University of Southern Indiana senior guard/forward Jeril Taylor
(Louisville, Kentucky) was named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year in a vote of the conference’s head coaches. Taylor’s GLVC Player of the Year award marks the 10th time in the history of the program that a Screaming Eagle has been named the league’s top player.
Former USI winners are John Hollinden (1981); Stephen Jackson (1984, 1985); Chris Bowles (1994); Chad Gilbert (1996); Derrick Lyons (2001); Chris Thompson (2006); Jamar Smith (2010); and Aaron Nelson (2014).
Taylor, who also was named first-team All-GLVC, has shined for the Eagles in 2016-17. He has led the team for the second-straight season in scoring and rebounding, averaging 20.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per contest. The senior also set a USI single game record for scoring with 50 points in the road win at Truman State University and became the 19th USI player to reach 1,000 career points.
In addition to the post-season conference awards, Taylor was named the Division II Bulletin Player of the Month (January), the GLVC Player of the Week four times, and the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic Most Valuable Player.
Joining Taylor on the All-GLVC first team was sophomore guard Alex Stein (Evansville, Indiana). Stein, who is receiving his first All-GLVC honor, was second on the team in scoring with 17.7 points per game and led the team with 4.0 assists per game. He also averaged 3.4 rebounds per contest.
Along with this post-season honor, Stein was named the GLVC Player of the Week once and to the SCB Hall of Fame Classic All-Tournament team.
USI senior guard Cortez Macklin (Louisville, Kentucky) became the fourth Eagle to be named to the GLVC All-Defensive team. The award is the first for Macklin, who joins former USI Eagles Kenyon Smith (2012, 2013), Keith DeWitt (2013), and Gavin Schumann (2014) in being named to the league’s defensive squad.
Macklin, who also posted 6.7 points per game, is tied for second on the Eagles with 4.6 rebounds per contest, including 129 defensive rebounds. The senior guard also averaged 1.0 steals per outing.
USI (25-3) enters the GLVC Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday at 6 p.m. when it plays Truman State University (21-8) at the Ford Center.
