The Larry Bird Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year is an annual award given to the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

's most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1968–69 season. It was renamed to honor Basketball Hall of Famer

Larry Bird Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend" Bird is widely regarded a ...

, who played at Indiana State from 1977 to 1979 and led the Sycamores to the 1979 NCAA Championship game. Bird won every major player of the year award (including the Naismith and

Wooden Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

awards) in 1979.

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

has the most all-time winners with eight. Four current conference members have not had a winner, but three of them ( Belmont, Murray State, and UIC) played their first MVC seasons in 2022–23, and the other ( Valparaiso) played its first MVC season in 2017–18. There have never been any ties for the player of the year, but there have been 10 repeat winners in the award's history. Of the repeat winners,

Fred VanVleet Fredderick Edmund VanVleet Sr. (born February 25, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A point guard, VanVleet played college basketball for Wichita State Uni ...

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 ...

(2014 and 2016) and A. J. Green of Northern Iowa (2020, 2022) won in non-consecutive years.

Key

Winners

Winners by school

References

{{Men's college basketball award navbox NCAA Division I men's basketball conference players of the year

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

Awards established in 1969