ST. LOUIS -- Senior Tyler Smithpeters of Southern Illinois and sophomore Jordan Barnes of Indiana State headline the list of selections for the 2018 Missouri Valley Conference specialty teams for men’s basketball.  Smithpeters, a native of Harrisburg (Ill.) High, has been tabbed the conference’s Team Captain for the All-Bench Team, while Barnes, a native of St. Louis (Mo.) CBC is the league’s Team Captain for the Most-Improved Team.

All-Bench and Most-Improved Teams (PDF)

The teams, which were selected by the league's newspaper beat writers, are comprised of a minimum of five student-athletes (top five vote-getters, plus ties) on each squad.

This season, Smithpeters played in all 31 games, with five starts.  He enters the State Farm MVC Tournament averaging 7.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists.  Additionally, Smithpeters is averaging 8.9 points in MVC-only games and shooting .398 from 3-point, with 48 assists and 31 turnovers, and he recently had a stretch in which he made at least one 3-pointer in 14-straight games.  His 48 assists in league games is second for SIU, despite only starting three of 18 games during Conference play. 

Barnes, meanwhile, has started 29 of ISU's 30 games (all games, except last Saturday), averaging a team-best 17.2 points and 3.7 3-pointers.  The sophomore guard has scored in double-figures in 29 of his 30 games this year after just eight double-figure games all last season.  He ranks third in the country with 112 3-pointers which is fourth-best in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference (and most ever by a sophomore) and an Indiana State single-season school record.  Last year, Barnes averaged 6.5 points per game with 41 made three-pointers.