Stovall named all-MAC

Peyton Stovall has been named to the all-Mid-American Conference preseason basketball team as released by the MAC office.

Fifth-year senior Peyton Stovall (Lafayette, Ind./Lafayette Jeff H.S.) has been named to the 10-member preseason Mid-American Conference Team, as announced Tuesday by the league office. Voting for the teams was conducted by members of the MAC News Media Association, as well as the league's 12 head coaches.

"This is a great honor for Peyton and our program is very proud of him and this recognition," first-year Ball State head coach Billy Taylor said. "We certainly believe he is worthy of this type of honor and we hope through his leadership, we will have many team and individual postseason accolades."

The preseason selection is the second of Stovall's career, after being named to the preseason team in 2005-06.

Stovall -- who will be playing for his third head coach in five years -- enters his senior season 21 points shy of scoring 1,000 points, ranks seventh all-time in school history in three-point field goals, has undergone two ACL surgeries (on the same knee) and will graduate in December as a double major in sports administration and marketing.

“Peyton Stovall is a great leader,” Taylor said. “He is a very experienced player who certainly has endured much throughout his career. He is very important to our team.

“He’s been an incredible resource for our program and Ball State University. I am excited about now having him back to the form he had his freshman and sophomore seasons. He is Ball State basketball.”

Stovall averaged 8.8 points and played in all 31 games a year ago. He has scored in double figures 47 times in his career, including nine games with 20-or-more points.

Stovall, the runner-up for the league’s Freshman of the Year award in 2004, enters his senior season with 78 career starts.

Along with Stovall, the West Division representatives are Giordan Watson of Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan’s Carlos Medlock, Kashif Payne of Toledo and Joe Reitz of Western Michigan.

The East Division squad is comprised of Akron’s Jeremiah Wood, Mike Scott of Kent State, Miami’s Tim Pollitz and Ohio’s Leon Willams and Jerome Tillman.

The preseason All-MAC teams will be available for interviews at the conference’s Basketball Media Day, which is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 18 at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland. The media portion of the schedule is set to begin at 9 a.m.