First Week in the Valley

What Did We Learn?

(St. Louis, MO) – Our first week in the Valley had its ups and downs, but this was a good week for the Missouri Valley Conference. If we believe in KenPom.com’s ratings the league’s overall score went up from 1.00 to 1.07 and the conference remained squarely in tenth place in the site’s rankings.

Impressive wins by Northern Iowa (twice), Bradley and Illinois State were offset by disappointing losses. The Braves’ loss to Saint Bonaventure and both Illinois State and Drake’s opening game losses were damaging. Each of UNI’s, Bradley’s and Illinois State’s wins were over top 200 KenPom teams.

While we expected lopsided losses by Valparaiso (at Kentucky) and Evansville (at Purdue), the narrow victory by Belmont over Tennessee State was alarming, but Valpo handled Eastern Illinois and the Purple Aces rebounded with two convincing wins over non-D1 teams.

Three teams (Murray State, SIU and Indiana State) are averaging 90 or more points. A trio of squads (UNI, Evansville and SIU) are yielding 60 or fewer.

First Week Stars

Bradley’s Jaquan Johnson certainly emerged during the team’s dominating win over Central Michigan. The sophomore guard scored 33 points during the Braves 31-point victory.

Indiana State’s Ian Scott was impressive averaging 18.5 points and 8.5 rebounds while the Sycamores split their two games.

Belmont’s Sam Orme (17.5 ppg & 6.5 rebounds per game) showed why Casey Alexander has been saying he believes Orme could have an all-conference type of season.

It was good to see Leon Bond III looking healthy. LB3 scored 34 points during UNI’s first two games and is tied with Belmont’s Tyler Lundblade, Murray State’s Brayden Shorter and UIC’s Ahmad Henderson II (20.5 ppg) with seven three-pointers in two contests.

Drake’s Okku Federiko looks like he will be a force to be reckoned with. The 6’8 redshirt freshman is averaging 15 points and a league leading 11.5 rebounds per game.

The ‘True Freshmen’

There are an abundance of ‘true freshmen’ already making impact. Valparaiso’s Rakim Chaney, Illinois State’s Ty’Reek Coleman, UIC’s Andy Johnson and Murray’s Roman Domon all rank in the league’s top-twenty in scoring. Evansville’s James Dyson-Merwe, Domon, Valpo’s J.T. Pettigrew are all found among the league’s top rebounders.

Coleman splashed home 24 points in his home debut and Chaney has logged a pair of double-digit scoring outputs. UE’s Leif Moeller is the Valley’s third most prolific assist man and Bradley’s Montana Wheeler is tied for sixth.

Biggest Games of Week Two

Tonight, Indiana State travels to Southern Illinois Edwardsville and Friday the Sycamores tangle with fourth ranked Duke. That collision with the Blue Devils is one of the three ‘power five’ encounters during this week’s Valley schedule.

Ohio Valley Conference tournament champion SIUE also visits Drake later in the week.

Tuesday, Murray State battles Atlantic Coast Conference member SMU. The Mustangs are ranked 49^th in the latest KenPom statistics.

Three big games are on tap for Wednesday. Middle Tennessee (155) visits Evansville, while SIU travels to Reno for a game with number 92 Nevada. In a surprisingly interesting game Bradley hosts UT Martin. The Skyhawks are a pedestrian 287 at KenPom, but opened the season with win over UNLV. UTM is a dangerous Bradley opponent.

Illinois State has a Friday date in Los Angeles with the Big Ten’s USC (22 in KenPom) and UNI entertains Furman (165). The Panthers have the opportunity to build a solid non-conference resume and are currently the Valley’s top KenPom team (104), just ahead of Bradley (105).

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo of Sam Orme, courtesy of BelmontBruins.com.