Following one of their best regular seasons in more than a decade, the Omaha Mavericks men’s basketball team dominated the Summit League awards on Tuesday.
Marquel Sutton was named the 2024-25 Summit League Player of the Year, the conference’s highest honor.
Sutton played a key role in Omaha’s unexpected success this season, leading the league with 21.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game while shooting 51.3% from the field in conference play.
The 6-foot-8 senior forward from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has spent his entire college career with the Mavericks. His best performance came just 10 days ago when he dropped 36 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in Omaha’s win over South Dakota.
Sutton wasn’t the only Maverick to receive postseason recognition.
Head coach Chris Crutchfield was named Summit League Coach of the Year. In just his third season leading the program, Crutchfield guided Omaha to its first-ever Summit League regular-season championship, clinching the title with an 80-57 win over Oral Roberts on Saturday.
The Mavericks were initially picked to finish eighth out of nine teams in the preseason poll.
Sutton and point guard JJ White both earned spots on the Summit League’s All-Conference First Team, while Ja’Sean Glover was named to the All-Defensive Team.
White, also a senior, averaged 17.6 points per game in conference play and led the league in assists with 5.3 per game. His buzzer-beating three-pointer against North Dakota in early February will likely be remembered for years to come.
Omaha’s unique trash-can-smashing victory celebration became a viral sensation, and the team capped off its regular season by cutting down the nets on Saturday. However, the season is far from over.
The Summit League Championship Tournament begins this week in Sioux Falls, where Omaha will enter as the No. 1 seed with a chance to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament, better known as March Madness.
Normally, the Mavericks would need to win the conference tournament to qualify, but this year presents a unique situation.
St. Thomas, which finished second behind Omaha in the regular season, is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament due to its recent transition to Division I.
If St. Thomas wins the Summit League tournament, the conference’s automatic NCAA bid will go to the regular-season champion—Omaha.
The Mavericks will face either No. 8-seed UMKC or No. 9-seed Oral Roberts in the tournament quarterfinals on Thursday at 6 p.m.
