2014 MAC Women's Basketball Awards: Crystal Bradford Is Player of the Year

The Mid-American Conference has announced its all-conference teams and individual post-season awards for the 2014 women's basketball season.  As expected, Bowling Green, Central Michigan and Akron dominate the honors, and Crystal Bradford takes home the coveted Player of the Year Award.

Bradford was also named the MAC's Defensive Player of the Year, and she becomes the first Central Michigan player to ever win either the Player of the Year or the Defensive Player of the Year awards.  She is also only the third player in MAC history to win both in the same season.  She was further honored by being named first-team All-MAC for the second consecutive season.

Bradford had one of the finest seasons in conference history.  She became the first player in MAC history to record two triple-doubles in a career, and she did it in the same season.  She finished third in scoring with 20.3 points per game, first in rebounds (12.2/game), and fourth in assists (4.6/game).  To earn defensive honors, Bradford ranked second and fourth respectively among all MAC players in steals (2.7/game) and blocks (1.3/game).  If that's not enough, she also ranked 10th in assist-to-turnover ratio, second in offensive rebounds and first in defensive rebounds.

Two Akron players and two Bowling Green players rounded out the All-MAC first team, as all five spots went to individuals from the three teams that went a combined 47-7 in league play.

The Zips' Rachel Tecca and Hanna Luburgh earned first team honors by ranking second and first respectively in scoring among all conference players.  The pair combined for 45.7 points per game and scored a total of 1,323 points in 29 games.  Tecca was third overall in rebounding, while Luburgh also ranked in the top 20.  Both earned spots in the top 10 in field goal percentage.  This is Tecca's second consecutive year as a first team All-MAC honoree.

Alexis Rogers and Jillian Halfhill from Bowling Green join the others as first team All-MAC members.  Rogers ranked eighth in the MAC with 14.9 points per game and was also eight in rebounds (8.2/game).  She finished third in the MAC by making 53 percent of her shots and converted 80 percent of her free throws.  Halfhill was also in the top 20 in scoring but was just deadly from the outside.  She ranked third in the MAC with 60 3-pointers but lead the league by making 43 percent of her shots from behind the arc.  She also finished in the top 10 in assists.

The second team was made up of players from the middle tier of MAC teams.  This group included Eastern Michigan freshman Cha Sweeney, who was also named to the All-Freshman team.  Today, Sweeney was honored as the 2014 MAC Freshman of the Year.  Sweeney is the first Eagles player to earn all-conference and all-freshman honors in the same season.  She ranks fourth with 17.2 points per game, but she really ramped up her scoring at the end of the season.  In the team's loss last night to Northern Illinois, Sweeney scored 26 points.  She's now EMU's all-time leading freshman scorer and is one of just 16 freshmen among the NCAA's top 250 scorers.

Joining Sweeney on the All-MAC second team are Mackenzie Loesing of Buffalo and three Western Division players -- Nathalie Fontaine of Ball State, Miracle Woods of Western Michigan and Inma Zanoguera of Toledo.

Two more Central Michigan players (Jas'Mine Bracey and Niki DiGuilio) are on the All-MAC third team.  DiGuilio led the league with 97 3-pointers, and no other player had more than 78.  Buffalo's second player honored, Kristen Sharkey, is also on the third team, as are Amanda Corral of Northern Illinois and Andola Dortch of Toledo.

Central Michigan's Jessica Green and Bowling Green's Erica Donovan were named to the honorable mention team as the third players from each school to be named all-conference.  Kiyanna Black of Ohio was also named to that squad, as were Ball State's Brandy Woody and WMU's Marquisha Harris.

Sweeney's freshman teammate Janay Morton was also named to the all-freshman team.  Ohio's Quiera Lampkins, Akron's Hannah Plybon, and Buffalo's Alexus Malone were also honored.as freshmen.

CMU's Taylor Johnson was named the Sixth Player of the Year.  It's the second time she's received the honor, as she was named Co-Sixth Player of the Year in 2011.  She is the first MAC player to ever win the award twice.  Johnson averaged 7.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in an average of 16.3 minutes per game.  Her primary contribution was from beyond the arc, where she drilled 43 3-pointers.  Of those, 33 occurred during the MAC schedule.

Finally, Bowling Green head coach Jennifer Roos was named 2014 MAC Coach of the Year.  In only her second year at the helm of the Falcons' dynasty, she has guided the team to a 27-3 record and an outright MAC championship with a 17-1 conference record.  Her team beat both Michigan and Ohio State during the regular season and earned the #1 seed in the MAC tournament.  Under her guidance, the Falcons are fourth in the league in scoring and first in scoring defense.  Roos is the fourth different BGSU coach to win the award.

Below is the entire awards list.  Do you think the MAC got this right?  Were there omissions, or were players placed too high or too low?  Comment below with your thoughts.