(St. Louis, MO) – Talent levels in the Missouri Valley Conference are increasing! Virtually every team has improved and the increased talent level is noticeable. Better freshmen and highly touted transfers are causing the MVC to become an even more formidable basketball conference.
Verbal Commits ranks no fewer than eight three-star players in the incoming class, as compared to six in last year’s rankings. There are more on the way, as they sit out their transfer seasons. First-year Drake coach Darian DeVries is bringing in two triple starred players from one junior college. The Valley’s freshman class is one of the strongest in recent history while proven transfers are filling gaps.
The Freshmen
The increased talent among the freshmen is noticeable. From Northern Iowa’s A.J. Green and SIU’s Darius Beane you have some unique star power that have familial relationships to the respective coaching staffs.
UNI’s Green is the son of assistant coach Kyle Green, and Beane is the second son of assistant coach Anthony Beane to play for Southern Illinois.
After watching Loyola’s success with talented freshman center Cameron Krutiwig, MVC coaches have dug deep to find tall talent. Bradley has signed 7′ Cameroon native Aristide Boya (3 star by 247.com) and the Ramblers landed 6’9 power forward Franklin Agunanne. Meanwhile, new Missouri State coach Dana Ford has recruited 6’9 Polish twins Jan and Szymon Wokcik.
Jared Ridder – missouristatebears.com
Indiana State and Missouri State boast of talented freshmen that have already been on campus. Sycamore coach Greg Lansing has been working with Cooper Neese (Butler) and Ford has been working with Jared Ridder (Xavier) who each transferred without playing a game at their respective Big East Conference schools. Both players signed with those high profile programs, but decided to move closer to home.
The increased talent by those two players alone, make the Sycamores and the Bears better teams.
The other highly rated freshmen are Evansville’s 6’9 DeAndre Williams (2.7 stars), Illinois State’s 6’10 Abdou Ndiaye, Loyola shooting guard Cooper Kaifes and Chicago native Javon Freeman-Liberty, who decided to stay close to home and play for Valparaiso.
Division 1 Transfers
Valley schools have reached into the transfer pool more deeply this year. Drake’s Brady Ellingson (Iowa), Illinois State’s Matt Chastain (Loyola), Indiana State’s Christian Williamson (Iowa) and Loyola’s Aher Uguak (New Mexico) are the prominent names you will hear this year.
After sitting out a transfer season there will now be another wave of talented players dotting the rosters.
Chastain is one of the few players that have transferred within the conference. Originally a three-star player, his freshman season was played at Loyola.
One player that many have lost track of is Valparaiso’s Ryan Fazekas. The Indiana native and former Providence Friar will provide some much needed front court fire power and big time experience. A three-star recruit coming out of high school, the 6’8, 215 pound forward was a part of two Providence NCAA Tournament teams. He battled mononucleosis and a broken thumb while with the Friars. He came close to signing with Valpo coming out of Marquette High School.
Junior College Transfers
The Valley has dipped into the junior college world with gusto. Since Drake was hit hard by graduation and an attrition of players due to Niko Medved’s departure, new head coach Darian DeVries reached the juco world in a strong way.
Tremmell & Anthony Murphy – godrakebulldogs.com
DeVries landed three players from Florida Southwestern State College, including two, three-star players AND an assistant coach. Guard D.J. Wilkins and twins Anthony and Tremell Murphy all hail from the Sunshine State school. Wilkins (shooting guard) and Tremell Murphy (small forward) both received those three stars. Murphy was his conference’s player of the year.
Their head coach, Marty Richter joined the Bulldog staff after his three players signed in Des Moines. Richter, a Waterloo native, went 56-10 in two seasons as the head coach and is a former assistant at D1 Florida Gulf Coast. The Murphys and Wilkins are three of seven former Bucs’ players that have signed with division one programs.
Tremell is number 20 in jucorecruiting.com‘s ‘2018 Junior College Basketball Top 100‘. Joining him on that list is Missouri State’s Kabir Mohammed (# 31), Darnell Butler (# 51) and Keandre Cook who comes in as number 76. Illinois State’s Josh Jefferson is 92nd on this year’s list, while teammate Zach Copeland, who sat out last season getting his academics in order, was 42nd in last year’s rankings.
The increased talent is measurable!
What do all the stars and rankings mean? While a total number of stars or junior college rankings don’t mean anything once practice begins in the fall, it does give us some indication of the the supposed talent level.
Increased talent is coming to this year’s Valley rosters. How that will translate in game competition is yet to be seen.
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As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
