Junior guard P’Allen Stinnett is already preparing to help launch the Jays into a successful season.
This season, the Missouri Valley Conference announced that (junior guard P’Allen) Stinnett was named to the Preseason All-MVC First Team.
Two years ago he was the only freshman to be named Honorable Mentions All-MVC, and his sophomore year he was named to the Second Team All-MVC. This year Stinnett has already been voted to the Preseason All-MVC team, along with Kwadzo Ahelegbe (University of Northern Iowa), Osiris Eldridge (Illinois State), Tony Freeman (Southern Illinois), Adam Koch (UNI) and Josh Young (Drake).
According to Mike Kern, Commissioner for Communications for the MVC, the All-MVC teams are voted on by four person panels at each MVC school (usually the panels consist of the head coach, two media representatives and the sports information director), which means a total of 40 votes. At Creighton the voters are Steve Pivovar, T. Scott Marr, Dana Altman and Rob Anderson. The preseason team is picked the same way as the post-season except voters are not allowed to vote for their own players in the post-season. Kern explained some common criteria that voters look for in candidates for the Preseason and Post-Season All-MVC team.
“Statistics play a role, of course, as well as last season’s individual accolades and/or team success,” Kern said. “It is a subjective vote so each voter has his own personal perspective on whom they choose.”
Stinnett said that he felt honored to be voted onto the team but he was not satisfied to stop there. Stinnett affirmed that he was focusing on upcoming season by admitting he did not even pay attention to the announcement when it came out because he was too concerned with what the future held. Stinnett said that he did not even know about the honor he had received.
“I really have so much more to look forward to,” he said.
Head coach Dana Altman was proud of the recognition Stinnett received, but agreed with him that there is no time to linger on the preseason award; the post season is what really matters.
“We can’t worry about that it’s just a matter of performance,” Altman said.
Most athletes would feel anxious about the added expectations an acknowledgment like this would bring, but not Stinnett. When asked if the honor of being named to the Preseason All-MVC Team made him feel any extra pressure to perform this season, Stinnett calmly replied that he felt “well nothing at all, I’m not even thinking about it.”
Stinnett said that he only needs to focus on the season to come and on the team.
Both Altman and Stinnett were not impressed with the individual achievements but rather put an emphasis on the team’s success as whole. According to Altman, there can be no outstanding players without a strong team.
“There’s usually not any All-Conference players from teams that aren’t successful,” Altman said.
Stinnett was thankful for the recognition he has already received this year but he made it clear that his sights are already set for the post-season. Stinnett assured fans that they can expect at least one thing from him this season.
“Good hard-nosed basketball.”