(St. Louis, MO) – Sophomores are the story of the Missouri Valley Conference this season. Even the national story surrounding Wichita State’s historic run is fueled by sophomores Fred Van Vleet and Ron Baker.
Evansville has a very interesting pair of second year players in MVC leading scorer D. J. Balentine and league leading rebounder Egidijus Mockevicius. In their play-in game victory over Drake, Balentine scored 30 points and ‘the big Lithuanian’ scored 19, grabbed ten rebounds and blocked a tournament record eight shots. In their quarterfinal loss to Wichita State, Balentine scored 31 and Mockevicius scored 11 and hauled down 11 rebounds.
Two freshmen sweeten the mix in point guard Duane Gibson and wing man Blake Simmons.
After a fairly pedestrian freshman year, Balentine’s explosive sophomore season has put him over the 1,000 point plateau. Balentine was THE most prolific scoring second year player in the USA. His ability to drive, dish, drill the three and hit free throws means he won’t have many ‘off nights’.
The 6’10 Mockevicius is understated in his answers to the media, but he is growing into his game and growing in confidence and his ability to impose his significant strength on the opposition. He is an aggressive shot blocker and his teammates are starting to look for him in the offense.
So the question remains, ‘how good can that duo and thus the Purple Aces be?’
I believe the Aces are one power forward away from being a legitimate threat in the MVC and next year’s Arch Madness. They need someone of rebound along with Mockevicius and to add a ‘toughness’ factor. Those freshman will develop and this Evansville team will be dangerous in 2014-15.
D. J. Balentine
Wichita State Head Coach Gregg Marshall was deeply impressed with the Kokomo, Indiana native after he dropped 31 points on the Shockers in their quarterfinal match up. Shocker ‘lock down’ defender Tekele Cotton did a good defensive job on Balentine and he still scored 31.
The thought here is the Aces will be an 18 to 22 win team and will finish in the top five in the Valley.
Next year will be a special one for the Missouri Valley Conference and Evansville will be a big part of the “Valley Revolution.”
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