disagreed. "I heard her voice just after the last shot," she said. "It faded away."
Her husband, Charl Johnson, also testified that "the last scream faded moments after the last gunshot was fired."
Burger also said that the man she heard — before the sound of the gunfire — was calling for help, a piece of testimony that muddied the prosecution's narrative that Pistorius was the aggressor. Burger speculated that perhaps the voice was that of Pistorius ridiculing Steenkamp's calls for help. "Was it a mockery? I don't know. I'm not Mr. Pistorius," she said.
Oscar Pistorius, on the second day of his trial in Pretoria, South Africa, Tuesday, March 4. Pistorius is charged with murder for the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day 2013.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
+