BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Middle Tennessee senior forward JaCorey Williams has been named the Conference USA Player of the Year for the 2016-17 season, while the Blue Raiders’ head coach Kermit Davis has been named the Gene Bartow Coach of the Year presented by the Birmingham Tip Off Club. These awards were announced today prior to the opening of the 2017 Conference USA Men's Basketball Championship presented by Metro PCS.

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Williams picked up the honor after leading the Blue Raiders to the C-USA regular season C-USA title and a No. 25 national ranking in the most recent USA Today Coaches’ Poll. He was named to the All-Conference USA first team and the 2017 C-USA Newcomer of the Year earlier this week. The Birmingham, Alabama, native logged double-digit points in 28 games this season while topping the 20-point mark 11 times and notching a team-high 11 double-doubles. Williams is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 17.5 points per game, and rebounder (7.4 per game). He scored a career-high 31 points against Toledo.
 
Davis earned the Conference USA Coach of the Year award after leading Middle Tennessee to a 27-4 record in the regular season and a record-setting 17-1 mark in conference play. No other C-USA team has won 17 games in league player and the Blue Raiders cracked the USA Today top 25 for the first time in school history. Middle Tennessee's 14 wins away from home and 11 true road wins on the year both rank in the Top 5 nationally, all while playing a grueling schedule that includes the 19^th ranked non-conference strength of schedule in the nation. The 27 total wins also ties a Middle Tennessee record for wins in the regular season and leaves the team just one win shy of the school's all-time record of 28 wins.
 
This marks the fifth time in eight years that the Player of the Year and Coach of the Year hailed from the same school.  Williams is the second Middle Tennessee standout to win C-USA Player of the Year, joining Shawn Jones in 2014.  He is the first player to win Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year in the same season since the Newcomer honor was introduced in 2007.
 
The Blue Raiders enter the C-USA Championship as the top seed and will face UTSA or WKU in a quarterfinal round game on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. CT. The C-USA Coach of the Year award is named in honor of Gene Bartow, the legendary former coach at Memphis and UAB, along with other schools, who passed away in January 2012.
 
2016-17 CONFERENCE USA PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JaCorey Williams, Middle Tennessee, Sr., F, 6-8, 220, Birmingham, Alabama
 
2016-17 CONFERENCE USA GENE BARTOW COACH OF THE YEAR
Kermit Davis, Middle Tennessee (303-179 at MT; 440-254 and career)


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