First Two Weeks – No Repeaters
(St. Louis, MO) – Parity and balance in the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conferences is reflected in the weekly award winners. Through the season’s first two weeks there are no repeaters.
However, some anticipated names have surfaced on the Missouri Valley side.
Missouri Valley Conference
Preseason Player of the Year Tucker DeVries has collected his first Player of the Week award. The Drake sophomore averaged 21.7 points and 5.3 rebounds during the Bulldogs’ three victories. DeVries added an exclamation point to the award with a 22-point performance yesterday during Drake’s Paradise Jam championship win. The 6’7 sophomore was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
Preseason all-conference guard JaCobi Wood is the Valley’s Newcomer of the Week. Murray State finished third at the Myrtle Beach Invitational and Wood was named to the all-tournament team. Wood scored 23 points during the Racers’ upset of No. 24 Texas A&M, 24 against UMASS and nearly recorded a triple-double in the third place victory. The 6’2 sophomore put up 12 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists.
Ohio Valley Conference
Little Rock players are making themselves known. During the Trojans first OVC season, two of Darrell Walker’s players are honored this week. Myron Gardner averaged a double-double during Little Rock’s three games. This week’s Player of the Week averaged 14.7 points and 10.3 rebounds as the Trojans won one of three contests. He also averaged five assists. Gardner scored 23 during the Trojans’ Sunday win over Jackson State.
There are two Newcomers of the Week. Eastern Illinois’ Yaakema Rose and Southeast Missouri’s Kobe Clark share the honor. While EIU dropped a decision at Ohio State, the 5’9 Rose scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds.
SEMO’s Clark is a physical force for the Redhawks. The Georgetown transfer averaged 11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds as SEMO split two games with MVC teams.
Little Rock’s Chris Walker averaged double-digits during the Trojans three games. This week’s Freshman of the Week collected 31 points and ten assists this week.
While no repeaters are included this week, some teams are off to great starts. Tennessee State (4-1) and SEMO (3-1) have been solid and the Valley’s Drake (5-0) and Indiana State (4-0) are undefeated.
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Done like only you can @Frank_Cusumano. So perfect. Respectful. Hopeful. Personal. You've always been the best. @DanRolfes, you are in our prayers still today. Thanks for sharing.
As we said the 'closed' transfer portal keeps growing. Paperwork delays and/or no regard for deadlines. Over 2K in the portal now. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that. Just saying before you think your program won't have more players leaving, give it a minute to see
BTW, despite the portal being 'closed' you'll still hear about players entering it because sometimes paperwork is slow AND all they have to do is sue to be able to enter later.
Admittedly I am no recruiting expert, but I'm seeing these reports about which coaches have been crushing the portal. We'll know who did what when we see them play, but no one has been more active than @TSUTigersMBB's @coachpenny1. 6 D1's among the 9 he's signed.
