2021 A-R-C Men's Basketball All-Conference
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – After collecting the American Rivers Conference Championship and A-R-C Tournament Championship last weekend, the University of Dubuque Spartans men's basketball team (14-0 overall, 7-0 in A-R-C) swept all three major conference awards released on Wednesday. Peter Ragen was named Player of the Year, Brock Simon was selected as Defensive Player of the Year and head coach Robbie Sieverding was voted Coach of the Year. The Spartans had four other student-athletes named All-American Rivers Conference selections.
Peter Ragen becomes the 11th Spartan to claim conference player of the year honors and the first since Andre Norris went back-to-back in 2015 and 2016. The senior out of Orland Park, Illinois led the Spartans in scoring at 17.8 points per game which was the fifth best in the conference. He would also grab the most steals in the A-R-C with 23, the second most rebounds with 85 and blocked the second most shots with 14. Ragen would get to the free throw line 30 more times than anyone else in the conference, converting on 83.9% of his attempts from the charity stripe.
Ragen would shine when the lights were the brightest, helping carry the Spartans to an American Rivers Conference Championship, going off for 69 points over the three tournaments games, including a 32-point outburst in the quarterfinals against Nebraska Wesleyan.
Sophomore Brock Simon (Cascade, Iowa/Cascade) made quite a leap from his freshman to sophomore seasons to earn A-R-C Defensive Player of the Year. After playing just 11.0 minutes per game in 2019-20, Simon made a leap to 23.0 minutes per game in 2021. Simon did a little bit of everything for the Spartans despite missing two games with an injury, averaging 5.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and just over one steal per game. Simon was the best offensive rebound for UD, grabbing 18 of them on the season.
Simon joins Brandon Ferguson (2015) and Andre Norris (2016) as the only Spartans to take home Defensive Player of the Year honors.
This is the second time that head coach Robbie Sieverding has earned conference coach of the year award with the first time being in 2016 and joins former UD head coach Jon Davidson as a two-time winner of the award. The 2021 was Sieverding's third conference tournament title as UD"s head coach.
Patrick Mayfield (Elgin, Ill./Burlington Central) was voted First Team All-Conference by the coaches after his stellar sophomore season. Mayfield finished behind Ragen in scoring at 17.1 points per game. Mayfield finished 2021 as the second best three-point shooter in the conference, shooting 52.9% from deep. He would log the most minutes among anyone in the conference, playing 440 minutes (31.4 mpg) over 14 contests.
In the American Rivers Conference Tournament Championship game, Mayfield exploded for 22 second half points, outscoring Buena Vista's team 22-21 in the half to help the Spartans to a comeback win for the championships.
Sam Kilburg (Eldridge, Iowa/North Scott) did not waste any time making an impact on the Spartans in his freshman year, earning a Second Team All-Conference selection. Kilburg stepped right into the starting line-up at the point guard position to play 29.1 minutes per game and average 12.6 points and 3.2 assists. His assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.0 was good for fourth best in the conference.
The Spartans picked up two honorable mention honors in Levi Scheuermann and Keegan Zimmerman, giving the Spartans six all-conference player honorees in all.
Zimmerman (So., Eureka, Ill./Eureka) started five of 14 games for UD in 2021, scoring 6.0 points per game and grabbing 3.9 rebounds per game.
The newcomer Scheuermann (So., Mackinaw, Ill./Deer Creek-Mackinaw) battled an injury midway through the season but still managed to play in 12 of 14 games. He would shoot a staggering field goal percentage of 60.3% and a three-point percentage of 50.0% on his way to averaging 9.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.