Published Apr 17, 2019
Zavier Simpson Is Michigan's MVP
Chris Balas  •  Maize&BlueReview
Senior Editor

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Michigan point guard Zavier Simpson was the big winner at Michigan basketball's annual awards banquet Wednesday night. Simpson captured three awards, including the Bill Buntin Most Valuable Player honor.

Simpson also claimed the Steve Grote Hustle Award and the Gary Grant Award for Most Assists after dishing out a team-best 244 this year. He averaged 8.8 points, 6.6 assists and 5.0 rebounds and ranked 11th nationally in assists per game, was an All-Big Ten second team and All-Defensive Team honoree and now ranks seventh in U-M history with 431 career assists.

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This was the second consecutive season that Simpson claimed the Steve Grote Hustle Award and the Gary Grant Award for Most Assists.

Senior Charles Matthews, junior Jon Teske and sophomore Isaiah Livers each collected a pair of honors. Matthews earned the Wayman Britt Outstanding Defensive Player and Thad Garner Leadership Awards. The Chicago native averaged 12.2 points and five rebounds per game on his way to earning All-Big Ten honorable mention recognition.

Teske captured both the Rudy Tomjanovich Most Improved Player and Loy Vaught Rebounding Award. He averaged 9.5 points and a team-best seven rebounds per game during his junior campaign. An All-Big Ten honorable mention recipient, Teske more than doubled both his scoring and rebounding output from his sophomore to junior seasons and ranked second in the Big Ten, and 38th nationally, in 2018-19 with two blocks per contest.

Livers captured U-M's Sixth Man Award and Travis Conlan Sportsmanship Award. He came off the bench in 32 of 35 games played to average 7.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per contest and was a Big Ten Sportsmanship Honoree this season.

Freshman Ignas Brazdeikis collected the Iron Man Award after starting all 37 games and playing nearly 30 minutes per contest in his first season in Ann Arbor. Brazdeikis averaged a team-best 14.8 points per game along with 5.4 rebounds per contest to earn All-Big Ten second team and Big Ten Freshman of the Year recognition.

Shooting a team-best 83.3 percent (75-for-90) from the charity stripe, sophomore Jordan Poole collected the Award for Outstanding Free Throw Shooting. Poole averaged 12.8 points per contest and earned All-Big Ten honorable mention recognition.

For their work in the classroom, junior Austin Davis and sophomore Rico Ozuna-Harrison shared the Morgan/Bodnar Brothers Award for Academic Achievement.

U-M closed the 2018-19 season with a 30-7 overall record, becoming just the fifth team in program history to reach the 30-win plateau.

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