Loyola's Marques Townes Named Missouri Valley Conference Player Of The Year

CHICAGO (CBS)-- Loyola's Marques Townes was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of The Year.

He was on a mission this year after not being named to any all-conference teams last season. He got stronger and worked on his mid-range jumper. As a result, he averaged a league best with 18 points a game and 3 assists.

"I wasn't even on any an all-league at all I took that personally, people finally noticing now and I had that in the back of my head the whole year I just wanted to prove myself," Townes said.

Loyola will be dancing again if they can repeat as Missouri Valley conference tournament champions. The top-seeded ramblers will show up in St. Louis this weekend with the league MVP for the second straight year.

"Well deserved, he's having a great year," Porter Moser, the Loyola head coach said. "Marques was there all year to provide some scoring for us, and assists, people keep forgetting he was 3rd in the league in assists."

The team has felt the pressure of probing themselves after their historic run last season. They believe all the adversity they faced during this rollercoaster season will help them going into this week's conference tournament.

"We got a lot of teams best shots, there best shots to that has prepared us going into the tournament and hopefully into march madness we will be a better team," Townes said.

Loyola Guard Clayton Custer said the team has bonded after going through "so many ups and downs." He said this will help them in the tournament.