How Players Pick Their Numbers

OVC Players Give Us Some Clues

(St. Louis, MO) – We wanted to know how players pick their numbers. At the recent Ohio Valley Conference media day, we asked the players to fill us in. For some, it is as simple as it is their lucky number. For others it’s much more significant.

While asking Missouri Valley Conference players that question, I found that Northern Iowa’s Ben Schwieger chose number seven, because his brother would create players on video games and often chose that number. Indiana State’s Camp Wagner says he selected the number eight due to the number of people in his family.

So how do OVC players pick their numbers?

The answers are as different as can be. While Eastern Illinois’ Kooper Jacoby say is ’40’ was his uncle’s number and has some biblical ties, Lindenwood’s Anias Futrell chose to change from his uncle’s number 12 to his own favorite number ‘8’. Davion Cunningham (Morehead State) has always worn the number two and had the nickname DC2.

SIUE’s Ring Malith uses zero as a motivational tool and Southern Indiana’s Devin Curtis received it during his junior varsity team and has never changed. Both Tennessee Tech’s Ty Owens and Western Illinois’ Ifiock Peter have numbers tied to their birthdays.

UT Martin’s Lamine Niang picked up the number of Hakeem Olajuwon.

 

Our team previews will be coming soon and will attempt to tell you how predictors pick their numbers of the teams’ predicted finishes. The OVC did not name a preseason all-conference team, but rather named ‘players to watch’. While there were two named from each team, they also mentioned the five returning all-conference players.

Two of those players, SEMO’s Brendan Terry and Little Rock’s Johnathan Lawson were in attendance.

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