SCHMIDT REPEATS AS CCAC PLAYER OF THE YEAR; ONE OF THREE TIGERS RECOGNIZED
CHICAGO, Ill. – After picking up their fifth 20-win season in the last six years, the Olivet Nazarene University men's basketball team had three Tigers earn all-conference recognition from the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) as they announced their awards Wednesday morning.
The CCAC's best player came from ONU for the sixth consecutive year as Tyler Schmidt was named the conference's Men's Basketball Player of the Year. He was also placed on the all-conference first team, while Landon Pflederer and Sam Emich were both named to the all-CCAC second team.
Schmidt was selected as the conference's top player for the second straight season, also earning the honor at the end of the 2022-23 season. He becomes the third player in ONU history to repeat as the CCAC Player of the Year, with his former teammate Alex Gross (2021, 2022) and Nic Reed (2019, 2020) both accomplishing the feat in their respective seasons.
It also marks the third time in as many years that Schmidt has been named first team all-conference, being the only player to three-peat and one of only two (Dejon Barney) to repeat on this year's five-member all-conference first team.
The senior guard from Valparaiso, Ind., finished among the top ten players in the league in five separate categories highlighted by his conference-leading 23.9 scoring average, which also ranks sixth-best in the nation.
Schmidt also ranked first in the CCAC in both assists per game (5.5) and free throws made (162), second in free throw percentage (.826), tied for fifth in steals per game (1.5), and seventh in overall field goal percentage (.530), as well. He was a three-time conference player of the week and also captured the award at the NAIA national level once.
Schmidt became just the sixth player in program history to score 2,000 career points when he hit the milestone in a win over St. Francis (Ill.) on Feb. 3. He needed just 102 games to hit the mark and currently sits at 2,243 career points, good for fourth on the program's all-time scoring list.
Pflederer earned his third all-conference recognition in as many years, landing on the CCAC's second team for the second straight season. The 6-1 senior point guard from Tremont, Ill., was second in the conference in assists with averaging 4.7 helpers per contest. He also averaged 1.4 steals and 12.5 points per game, good for second and third on the team, respectively.
Serving as ONU's top three-point threat, Pflederer knocked down a team-leading 2.1 three-pointers per game this season, connecting at a better than 38-percent clip from deep (61-of-159). He currently ranks fifth all-time in program history for made three-pointers (214) and sixth in career assists (533), becoming one of only two players in the history of the program to make over 200 three's and record over 500 assists (Antonio Marshall).
Emich had a career year in his second season with the ONU men's basketball team to earn his spot on the all-CCAC second team. The Copley, Ohio native averaged 16.3 points per game, good for second on the team, while leading ONU in rebounding (5.7) and three-point percentage (.480).
The senior forward shot at a better than 52-percent clip from the floor and scored in double figures 26 times this season, eclipsing 30 points twice with 30 in a home 85-70 win over St. Ambrose and career-high 33 points on the road in the 89-74 win at Governors State on Feb. 5.
--ONU—
*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu