Senior
Jake Hilmer earned an exclamation point on his stellar season with a pair of postseason regional honors. Hilmer was named to both the D2 Conference Commissioners Association's All-Central Region First Team and the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-Central District First Team.
Hilmer joins four other players on each first team across 42 NCAA Division II teams in the central region to earn the honor. Only Diego Bernard of Northwest Missouri State University and Sam Masten of Northern State University were named to the first team by both organizations like Hilmer.
The Walker, Iowa product became the first Upper Iowa men's basketball player to be named as the NSIC South Division Player of the Year following the 2022-23 season. He was also named to the All-NSIC First Team. With the All-NSIC nod, Hilmer becomes a four-time All-NSIC performer after grabbing a spot as an All-NSIC South Division Honorable Mention as a freshman, moving up to Second Team as a sophomore and then collecting his second-straight All-NSIC First Team honor this season.
During the 2022-23 season, Hilmer was a two-time D2CIDA National Player of the Week and three-time NSIC Player of the Week. He finished second among NSIC scorers with 21.8 points per game and was third in assists/per game dishing out 5.1 per game while playing the most minutes (37.6/game) of any NSIC player. The former North Linn High School prep shot 43.5% from the floor, 34.0% from three, and 85.4% from the free throw line, which ranked sixth in the conference, but he converted the third-most shots at the charity stripe (146) among all players.
Hilmer topped the 40-point mark twice in NSIC play with 41 in a win over No. 15 Minnesota State University Moorhead and 42 points in an overtime win at the University of Sioux Falls. UIU's point guard handed out a season-high 13 assists at Augustana in a one-point loss to the Vikings; he scored in double figures in 27 of the 29 games surpassing 20 points in 15 times and 30 points five times including the pair of 40-plus games.
Most impressively, Hilmer did all this with the spotlight shining on him after being selected as the 2022-23 NSIC South Division Preseason Player of the Year.
D2CCA ALL-CENTRAL REGION
First Team
Diego Bernard – Northwest Missouri St.
Tyler McGhie – Southern Nazarene
Sam Masten – Northern St.
Jake Hilmer – Upper Iowa
Taylor Currie - Harding
Second Team
Jaden Wells – Central Oklahoma
Jordan Janssen – Wayne St.
Matt Cartwright – Sioux Falls
Malik Parsons – Northwestern Oklahoma State
Drew Blair – Minnesota Duluth
D2CCA CENTRAL REGION PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Diego Bernard, Northwest Missouri State University
NABC ALL-CENTRAL DISTRICT
First Team
Diego Bernard – Northwest Missouri St.
Jake Hilmer – Upper Iowa
Jordan Janssen – Wayne St.
Sam Masten – Northern St.
Jaden Wells – Central Oklahoma
Second Team
Matt Cartwright – Sioux Falls
Kaleb Hammeke – Fort Hays St.
Owen Long – Emporia St.
Tyler McGhie – Southern Nazarene
John Sutherland – Bemidji St.
NABC CENTRAL DISTRICT COACH OF THE YEAR
Ben McCollum, Northwest Missouri St.
