Southern Utah University’s MVP of The 2024-25 Basketball Season Is….
As the old adage goes “It’s hard to beat a team 3 times in a season.”
Or something along those lines.
Point is, if you run into a team enough within the span of a single season, there’s always a higher probability you don’t win every encounter.
The Southern Utah University Thunderbirds experienced that first hand this Tuesday when they squared off with a Utah Tech team they had beat twice in the regular season.
Despite a regular season clean sweep of Utah Tech, they couldn’t complete the trifecta In the most important matchup of the year, the Western Athletic Conference tournament play-in game.
It was a win and your in scenario, one that Utah Tech seized with a 72-65 win over the higher seeded team in SUU, punching their ticket to Las Vegas to play #1 seed, Utah Valley.
It was Utah Tech’s first win since January 11th and only their 7th win of the season but it came when it mattered most.
For SUU the season comes to a screeching halt after dropping their last three games of the season.
For the T-Birds, who finished 12-19 and 4-12 in conference play there is good to be found amongst the disappointment featuring an 8-2 start including quality wins over Omaha and Idaho.
Players like Taviontae Jackson and Dominique Ford had stellar seasons both averaging double digit scoring per game.
While Jackson led the team in total assist per game and steals per game, Ford made more three’s than any other T-Bird with 49 hits.
In review however, one player statistically was better than the rest, earning our end of season MVP award.
Jamir Simpson, the Senior Guard out of Lima, Ohio, led the Thunderbirds in just about every single way he could, providing steady backcourt play each and every night.
And when I say each and every night I mean it, as Simpson played in all 31 of Southern Utah’s games, one of only three T-Birds to do so. (Brock Felder, JT Langston Jr)
His ability of availability allowed him to lead the team in scoring at 16.1 points a night, totaling 498 points on the year, 136 more than any other SUU player.
He shot about 42 percent from the field while taking 104 more shots than the next man while hitting the 2nd most three’s (38) on 34 % shooting from distance.
Although a threat from deep, Simpson did some of his best work inside the perimeter as he led the way inside the arc making 50 more two point field goals than anyone else at a near 45 percent clip.
When the buckets were hard to come by, Simpson would put his shoulder down and get to the rim, landing himself either a nice lay up or two free shots at the charity stripe.
On 165 attempts, as the only T-Bird to shoot more than 85 on the season, Simpson converted on 80 percent of his free throws for 132 points from the line.
On the season he was good for about 5.3 free throw tries a game, a team best.
If Availability, and being the main scoring threat aren’t enough for you, Simpson was also just an all around workhorse.
He was the only T-Bird to average more than 30 minutes a night at 32 MPG, and was only behind big man Brock Felder for total rebounds a game, coming down with 4.7 night.
SUU had a lot of fun pieces this year, many of which T-Bird fans hope to see representing Southern Utah next year.
Yet, with the season now officially in the rear view, Jamir Simpson was the go to guy and the winner of the ESPN 97.7 SUU MVP award.
We have more MVP’s to give out as local teams seasons come to a close, so stay tuned for Utah’s most valuable after their season ended at the hands of UCF on the first day of the Big 12 tournament. (NIT appearance loading?)
Next to that, either one of Utah Valley or Utah Tech will have to end the year as well as they face off in the WAC tournament as the #1 and #9 seeds in Las Vegas tonight at the Orleans, for a 7:00 Utah time tip off.
Whoever wins, we shall celebrate as Utah homers, whoever loses we will appreciate by honoring them with a fictitious award by crowning their MVP of the season.
Either way, stick around!