2007 All-NAC Men's Basketball Awards Player of the Year: Larry Welton, AU Co-Rookies of the Year:   Christian Lindberg, Wisconsin Lutheran & Dan Klecan, Benedictine University Coach of the Year: James Lancaster, AU 2007 All-NAC Women's Basketball Awards Player of the Year: Tamika Curtis, BU Rookie of the Year: Asia Beckum, CUW Coach of the Year: Stacey Brunner, CUW [complete men's awards listing] [complete women's awards listing]

NAC releases basketball All-Conference awards
VERONA, Wis. -- The Northern Athletics Conference has released its basketball All-Conference awards for the 2006-07 season. All awards are voted on by the head coaches of the NAC.

Freshmen Dan Klecan of Benedictine University (Palos Hills, Ill.) and Christian Lindberg of Wisconsin Lutheran College (Horsens, Denmark) we named co-rookies of the year for the men. Klecan averaged 12.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game for the Eagles (12-14, 10-8 NAC). Lindberg averaged a team-high 13.8 points per game and shot a team-high 57.5 percent from the field for the Warriors (15-11, 12-6 NAC).

Aurora University claimed the two other men's major awards as Larry Welton was named player of the year and James Lancaster was named coach of the year. The Spartans (25-2, 16-2 NAC) won both the NAC regular season and tournament championships this season, and received an at-large berth to the 2007 NCAA Division III Championship. Welton (Chicago, Ill.) led the conference in scoring (20.1 ppg) while averaging 6.6 rebounds (8th) and 1.9 blocks per game (4th).

Benedictine's Tamika Curtis (Bellwood, Ill.) was named women's player of the year. Curtis led the Eagles (20-8, 14-5 NAC) to a second place finish in the standings with an average of 18.4 points per game and a conference leading 11.0 rebounds per game. Curtis also shot over 55 percent from the field, and averaged over 2 assists, steals and blocks per game. Her 16 double-doubles were also tops in the NAC.

Concordia University Wisconsin's Asia Beckum was named women's rookie of the year while her coach Stacey Brunner was named women's coach of the year. The Falcons (23-3, 18-1 NAC) won both the NAC regular season and tournament championships this season, and received an at-large berth to the 2007 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship. Beckum (Milwaukee, Wis.) averaged 10.0 points and 2.0 steals per game, and led the conference in three-point shooting, averaging over 40 percent from beyond the arc.

Northern Athletics Conference, Sports Information Department, February 26, 2007.