Leo Lyons and DeMarre Carroll shared Most Outstanding Player honors as Missouri Basketball looked back on the 2007-08 campaign Tuesday evening at its annual awards banquet held in Columbia.
Lyons and Carroll paced the club in both scoring and rebounding, helping the Tigers develop one of the league’s more versatile frontline tandems towards the end of the season. Also named the team’s Most Improved Player, Lyons showed a dramatic increase in scoring and rebounding as a junior to share the M.O.P. Award with Carroll. Lyons led the club with 13.1 points per game and paced the Big 12 Conference with 58.3 percent shooting from the floor (No. 23 nationally). In Big 12 play Lyons averaged an improved 14.3 points and 6.5 rebounds to earn a spot on the Big 12’s All-Improved Team by the league media. The team leader with six 20-point games last year, Lyons averaged 16.1 points and 8.0 rebounds over his final 16 games, which included a career-best effort of 27 points and 18 rebounds against Oklahoma State. Lyons hit 12-of-13 shots vs. the Cowboys, breaking the Mizzou Arena record for field goal accuracy, while also setting the standard for single-game boards. The 18 rebounds also tied for the most in a Big 12 game this year. Overall Lyons saw his statistical averages improve 5.7 points and 1.4 rebounds from his sophomore season, making him the most improved player on the team and one of the most improved players in the Big 12 Conference.
