April 10, 2000

Columbia, Mo. - The University of Missouri men's basketball team celebrated a season of accomplishment with its season awards finale, held tonight at the Columbia Performing Arts Center.

Under first-year Head Coach Quin Snyder, the Tigers achieved an 18-13 record, and received a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Snyder was named the national rookie coach-of-the-year by Basketball Times.

Here's a recap of the awards handed out at the ceremonies:

? The Joyce A. Walls Memorial Award for Most Outstanding Player went to sophomore guard Keyon Dooling. Dooling led the Tigers in scoring (15.3 ppg), assists (3.7 apg) and at just 6-foot-3, in blocked shots (17). Dooling was named a unanimous 2nd-team all-Big 12 performer.

? The Wilbur "Sparky" Stalcup Award for Most Inspirational Player went to sophomore guard Clarence Gilbert. Gilbert was one of the most explosive scorers in the Big 12 Conference this season, and averaged 13.4 points a game, up from 4.2 as a freshman. Gilbert smashed MU single-season records for three-point field goals made (88) and attempted (233) this season.

? The George R. Edwards Award for Academic Ability went to junior guard Brian Grawer. Grawer was named to the Big 12 Conference Academic First Team this season.

? The Most Improved Player Award went to freshman forward Kareem Rush. Rush emerged as one of the top freshmen in the nation throughout the course of the year, and set an MU freshman record by averaging 14.7 points a game for the season. Rush was named Big 12 co-freshman-of-the-year, and became only the second freshman at MU to ever score 30 or more points in a game, when he tallied 31 in leading MU to a come-from-behind win at Texas Tech on Feb. 15th.

? The Coaches' Award, which denotes a combination of leadership, desire, commitment, teamwork, among other qualities, went to senior forward Jeff Hafer. Hafer closed out his Tiger career by averaging a career-best 7.0 points per game. He led the team with 48 steals, and ended his career 5th on the alltime MU steals list, with 169. He set a career-high when he scored 19 points vs. Colorado on Jan. 12th.

? The Mike Alden Award, which goes to the reserve who contributes the most for team morale, went to junior forward Johnnie Parker. Parker came off the bench in 20 of 30 games during the season, and contributed career bests of 6.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.

? The Black and Gold Award, which goes to the player who best displays sacrifice by taking the most charges during the year, went to senior forward Jeff Hafer.

? The Best Defensive Player went to the entire team.

? Other awards were presented to junior center Tajudeen Soyoye (leading rebounder and leading field goal percentage) and Keyon Dooling (most assists).

? Team captains were announced for next season, and those voted to represent the team for the 2000-2001 season (as voted by players and coaches) were Brian Grawer, Keyon Dooling and Johnnie Parker.