April 22, 2008
Chicago, Ill. - The UIC Athletic Department took one last chance to celebrate the 2007-08 basketball campaign and recognize its graduating seniors as it held the annual postseason awards banquet on Tuesday night at the UIC Forum.
The UIC Forum provided a great backdrop for the event with over 100 fans, sponsors, student-athletes and staff members in attendance.
At the conclusion of the event, the team recognized seniors Jermaine Dailey, Robert Bush, Karl White Jr., Ebenezer Noonoo and senior manager Brian Hastings, before handing out the postseason awards.
The highlight of the night came when head coach Jimmy Collins recognized the contributions of Noonoo by permanently changing the name of the Team Spirit Award to the Ebenezer Noonoo Team Spirit Award.
Junior Josh Mayo took home team MVP honors while freshman Robert Kreps was named the team's Newcomer of the Year.
Mayo was an All-Horizon League First Team honoree, leading the team in scoring (17.1 ppg) while ranking in the top 10 nationally in three-point field goal shooting. Kreps was the team's top rookie scorer at 8.1 ppg.
Junior Scott VanderMeer was named the team's top defensive player after a campaign in which he led the squad in both rebounding (7.5 rpg) and blocked shots (2.6 bpg).
Redshirt sophomore Jovan Ignjatovic earned the team's Purple Heart Award. In the statistical categories, Dailey took home accolades for owning the highest shooting percentage (63%) while sophomore Spencer Stewart was recognized as the team's top assist man and VanderMeer took home top rebounder honors.
