His coach says he the fiercest competitor that he's ever coached. And evidently the other coaches in the Mid-South Conference think the same as Keith Adkins.

Campbellsville University's Nestor Colmenares, a senior from Caracas, Venezuela, was named MSC Player of the Year Friday night in Frankfort when the Mid-South held its annual men's basketball banquet.


Colmenares was joined on the All-Conference team by senior guard T.J. Bishop of Boynton Beach, Fla.

Colmenares ranks in the conference's top five in five individual statistical categories and sixth in another. He leads the MSC in rebounds per game (9.6) and tied for first with the most double-doubles (11) this season.

His 15-point scoring average is sixth best in the conference while he is second in field goal percentage (60.5) and fifth in steals (1.5) and blocks (1.0) per game.
Colmenares earned MSC Player of the Week twice during the season.

Nationally, Colmenares is eighth in the nation in field goal percentage and 11th in rebounding.

Joining Colmenares on the all-conference team is teammate T.J. Bishop; University of the Cumberlands' Chad Byron and Brandon Russ; Georgetown College's Hollis Giles and Vic Moses; Lindsey Wilson College's Eric McPherson; Pikeville College's Jonathan Clark; and St. Catharine College's Arthur Latham and Ervin Williams.

Lindsey Wilson's Kalen Kimberland was named the MSC Freshman of the Year after averaging 10.2 points and shooting nearly 45-percent from the field this season.
Cumberlands' Byron was named the Champions of Character recipient. Byron earned the award -- as voted on by the conference athletics director -- for his civic and servant leadership within the campus and community.

St. Catharine's J.T. Burton was selected by their peers as MSC Coach of the Year after leading the Patriots to a 20-win season after winning just five games a season ago.
Kimberland, Lindsey Wilson's Andrija Tintor; Pikeville's Justin Hicks; St. Catharine's Josh Edwards and Kevin Owens; University of Rio Grande's P.J. Rase; Cumberlands' Travis Harvey; West Virginia University Tech's Robby Marshall and Darryl Slack were named honorable mention all-conference.

Eighteen student-athletes earned academic all-conference for maintaining at least a 3.25 grade point average on a 4.0 scale and being a sophomore or higher standing.
Campbellsville's Jordon Benock and Brett Crittenden; Cumberlands' Byron, Dustin Fothergill, Nathaniel Mitchell and Clark Stepp; Georgetown's Dillon Boggs and Kyle Saxton; Lindsey Wilson's Ismar Neto and Chase Spreen; Pikeville's Zach Hurt, Adam Simmons, and Andre Thornton; Rio Grande's Wendell Bates, Jr. and P.J. Rase; St. Catharine's Kris Caufield and Brandon Johnson; and West Virginia Tech's Zach Thomsen earned academic all-conference.

The Mid-South Conference Men's Basketball Tournament opens on Friday with four quarterfinal games at the Frankfort Convention Center.

Top-seeded Campbellsville faces No. 8-seed Rio Grande at 10 a.m. ET with fourth-seeded St. Catharine and fifth-seeded Pikeville College playing at Noon ET.

No. 3-seed Cumberlands meets No. 6-seed Lindsey Wilson at 6 p.m. ET and No. 2-seed Georgetown and No. 7-seed West Virginia Tech close out the opening round at 8 p.m. ET.

Friday's winners play in Saturday's semifinals. Games are scheduled for 2 and 4 p.m. ET. The MSC Tournament Championship is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 7.

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