Primarily a collection of news links about all 11 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.
#127 Bradley at #102 UIC (-4), 8 PM ET, ESPN+. Thanks
to what I'll charitably call a collapse by the entire Missouri Valley,
Bradley can get closer to wrapping up a second-place finish in the MVC
with a win here. This does matter a little thanks to the MVC's quality
this year. Your seventh-place finisher is most likely Valpo, who is 20
spots off the pace of any of the top six at KenPom. The problem,
obviously, is that UIC is straight-up better.
Wednesday, February 25
C Games
#98 Illinois State at #85 Northern Iowa (-5), 7 PM ET, ESPNU. Arch
Madness can get very mad very fast, with the preseason favorite now
being likely to finish 6th and the best defense in mid-majordom a month
ago being 5th:
Four new teams joined the poll this week. Murray St. came in at No. 19.
Navy followed at 20. Davidson returned to the Other Top 25 at No. 22.
Louisiana Tech was 24th. They replaced Santa Clara, Arkansas
St., Massachusetts and Idaho.
Watch
out, the Valparaiso Beacons are heating up! The Beacons have won three
games in a row and five out of their last six games including two solid
wins against Bradley 79-72 and UIC on the road 71-67 this week. Valpo
has already surpassed their most wins in conference since joining the
Missouri Valley Conference and they close out against Drake who is ice
cold and Evansville who has just four wins against Division I opponents.
They are favored to win both games which would put them at 18-13 on the
season and 12-8 in the MVC heading into Arch Madness.
Looking
back at their wins in conference, they’ve also taken down Northern Iowa
while sweeping UIC and picking up a win against Illinois State. They’ve
played Murray State close, losing 85-79, and lost twice to Belmont by
just a combined five points. They’ve shown that they can easily compete
with anyone in the conference and shouldn’t be overlooked in the always
chaotic Arch Madness.
Over the course of the season, they’ve been
driven by their defense which during this last stretch of six games has
held opponents to 76 points or less in their five wins. They sit at
125th in defensive adjusted efficiency per KenPom and 183rd in offensive
adjusted efficiency. Here’s how the rest of their metrics shape up:
Offensive:
331st in effective field goal percentage
102nd in turnover percentage
105th in offensive rebounding percentage
86th in free throw attempt vs field goal attempt
229th in three-point shooting
342nd in two-point shooting
79th in block percentage
6th in steal percentage
Defensive:
122nd in opponent effective field goal percentage
162nd in opponent turnover percentage
67th in opponent three-point shooting
196th in opponent two-point shooting
54th in opponent free throw percentage
107th in opponent block percentage
61st in opponent non-steal turnover percentage
112th in opponent three-point attempt vs field goal attempt
71st in opponent assist per field goal made
Putting
these metrics together, you’ll see that they offensively aren’t a great
shooting team. However, they use their defense to apply pressure. They
are 308th in tempo, so playing fast doesn’t fit into their style. They
play excellent defense on the perimeter, so they force opponents to take
contested shots from outside, limiting their ability to get into the
paint.
Owen Dease has been one of the most
consistent pieces for Valpo this season. He’s averaging 13.3 points,
3.4 rebounds, and 1.2 assists while shooting 46.3% overall and 40.7%
from three-point. He is 222nd in the country in three-point shooting and
138th in free throw shooting percentage.
Freshman JT Pettigrew
has been very underrated as he is averaging 11.8 points, 6.6 rebounds,
and 1.5 assists while shooting 37.4%. His 27% possession usage rate is
183rd, while his 10.4% offensive rebounding percentage is 209th in the
nation. He is 108th in fouls drawn per game at 5.9 which translates into
a strong 53.6 free throw rate which is 155th.
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