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.
The Bulldogs lost head coach Darian Devries and their
best player Tucker Devries to West Virginia in the offseason. New coach
Ben McCollum brought in four guys from Northwestern Missouri State and
took the Missouri Valley Conference by storm. Drake went 30-3 this
season and had non-conference wins against Vanderbilt, Miami and Kansas
State. Drake has made the Tournament the past two seasons, but this team
is built to win in March. Drake ranks the top 10 in turnovers forced
and rank 17th in offensive rebounding percentage. Bennett Stirtz is a
do-it-all guard who averages 19.1 points per game.
(11) Drake vs. (6) Missouri Drake is an
exceptional basketball team. You don’t win 30 games by accident. The
Bulldogs have also beaten two power-conference teams this season
(Vanderbilt and Kansas State). Bennett Stirtz can get cooking,
averaging 19 points a game, and Drake ranks 11th nationally (Torvik) in
free throw rate, meaning they get to the foul line a lot. Turnovers can
be an issue for the Bulldogs, however, and Missouri’s athleticism could
be problematic on the boards.
McCollum is a terrific basketball coach.
He has won everywhere and was rumored to be in the mix at Indiana before
DeVries ended up with the gig. Four Division II national titles earned
him the Drake job. In his debut season, he won 30 games en route to
capturing both the Missouri Valley regular season and tournament
championships.
McCollum is said to be extremely particular about
moving jobs, though, which would explain why he spent so much time
dominating Division II before finally taking the Drake job. He has not
recruited at this level before — most of his Drake squad is composed of
Division II transfers that followed him from Northwest Missouri State —
but it’s tough to make a case against him building a winner with solid
resources.
Whoever sets the tempo between these two teams will have a major
advantage over the other. While Missouri ranks 121st in adjusted tempo,
including 55th in average offensive possession length, Drake plays at
the slowest pace in the entire country. More specifically, Drake plays
at the slowest adjusted tempo of any team since 2015; not even those
Tony Bennett-led Virginia teams play as slowly as Drake. The Bulldogs
have played just one Division I game at over 66 possessions, a
neutral-site win over Vanderbilt. Missouri has played 25 of its 33 games
at 67+ possessions.
The best way to measure tempo assertiveness might be in win-loss
records against the opposite style. Drake, for instance, has played 11
games against the top 102 for average possession length in the country.
It went 11-0. Missouri faced 16 defenses in the slowest half of the
country, going 9-7 as opposed to 13-4 against the 170 fastest defenses.
Missouri obviously played a tougher schedule but Drake did an excellent
job against teams that wanted to speed them up.
The stylistic differences are not limited to tempo, either. There are
a ton of different ways to pick apart where each team has advantages
against the other:
Source: KenPom
That’s a lot of opposing colors. A big key for Drake will be to keep
its turnover rate down against a tenacious Missouri defense. Both teams
project to shoot a bunch of free throws; Missouri has been the slightly
better foul-shooting team this year (72.5% versus 70.7%).
Since making the jump to Division I this offseason, Bennett Stirtz
has done nothing but win. He is averaging 19.1 points, 4.4 rebounds,
5.7 assists and 2.2 steals this season, earning both MVC Player of the
Year and MVC Tournament MVP, and Drake is 30-3 with him leading the
charge. His next opponent is a vulnerable Missouri team that lost five
of its last seven games to end the year. The Tigers’ defense is
particularly vulnerable and could provide Stirtz with the opportunity
for a legendary March performance.
Our Annual NCAA Tournament Selection Show brought to you by the Full
Court Network as we talk March Madness with 5 participants as High Point
Coach Alan Huss, Bryant Head Coach Phil Martelli Jr., Drake Star
Bennett Stirtz, Akron Coach John Groce and Norfolk State Coach Robert
Jones
Best upset chance: No. 6 Iowa Hawkeyes vs. No. 11 Murray State Racers
Upset chance: 23.2 percent
The
Racers have a few things going for them. They’ve got Katelyn Young, who
has averaged 22.3 points per game this season and has scored more than
3,200 points over her career at Murray State. They shoot a ton of 3s.
And Iowa is the weakest of the No. 6 seeds. But tread lightly when you
hear analysts say things like, “Murray State led the nation in scoring.”
They heave up 87.6 points per game, leading the NCAA. But they, uh,
race at a tempo of 77.8 possessions per 40 minutes, the seventh-fastest
pace in the country. That makes all their offensive stats look better.
And it gives superior opponents the chance to pull away from them.
Murray State, which ranks 51st in our basic power ratings, went just 4-4
against top-60 opponents this year. This is the region’s best chance
for an upset but caveat emptor.
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