What's Up In The Missouri Valley: What's Up In The Missouri Valley 4/7/2022

Ranking the best available men’s college basketball transfers and high school recruits for 2022-23--The Athletic

11. Will Richard | 6-5 wing | sophomore | Belmont

Richard has become the most sought-after mid-major underclassman in the portal following his terrific season at Belmont. The 6-foot-5 guard was named to the OVC All-Newcomer team this year after averaging 12 points, six rebounds, two assists and over a steal per game. He’s a genuine long-term NBA draft prospect who somehow slipped through the cracks and fell to Belmont, at 6-foot-5 with something in the range of a plus-six wingspan that is really evident on the court. You can feel his length out there. He moves like an NBA player moves, with terrific footwork and polish as well as strong slashing and finishing ability. He plays well off the ball, and is used to running high-level actions from playing in Belmont’s offense. He can shoot off the catch, direct off of dribble-hand-offs, or whatever you need. He also has high-level defensive ability. Basically, as soon as the shot comes around — and it will given his touch; he just needs to work on some slight tweaks such as finishing higher as opposed to farther out in front of his face — he’s going to be a high-level scorer for whatever team he ends up on.

12. K.J. Williams | 6-10 big | graduate | Murray State

The Ohio Valley Player of the Year this past season, Williams joined wing Tevin Brown and guard Justice Hill to form the nucleus of a 31-3 Murray State team that went to the Round of 32. Given the accolades, though, Williams was the centerpiece. He is an inside-out big who can punish smaller players on the block just as easily as he can pick-and-pop from distance. He hit just 30.4 percent from 3 this year, but over his career he’s made 35 percent of his 219 attempts. Because of that inside-out skill, he’s a fit almost anywhere at the collegiate level. He’s definitely more offense-first than defense, but he averaged 18 points and eight rebounds and is good enough on offense and versatile enough to play at the high-major level as a difference-maker. His coach at Murray State, Matt McMahon, is now the LSU head coach, so that could be a real fit.
18. Noah Carter | 6-7 forward | junior | Northern Iowa

Carter is one of the higher IQ players in the portal, a big-bodied, 6-foot-7, undersized forward who makes it work with pure feel for the game. He averaged 15 points and four rebounds in a slow Northern Iowa system, doing a little bit of everything. But above all, Carter just never really stops moving. He’s constantly searching for little creases and openings in the defense, hunting for ways to leverage his opponent to use his strength at 230 pounds to seal his man away from the rim. He was second-team All-Missouri Valley this year, and moves people around at his position pretty easily. High-major teams recruiting Carter will need to worry a bit about his footspeed and ability to defend against the most athletic guards. On top of that, Carter did only hit 29 percent from 3 this season, but his touch is excellent around the rim and from the foul line, and gives reason to believe that he has room for growth there. But Carter is a potential high-major starter, albeit with a bit of downside if the footspeed doesn’t totally translate.

19. Terry Roberts | 6-3 guard | senior | Bradley

Roberts was the Missouri Valley’s Newcomer of the Year this past season, a first-team all-conference player for Bradley who is lightning in a bottle offensively. He’s electric with the ball, capable of creating something out of nothing on offense in a flash. His handle is terrific, and he’s an explosive athlete who can get where he needs to go out of isolations. He averaged nearly 15 points, five rebounds and four assists this year, and hit 34 percent from 3 on a steady diet of tough pull-up shots. He makes some really impressive live-dribble passing reads, but the critical part of his game that he’s going to have to clean up will be turning it over. His assist-to-turnover ratio was very close to the 1-to-1 mark, and he makes some choices both in terms of shot selection and distribution that will worry high-major coaches. But above all, this is a high-major athlete at the guard spot with enough size to not be a liability on defense and enough handle to genuinely break down opposing teams. He has a real shot to be a starter.
21. Antonio Reeves | 6-5 wing | senior | Illinois State

If you’re looking for scoring, scoring, and more scoring, Reeves might be the perfect player for you. He averaged 20.1 points per game in the Missouri Valley this year on his way to winning second-team all-conference honors as well as the league’s Most Improved Player award. Above all, he’s a pull-up maestro, capable of getting his shot from wherever on the floor at just about any time. He finished second in the conference behind Isiaih Mosley from Missouri State in scoring, hitting pull-up jumpers at a 51.4 effective field goal percentage, a very high number given his volume of shots. Among the 227 players nationally to take at least 100 pull-up jumpers, Reeves finished 19th in his efficiency in terms of making them, per Synergy. And yet, there’s a reason he only made second-team all-league despite those numbers. The rest of his game is a real work in progress. He has a long way to go as a passer and playmaker for others, and his defense leaves something to be desired. There is some question how scalable his game is to high-major situations where he’s just a piece of the puzzle. Still, my bet is a good high-major takes a shot on him and sees if those parts of his game can improve. The scoring is lethal enough to take such an informed bet.
27. Tyreke Key | 6-3 guard | senior | Indiana State

Key missed this entire season at Indiana State following shoulder surgery, but he is a multi-time first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference player who is about as terrific a scorer as you’ll find at that level. He’s very polished and poised, a ground-bound player for the most part who gets by with terrific footwork and strength to bump guys off their spot. Indiana State back under Greg Lansing would even use him as a pseudo-post-up/mid-post option where he could use those drop steps and spin moves to score. Plus, prior to the shoulder injury he could really step away and knock down shots. That percentage took a bit of a dive in his senior season in 2021, but the hope is that he can get back to the level he was at previously, where there were few more efficient high-volume scorers at the high mid-major level. There are some questions here with him returning from injury, which is why he falls below guys like Reeves and Carter from the Missouri Valley. But at his best, he’s very much in their group and maybe even better.