What's Up In The Missouri Valley: What's Up In The Missouri Valley 11/29/2023

News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Nov 29th--Hoops HD

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-EVANSVILLE AT MISSOURI STATE (Missouri Valley). Evansville may be one of the bigger surprises in all of college basketball so far. They’re 6-0, and while they haven’t been knocking off top 25 teams, their wins haven’t just been home buy games either, and the fact that they’ve been beating anyone at all is sort of a surprise. They have a really nice road win at Chattanooga, and can get another one in their conference opener tonight against a Missouri State team that is also off to a good start at 5-1, and who won the Paradise Jam earlier this season.

-DRAKE AT VALPARAISO (Missouri Valley). Drake has just one loss, and I still really like this team and think they can land inside the bubble. These are the kinds of games they need to routinely win in order to get there, though.

-BRADLEY AT MURRAY STATE (Missouri Valley). Bradley is off to an unbelievably good 6-0 start with some pretty good wins on their resume for now. This is a conference road game that isn’t easy to win, but if the Braves want to show they’re a tournament team then they need to be able to routinely win these kinds of games.

11/29/23 WEDNESDAY NEWS AND NOTES--Staring at the Floorboards

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Bit of a weird spot for Bradley, with a trip to Murray State sandwiched between a big home game with Vermont and hosting a major MVC contender in Indiana State on Sat, but that’s all sort of negated by this being the conference opener and the veteran Braves remembering what happened last year in Murray...

Third Week Women’s Stars--Valley Hoops Insider

MVC Third Week Women’s Stars

Southern Illinois’ Laniah Randle became the first non-Iowa-based player to claim the Valley’s ‘Player of the Week‘ award. While the Salukis were winning a pair of games, Randle was pouring on the offense. The junior averaged 24.7 points and 8.3 rebounds. She follows Drake’s Grace Berg and Northern Iowa’s Grace Boffeli as a weekly winner.

Indiana State’s Kiley Bess became the first non-Illinois-based player to claim the Valley’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award. Bess is Indiana State’s leading scorer (12.2 ppg) and ranks among the MVC’s top twenty in several statistical categories. Bradley’s Kaylen Nelson and Illinois Chicago’s Makiyah Williams earned the season’s first two weekly nods.

Evansville’s Maggie Hartwig became the first Valley player not named Jaylin Banks (Belmont) to claim the Valley’s ‘Freshman of the Week‘ award. Hartwig recorded a double-double (18 points & 15 rebounds) during the Purple Aces’ first win of the season.