Recognition continued to roll in for the Valparaiso University men's basketball team on Wednesday as the Missouri Valley Conference released its all-conference honors and major awards for the 2025-2026 season.
 
Redshirt senior Owen Dease (Evansville, Ind. / Evansville Reitz) and freshman JT Pettigrew (Lisle, Ill. / Bolingbrook) were named to the All-MVC Third Team, while Pettigrew also garnered MVC All-Freshman Team laurels.
 
Pettigrew was the runner-up in the league's Freshman of the Year voting, while Valpo head coach Roger Powell Jr. finished third in the voting for the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year award.
 
This marks the first time since joining the Missouri Valley Conference that Valpo has boasted multiple all-conference selections in the same season. Alec Peters and Shane Hammink in 2016-17 comprised the last Valpo duo to earn all-conference honors (Horizon League) in the same season. Only three different Valpo players had earned All-MVC honors prior to this season – Javon Freeman-Liberty, Ben Krikke (3x) and Cooper Schwieger. Pettigrew becomes the first Valpo freshman to achieve All-MVC status and first Valpo freshman to garner all-conference honors in any league since Lubos Barton was on the All-Mid-Continent Conference First Team in 1998-99. Prior to that, it was Bryce Drew in 1994-95.
 
This marks the third straight year Valpo has had a top-2 finisher in the MVC Freshman of the Year balloting. Valpo has featured seven all-freshman team honorees since joining the MVC including one in each season under head coach Roger Powell Jr. Pettigrew joins Javon Freeman-Liberty (2018-19), Donovan Clay (2019-20), Sheldon Edwards (2020-21), Preston Ruedinger (2021-22), Cooper Schwieger (2023-24) and All Wright (2024-25) as Valpo players who have earned MVC All-Freshman Team recognition.


 
Dease finished ninth in the league in scoring average at 14.7 points per game, and also ranked among league-only leaders in field-goal percentage (.451, 12^th), free-throw percentage (.831, fifth), 3-point percentage (.435, fourth) and 3-point field goals made per game (1.85, seventh).
 
A three-time MVC Newcomer of the Week, Dease scored in double figures 19 times this season, including a career high 28 on Jan. 7 vs. Illinois State, one of five times that he scored at least 20.
 


Pettigrew finished 15^th in MVC-only scoring average at 12.9 points per game. The rookie also ranked third in the league in rebounds at 7.1 per game, behind only Murray State's Fredrick King (8.5) and SIU's Rolyns Aligbe (7.6). Pettigrew finished ninth in Valley-only free-throw percentage at .794, tied for 12^th in steals per game at 1.2 and second in offensive rebounds per game at 2.4.
 
Pettigrew finished the regular season with 375 points, sixth on Valpo's all-time freshman scoring list, and set the program's freshman rebounding record with 203. Pettigrew ranked second in the league in freshman scoring average and had the top rebound total by an MVC freshman since 2017-18, ranking 16^th nationally in rebounds by a rookie. Pettigrew was named the MVC Freshman of the Week four times this season, lifting Valpo's total to 20 out of 50 possible since the MVC Freshman of the Week award began, which coincided with Roger Powell Jr.'s arrival at Valpo.  
 
This marks the first time a Valpo head coach finished in the top three in the Coach of the Year voting. Year 3 of Powell's head coaching tenure at Valpo saw the Beacons take a major step forward. After he inherited a rebuilding project that saw the team go 3-17 in league play in Year 1, double its MVC win total to 6-14 in Year 2 and finish Year 2 with an MVC semifinal appearance, the Beacons nearly doubled their league win total again, finishing at 11-9 in Year 3.
 
Valpo completed the 2025-26 regular season with its highest winning percentage in league play since joining The Valley prior to the 2017-2018 campaign. This marked the program's first winning season in MVC play. Overall, Valpo won 17 regular-season games in 2025-2026, the program's highest regular-season win total since its final season in the Horizon League in 2016-2017, Alec Peters' senior year.
 
Although the Missouri Valley Conference only released the top five in the MVC preseason poll, Valpo Athletics can confirm that the Beacons were voted last in the 11-team league in the preseason survey of head coaches, sports information directors and media members. Valpo finished tied for sixth and just one game out of a tie for third in a tightly-packed MVC this season.
 
Valpo will tip off the State Farm MVC Tournament on Thursday at 6 p.m. vs. Indiana State at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. For tickets, visit tickets.valpoathletics.com.

LARRY BIRD PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Tyler Lundblade, Belmont
Jaquan Johnson, Bradley

COACH OF THE YEAR
Casey Alexander, Belmont
Rob Ehsan, UIC
Roger Powell Jr., Valparaiso
Brian Wardle, Bradley

FIRST TEAM ALL-MVC
Jaquan Johnson, Bradley
Fred King, Murray State
Tyler Lundblade, Belmont
Drew Scharnowski, Belmont
Jalen Quinn, Drake
Chase Walker, Illinois State
 
SECOND TEAM ALL-MVC
Trey Campbell, Northern Iowa
Elijah Crawford, UIC
Quel'Ron House, Southern Illinois
Javon Jackson, Murray State
Sam Orme, Belmont
 
THIRD TEAM ALL-MVC
AJ Casey, Evansville
Owen Dease, Valparaiso
Roman Domon, Murray State
Alex Huibregtse, Bradley
JT Pettigrew, Valparaiso

ALL-NEWCOMER TEAM
Elijah Crawford, UIC
Quel'Ron House, Southern Illinois
Alex Huibregtse, Bradley
Fred King, Murray State
Jalen Quinn, Drake

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Fred King, Murray State

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Eoin Dillon, Belmont
Roman Domon, Murray State
Andy Johnson, UIC
JT Pettigrew, Valparaiso
Jack Smiley, Belmont

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR – Points
Roman Domon, Murray State -- 127
JT Pettigrew, Valparaiso -- 106

ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Leon Bond III, Northern Iowa
Trey Campbell, Northern Iowa
Jaquan Johnson, Bradley
Fred King, Murray State
Drew Scharnowski, Belmont

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jaquan Johnson, Bradley
Fred King, Murray State
 
SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR
Roman Domon, Murray State