29 February 2000
CONTACT: Stew Salowitz, 309-556-3206

IWU's Coon Repeats As Co-Conference MVP Award;
Freshman Kasten Named to Second Team All-CCIW Squad

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- For the fourth year in a row and the sixth time in the last seven seasons, an Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball player has won the "Fred Young Most Outstanding Player" award in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.

Korey Coon, a 6-foot senior guard from East Peoria (HS), shared the recognition with Carthage sophomore forward Jason Wiertel, marking the second year in a row and the second time in the 33 seasons of the honor that two players have shared the award.

Coon was also elected to the first team of the all-conference squad while freshman teammate Luke Kasten was chosen to the second team in voting by league coaches Tuesday in Wheaton.

Coon was a first team all-CCIW choice for the past two seasons and was named to the third team as a freshman. This year he was second in the CCIW in scoring with a 21.6 average and paced the league in free throw shooting with a mark of .967 (89 of 92).

Coon also etched his name in the CCIW record books for career free throw percentage with a mark of .914 (224 of 245). That bested the old standard of .890, set by Gary Jackson of Millikin in 1980-81 when he made 89 of 100. Coon also finished as the CCIW's eighth best 3-point shooter with an accuracy of .459 (123 of 268). He is tied with IWU's Steve Kuehl, who shot .459 from 1989-93.

Kasten, a 6-foot-7 forward from Coffeen (Hillsboro HS), was second in the league in rebounding with a 7.6 average and was fourth in scoring at 18.6 in 14 league games. His .526 field goal percentage (100 of 190) was ninth best in conference play.

Kasten is only the ninth freshman in the league to earn second team CCIW honors since 1966 and the first IWU frosh to be as high as a second team selection since Jack Sikma in 1974. The others who were second team as freshmen were Jack Lutz, Carthage (1966); Dave Shaw, Carroll (1974); Michael Thomas, North Park (1978); Pete Rochford of North Central and Chris Stanley of North Park (both 1989); Shannon Cloyd, Millikin (1992); and Eric Smith, Millikin (1993).

As a team, IWU led the league in field goal percentage (.474), free throw percentage (.793), and in points per game (82.5). The Titans, who finished third in the CCIW with a 9-5 mark, were third in the league in 3-point percentage (.357) and were last in the league in points allowed (77.6).

IWU junior Adam Osborn (New Holland, Lincoln HS) was 13^th in the league with a 12.7 scoring average and was fourth with 3.7 assists per game. He was also ninth with 1.5 steals per game and 10^th with a 3-point accuracy mark of .389 (35 of 90).

Junior Mike Pope (Maroa, Maroa-Forsyth HS) tied for the league's top 3-point shooting mark at .500 (17 of 34) and was tied for ninth in the league with 5.9 rebounds per game. Junior Todd Wente (Effingham, St. Anthony HS) had the fifth best field goal percentage, shooting .543 from the floor (57 of 105) in 14 CCIW games.

"Fred Young Most Outstanding Player Award"

It is the 14th time since the honor was started in 1968 that an IWU player has claimed the award. In addition to Coon in 1999, other winners were Brent Niebrugge (1998), Bryan Crabtree (1997), Chris Simich (1995), John Lipic (1994), David Caldwell (1991), Jeff Kuehl (1989), Blaise Bugajski (1984), Greg Yess (1982), Jack Sikma (1975, 1976, 1977), and Tom Gramkow (1970).

It is only the 10th time in 33 seasons that the award did not go solely to a member of the league championship team.

The award is named for 1915 IWU graduate Fred Young, who was the conference's first commissioner and served in the position 17 years. He was a longtime sports editor and columnist at The Pantagraph and starred at IWU in basketball (all-state four years), baseball and tennis.

College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
1999-2000 All-Conference Men's Basketball

First Team
Korey Coon, Illinois Wesleyan
Jason Wiertel, Carthage
Travis Senik, Wheaton
Luke Moo, Wheaton
Rob Garnes, Carthage

Second Team
Luke Kasten, Illinois Wesleyan
Yulander Wells, North Central
Ryan Knuppel, Elmhurst
Kerry Pates, North Park
Anthony Figueroa, Millikin

Third Team
John Benedetti, Augustana
Rick Alspach, North Park
Antoine McDaniel, Carthage
Antione Ford, Millikin
Michael Collins, Wheaton