What's Up In The Missouri Valley: What's Up In The Missouri Valley 1/24/2024

Hoops HD Daily Rundown – Wednesday, Jan 24th--Hoops HD

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-INDIANA STATE AT UIC (Missouri Valley). This should be a routine road win for Indiana State and improve them to 17-3 on the year.

-DRAKE AT MISSOURI STATE (Missouri Valley). Like Indiana State, Drake is looking for a shot inside the bubble and if they can continue to string together wins and finish atop the standings they should get a pretty serious look. They need to pick this one up on the road tonight.

Court Report: DePaul is on the verge of historic NCAA Tournament drought; five coaches it should pursue--CBS Sports

If I'm athletic director DeWayne Peevy, I'm hiring someone who has experience running a program and flipping a program. No first-time head coaches, no retreads, someone on the younger side. Here are five realistic names of sitting head coaches DePaul should reach out to gauge potential interest:

Darian DeVries (Drake). He's been involved with jobs bigger/better than DePaul, but maybe he'd take a chance? DeVries has taken Drake to two of the past four NCAA Tournaments and his career record is outstanding (137-51) at a place with little historical hoops success.
Josh Schertz (Indiana State). A very hot mid-major name already within comfortable driving distance of Chicago. Indiana State is 16-3 in Schertz's third season on the job and fighting with DeVries to be Missouri Valley's top dog. He has quite the reputation as a basketball tactician, too.

Multi-Bid Missouri Valley Conference--Valley Hoops Insider

It’s weird to see Belmont basketball with a losing streak--NashvilleHoops.blog
Men's Basketball Drops Hard-Fought Game at Illinois State--belmontbruins.com

Jailyn Banks Earns Third Consecutive, Sixth Overall MVC Freshman of the Week Award--belmontbruins.com

Bradley Braves extends win streak win home victory against Murray State--Peoria Journal Star

Bradley WBB prepares to host Drake--bradleybraves.com

Men's Basketball Preview: Missouri State & UNI--godrakebulldogs.com

Women's Basketball Preview: Bradley & Illinois State--godrakebulldogs.com

Men’s basketball takes UNI to the wire in Cedar Falls--gopurpleaces.com

Illinois State men's basketball holds lead, vanquishes Belmont--The Pantagraph
Foster leads five Redbirds in double figures in ISU men's basketball's win over Belmont--The Vidette
Balanced ‘Birds Hunt Down Bruins--goredbirds.com

Illinois State women's basketball hosting Northern Iowa--The Pantagraph
ISU women's basketball prepping for pair of pivotal MVC matchups--The Vidette
'Birds Set for Blackout Game, Pack the Arena vs UNI & Drake--goredbirds.com

Early March Madness Cinderellas: Lopes, Sycamores and 4 more teams with bracket-breaking potential--The Athletic

Listen carefully, and you can hear the rumbles. As upstarts and long shots around the country move deeper into conference play, some also sharpen their arrows and grease the wheels on their catapults to take down big-time programs in March. Here’s an early look at six teams already demonstrating serious potential to be NCAA Tournament Cinderellas.
Indiana State Sycamores
(16-3; 7-1 Missouri Valley)
The Sycamores, tied for first in the MVC, are putting together a résumé that might warrant at-large consideration if they fall short in their conference tournament. And they’re doing it with shooting, which is fitting for Larry Bird’s alma mater.
Indiana State leads the nation with a 61.2 effective field-goal percentage, almost three percentage points ahead of second-ranked Wright State. Their balance is remarkable, as the Sycamores rank second in both two-point FG percentage (60 percent) and 3-point percentage (41.6 percent). The long-distance shooting is what really catches Slingshot’s eyes, though. Not only are the Sycamores deadly accurate from deep, they’re also unafraid to let it fly. They rank fourth in the country in three-point frequency, taking nearly half of their field-goal attempts from beyond the arc. Isaiah Swope, their leading scorer at all of 5-foot-10, takes more than eight treys per game and hits 44 percent of them.
The Sycamores have to shoot well, because their defense is pedestrian and they grab an offensive rebound on only 24 percent of their misses. But there’s a reason we talk about teams having a “shooter’s chance” in March, and if anyone epitomizes that concept, it’s Indiana State.

Formidable Sycamores pitted against last-place UIC--Terre Haute Tribune-Star

ISU WBB's Staycation in Terradise--Indiana Statesman