Three Important Opportunities
(St. Louis, MO) – Missouri Valley Conference teams are engaged in multi-team events this weekend. After Thursday’s impressive win by Indiana State, league members have three important opportunities at signature wins today.
Two For Paradise & One In Myrtle
Two Valley squads are participating in the Paradise Jam. Bradley (1-2) begins with a noon tip-off with Colorado State (3-0). The Rams are receiving votes in the national polls and are coached by former Drake head coach Niko Medved.
Bradley is coming off its first win of the season and was bolstered by the return to the lineup of Ja’Shon Henry (sickness) and Ville Tahvanainen (injury) during its victory over Missouri S&T. Henry and Tahvanainen are the team’s top two returning scorers from last season.
Bradley plays Colorado State – 12:00 pm – ESPN3
Indiana State doesn’t get much rest after last night’s 77-36 first round win at the Myrtle Beach Invitational. The Sycamores will face Porter Moser and the Oklahoma Sooners in the tournament’s second round action.
Indiana State (3-1) dominated Old Dominion in every way possible. Four Sycamores reached double figures in scoring led by Cam Henry’s double-double (17 points – 13 rebounds).
Oklahoma (3-0) is undefeated under former Loyola Chicago coach Porter Moser.
Indiana State plays Oklahoma – 4:00 pm – ESPN2
Southern Illinois is participating in this year’s Paradise Jam and they too, are playing a team from Colorado. Their opponent is the University of Colorado. SIU (1-1) has split its first two games losing on the road and winning at home. Sophomore Lance Jones has topped the 20-point mark in each of those games.
Colorado (3-0) has racked up at least 87 points in its previous three games.
SIU plays Colorado – 7 pm – ESPN3
Three Important Opportunities
As the Valley attempts to build a league-wide resume, bolster team and league KenPom and N.E.T. ratings, these games provide three important opportunities. All three opponents achieved KenPom ratings fo 76 or better last season. Colorado was ninth, Oklahoma 39th and Colorado State was 76th.
Northern Iowa came close to knocking off Arkansas earlier this week. Today the Valley has three important opportunities to make some national noise.
Do Good
Editor: Featured image courtesy of @IndSTBasketball.
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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.
