Primarily a collection of news links about all 12 Missouri Valley League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.
-I’ll start under the radar with Bradley’s win against Tulane in the
SoCal Challenge. I really like both these teams. I know the national
media hasn’t picked up on either one of them yet, but both are good, and
I think both will go on to have big years. It was a really exciting
game with momentum shifts, and both teams answering said momentum
shifts, and just a well played, well coached, early season game between
what I believe are two good teams. Bradley got the 80-77 win, and their
resume is already looking kinda good! They’ve won at UAB, beat Utah
State, and now have a win against Tulane on a neutral floor. Those
aren’t big jackpot wins, but they’re three decent wins, and decent wins
on a resume can start to add up!
-Drake, who was a team I was big on coming into the year, suffered
their first loss of the season yesterday, and they did not mess around
in doing so. Stephen F Austin pretty much blew them out 92-68 and
totally dominated the second half.
-Missouri State is now 4-1 after a decisive 87-69 win in the Paradise
Jam over an Abilene Christian team that won at Oklahoma State earlier
in the year.
.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-AKRON VS DRAKE (Cayman Islands Classic). Coming into the season, I
felt both these teams would be good enough to make a run at the bubble,
and they still may be able to, but both are coming off losses from games
that were admittedly not easy to win, but also the kinds of games teams
need to be able to win if they want to make The Dance. Today is
important because it’s a bounce back game for both teams, and a shot at
what will likely turn out to be a quality resume win.
-JAMES MADISON VS SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Cancun Challenge). Both teams
come into this without a loss, and James Madison has played their way
into the rankings with some big early season wins. Southern Illinois
really hasn’t been tested at all yet, but they certainly will be today.
Drake got absolutely trucked by the SFA juggernaut while Akron
lost a back and forth tactical battle, so both teams are in a weird
head space for the 3rd place game in the Caymans...
Rice and Indiana State are
philosophically similar offensively in that they want to ideally be
three and rim reliant, and both have elite passers out of both posts
(ISU getting Avila back for this tournament is massive)...
Dillon has signed with Belmont,
picking the Bruins among 13 scholarship offers. He shot 40% from
3-point range, while averaging 13 points and 6 rebounds a game. The
6-foot-9 senior guard/forward plays the first of four games at 8:30 p.m.
Tuesday against Metamora.
Bradley is 4-0 after beating Tulane at the SoCal
Challenge. The Braves also own early victories over UAB and Utah State.
Next up: UTEP in SoCal. Additional non-conference games of note:
Vermont, Akron and Duquesne.
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