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.
As the deadline for NCAA basketball players to remove their names out
of the NBA draft approaches, let’s take a look at the top five players
that are in the transfer portal that could take their names out. The
deadline for players to remove their names is on Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.
Two-time All-MVC selection Isiaih
Mosley will be officially withdrawing his name from NBA Draft contention
and plans to keep himself in the transfer portal in search of a new
program ahead of the 2022-23 season. Mosley spent three seasons at
Missouri State; two as a starter, where he averaged 20.4 PPG, 6.2 RPG,
and 2.3 APG as a junior with the Bears but now searches for a Power-5
Conference challenge.
The Surf Division will include Minnesota, UNLV, Cal Baptist, and Southern Illinois.
Southern Illinois is looking to take the quantum leap in the Missouri Valley in the 22-23 season. A core of veterans is back behind the established leadership of Marcus Domask and Lance Jones. Head Coach Bryan Mullins enters his fourth year in Carbondale and a good showing at the SoCal Challenge will be a key goal for the Saluki’s non-conference plans.
After two seasons at San Jose State, a
brief stint with no appearances at LSU, and last season at BYU,
6-foot-7 forward Seneca Knight has announced that he’s committed to
Illinois State for his fifth year. As a sophomore with the Spartans,
Knight averaged 17.1 PPG and 5.7 RPG while making 30 starts and earning
2019-20 All-MWC honors but his production took a hit last season with
just 7.4 PPG and 3.4 RPG.
Missouri St. transfer guard Lu’Cye Patterson, who was ranked in The
Portal Report’s Top 20 available underclassmen rankings, committed to
Charlotte. 6-foot-1 guard scored over 7 points per game last season.
One of the best pull-up artists in all of college basketball has hit
the portal. It’s tough to be a bigger scoring threat than Mosley is, a
lethal scorer from all three levels that just put up one of the most
efficient high-volume scoring seasons of the last decade in college
basketball. He scored 20 points per game on 50 percent shooting from the
field, 42.7 percent from 3 on about five attempts per game, and 90
percent from the line. The last person to put up a 50/40/90 season while
averaging 20 points per game? How about we try this on for a Matt
Norlander and Gary Parrish-style Trivia Time: Luke Babbitt at Nevada
back in 2009-10 (shout out Larnell). He’s a professional scorer, one of
those guys who would be able to get buckets no matter the talent level
against him. He had two 40-point games this season, including in an
absolutely sensational duel with a guy right below him on this list in
A.J. Green. Mosley has some work to do on defense and could stand to be a
slightly better distributor. But there is not a better scorer in the
portal. He should be chased by every single team in the country. He has a
case as the best transfer available in the country right now given how
much you know you can trust him to just step on the floor and get
buckets from Day One.
Green is one of the most skilled guards in the country and built to
score. He can get his jumper off in a phone booth. He needs little time
or space and can shoot it off the bounce or catch with accuracy. He
knows how to use a ball screen and change speeds, allowing him to get to
his spots to score. He also can make all the passes and reads out of
ball screens. He’s got an assortment of finishes with either hand and is
tricky with fakes, allowing him to get to the line frequently, where
he’s a career 90 percent foul shooter. The expectation is that he’ll
join his father Kyle Green at Iowa State. The elder Green joined T.J.
Otzelberger’s staff a year ago. He’d slide right into the Izaiah Brockington
role as the primary scorer. He also has the passing and ball handling
skills to play point guard, so he could help eat up some of the minutes
of the gaping hole left by Tyrese Hunter’s departure. Green has a year
of eligibility remaining. Northern Iowa went 28-8 in the Missouri Valley
in 2020 and 2022 and just 7-11 without him in 2021. Assuming he doesn’t
stay in the NBA Draft — he’s also testing the waters — he’ll be a huge
addition wherever he lands, but it’d be surprising if he leaves the
state.
The fit at Iowa State just feels natural for Northern Iowa transfer
AJ Green. He grew up less than 100 miles outside of Ames and playing in
the Big 12 would be a great jump in competition.
Mosley has several connections to the Kansas roster. He played high
school basketball with Dajuan Harris Jr. and was also an AAU teammate of
Christian Braun.
Mosley helped coach Dana Ford turn Missouri State into a force in the
Missouri Valley during his three seasons with the program. The 6-5
shooting guard led the league in scoring at 20.4 points per game in the
2021-22 season and did it while shooting an efficient 50.4% from the
floor. He turned in 40-point outings against MVC powers Northern Iowa
and Loyola-Chicago during the regular season and also flashed his
offensive prowess against high-major opposition with an 11 of 20 showing
against Oklahoma in the NIT.
Williams upped his production each season during a stellar four-year run
at Murray State. This past season, he averaged 18 points and 8.4
rebounds for a team that finished 31-3 and earned a No. 7 seed in the
NCAA Tournament. He's not much of a shot blocker for a 6-10 player, but
he makes up for it with a career 3-point shooting percentage of 35.5%.
Offensively, Williams certainly appears to have the chops of a
high-major starting center.
19. A.J. Green
Old school: Northern Iowa
The two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year bounced back
to form as a redshirt junior in the 2021-22 season after playing in just
three games during the 2020-21 campaign due to a hip injury. Green is a
lethal 3-point shooter and looks capable of slotting in as an elite
role player for a great team. His defensive acumen is a question, but
Green would thrive as a 3-point specialist in the right system.
One of the best pull-up artists in all of college basketball has hit
the portal. It’s tough to be a bigger scoring threat than Mosley is, a
lethal scorer from all three levels that just put up one of the most
efficient high-volume scoring seasons of the last decade in college
basketball. He scored 20 points per game on 50 percent shooting from the
field, 42.7 percent from 3 on about five attempts per game, and 90
percent from the line. The last person to put up a 50/40/90 season while
averaging 20 points per game? How about we try this on for a Matt
Norlander and Gary Parrish-style Trivia Time: Luke Babbitt at Nevada
back in 2009-10 (shout out Larnell). He’s a professional scorer, one of
those guys who would be able to get buckets no matter the talent level
against him. He had two 40-point games this season, including in an
absolutely sensational duel with a guy right below him on this list in
A.J. Green. Mosley has some work to do on defense and could stand to be a
slightly better distributor. But there is not a better scorer in the
portal. He should be chased by every single team in the country. He has a
case as the best transfer available in the country right now given how
much you know you can trust him to just step on the floor and get
buckets from Day One.
Green is one of the most skilled guards in the country and built to
score. He can get his jumper off in a phone booth. He needs little time
or space and can shoot it off the bounce or catch with accuracy. He
knows how to use a ball screen and change speeds, allowing him to get to
his spots to score. He also can make all the passes and reads out of
ball screens. He’s got an assortment of finishes with either hand and is
tricky with fakes, allowing him to get to the line frequently, where
he’s a career 90 percent foul shooter. The expectation is that he’ll
join his father Kyle Green at Iowa State. The elder Green joined T.J.
Otzelberger’s staff a year ago. He’d slide right into the Izaiah Brockington
role as the primary scorer. He also has the passing and ball handling
skills to play point guard, so he could help eat up some of the minutes
of the gaping hole left by Tyrese Hunter’s departure. Green has a year
of eligibility remaining. Northern Iowa went 28-8 in the Missouri Valley
in 2020 and 2022 and just 7-11 without him in 2021. Assuming he doesn’t
stay in the NBA Draft — he’s also testing the waters — he’ll be a huge
addition wherever he lands, but it’d be surprising if he leaves the
state.
21. 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.
Caroline Waite shoots a 3-pointer against McKendree. Photo courtesy of Josh Schwam/Bradley Athletics
Caroline Waite – Women’s Basketball
Coming in strong despite the loss of fifth-year senior Gabi Haack
midway through the season, Waite won MVC Freshman of the Year and was
the top scoring underclassmen in the MVC, scoring just over 13 points
per game. She led the team with 72 threes, the fourth-most in a single
season in Bradley history, and shot 34.3% from beyond the arc this
season, even appearing on SportsCenter’s Top 10.
Finalists: Terry Roberts, Pepe Mellado, Nicola Jansen
Bradley’s Caroline Waite shoots against Wright St. earlier in the season. Photo courtesy of Bradley Athletics.
Caroline Waite – Women’s Basketball
Winning a second BESPY, Waite was one of only five freshmen in
program history to lead Bradley in scoring and her 2.88 3-pointers per
game was fourth among all Division I basketball players in the country.
She dropped 23 points in the season opener for the second-best freshman
debut performance in program history, and now has two shiny BESPYs to
add to her trophy wall.
Finalists: Jacob Kisting, Connor Hickman, Nicola Jansen
Honorable Mentions: Maria Perakis, Cal McGinnis, Michael Rogalski, Kirstin Hailey, Silan Demirkol, Addie Welsh, Abbott Badgley
