Schwieger Named MVC Player of the Week, Wright Tabbed Freshman of the Week for Seventh Time
Valparaiso University men’s basketball sophomore Cooper Schwieger (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley Southwest [Link Year] was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week on Monday, while All Wright (Durango, Mexico / Link Year) garnered the league’s Freshman of the Week honor for the fourth straight week and seventh time this season.
Schwieger averaged a double-double of 27.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game over two contests this week. In Wednesday’s game vs. Bradley, he totaled 21 points and three blocks. He followed that up with a 33-point, 18-rebound, five-assist game on Sunday at UIC, setting career highs in all three categories and becoming the first player nationally to post that stat line since 2011.
Schwieger’s 33 points were the most by a Beacon since Ben Krikke scored 34 on Feb. 19, 2023, also at UIC. In the last 15 Valpo seasons, only Brandon Wood (twice), Cory Johnson, LaVonte Dority, Alec Peters (three times), Krikke and Schwieger have scored 33 or more in a game. Schwieger became the first Valpo with a 30-point double-double since Krikke’s aforementioned game at UIC and joined Alec Peters (6x), Javon Freeman-Liberty and Krikke as the only players with 30-point double-doubles in the last 15 years.
Schwieger posted Valpo’s first 30-point, 15-rebound, five-assist game on record. This marked just the third known 30-15-5 game by a Missouri Valley Conference player, joining Larry Bird on March 24, 1979 vs. DePaul and Oscar Robertson on March 31, 1959 vs. Louisville. He became the first player in the nation with a 30-point, 15-rebound, five-assist game this season and first nationally since Weber State’s Dillon Jones on Feb. 29 of last season vs. Northern Colorado. Schwieger became the first player in the nation with a 30-point, 15-rebound, five-assist game in a regulation contest since Chattanooga’s Jake Stephens on Dec. 18, 2022 vs. Belmont.
Schwieger became the first player in the nation with a 33-point, 18-rebound, five-assist game since Houston Baptist’s Darius Lee on March 5, 2022 in a four overtime game. He became the first player nationally to record that stat line in a regulation game since Cleveland State’s Norris Cole had 41 points, 20 rebounds and nine assists on Feb. 12, 2011 vs. Youngstown State.
Schwieger surpassed his previous career high of 28 points, which came in last year’s regular-season finale on March 3, 2024 vs. Illinois State. His rebound total surpassed his previous best of 15 on Jan. 14, 2025 at Belmont. His assist total surpassed his previous best of four, achieved twice, most recently on Feb. 16 of this season at Evansville. Schweiger’s 18 rebounds marked the most by a Valpo player since Zoran Viskovic on Jan. 7, 1999 at Oakland (18).
Wright averaged 20.5 points per game, notching a pair of 17+-point outputs this week. Wright, who has scored 20 points or more in seven of his last 10 games, turned in 24 points on Sunday at UIC for his seventh 20-point output in a 10-game span. He also grabbed a season-high four steals in Sunday’s game. In that contest, he surpassed Lubos Barton’s season scoring record for points by a Valpo freshman, shattering a mark that had stood since 1998-99. That came after a 17-point output vs. Bradley on Wednesday.
Schwieger became the first Valpo player to garner the league’s Player of the Week Award since Ben Krikke on Feb. 20, 2023. He joins Krikke (three times) and Javon Freeman-Liberty (three times) as Valpo’s MVC Players of the Week since joining the league. This marked the eighth time a member of the program has won the Freshman of the Week award this season and the team’s 14th MVC Freshman of the Week Award since head coach Roger Powell Jr. arrived at Valpo prior to the 2023-24 season.