WMU's Williams and UB's Witherspoon Win MAC Awards
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March 10, 2004
CLEVELAND -- Western Michigan's Mike Williams was not on the all-MAC preseason team and Buffalo was coming off a year during which the Bulls won just two league games.
Regardless of the preseason hype, Williams led his team to the regular season MAC Championship and was recognized as the Player of the Year. For Buffalo, a stunning turnaround with 11 league wins and a No. 5 seed in this week's MAC Tournament gained Reggie Witherspoon Coach of the Year accolades despite preseason predictions of a basement finish for the Bulls.
Witherspoon, in his fifth campaign as UB mentor, saw his squad drop its first three games of the regular season and five of the first six conference games. Nevertheless, Witherspoon rallied the Bulls to win 12 of their last 14 games, including the last eight in a row. The Bulls' overall 17-11 record and 11-7 MAC slate are the best marks for the program since UB joined the conference in the 1998-99 season. UB went 1-17 its first MAC season and Witherspoon took over the program after six games into the 1999-2000 season.
In 2002 the program made a break through with seven league wins, its first all-MAC selection (Darcel Williams, honorable mention) and the naming of Turner Battle to the all-freshman team. This year Battle was name second team all-MAC and the Bulls had three MAC East Division Player of the Week awards (Battle, Mario Jordan and Calvin Cage). Monday (Mar. 8) Witherspoon guided the Bulls to their first-ever MAC Tournament win before a crowd of 8,971 at Alumni Arena in Buffalo, the second largest on campus crowd for a MAC Tournament game in league history.
Williams spurred the Broncos rise to the top of the MAC standings by averaging 18.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, both team highs. A senior from Detroit, Mich./Detroit City HS, Williams' arrival last year from Schoolcraft College in Detroit sparked the first back-to-back 20-win seasons in school history, as well as a 23-win campaign this year.
Williams led the Broncos in scoring on 12 occasions and WMU was 11-1 in those games. He ranks second in the MAC in field goal shooting at 54.4 percent, fourth in steals (1.89 spg) and sixth in blocked shots (1.22 bpg).
Williams joins former Broncos Jeff Tyson (1976) and Booker James (1987) as MAC Player of the Year honorees.
Voting for both awards was conducted among membership of the MAC News Media Association. Williams received 37 of the 62 votes cast with Toledo's Keith Triplett getting 18. Witherspoon garnered 37 votes with Western Michigan's Steve Hawkins receiving 19 and Kent State's Jim Christian five.
