Valley Portal Shopping – Part Two

Most Instable Rosters

(St. Louis, MO) – Three Missouri Valley Conference teams have had a roster mass exodus and 2,300 basketball players have entered the free agent transfer portal. Around twenty of those transfers have landed at Drake, Murray State and Valparaiso through the portal shopping efforts of their head coaches.

New coaches at Drake and Murray State precipitated those changes and Valpo endured an unprecedented talent drain through the latest record-setting edition of ‘portal pandemic’.

When Ben McCollum left Drake for the University of Iowa and Murray State released Steve Prohm, we knew there would be the typical roster turnover. After Valpo’s dramatic play at Arch Madness, Valley fans hoped some of that young and talented roster would stick around for one more season.

But, as the old Neil Diamond song says “Money Talks” and talented players take walks.

While Valparaiso’s Roger Powell Jr has to reload, Drake’s Eric Henderson and Murray’s Ryan Miller have started basically from scratch in a brand-new neighborhood. All three coaches seem to have done a good job navigating this season of portal shopping.

Portal Shopping from the Same Place

Powell’s optimistic outlook has been greatly challenged as player after player left northwest Indiana for bigger pay checks.  The Valley’s last two ‘freshman of the year’ award winners were high priorities for other recruiters. Cooper Schwieger (Wake Forest) and All Wright (Xavier) traded legendary Valpo status to take their shot at power conference play.

There are just two Division 1 transfers joining the team. That may concern some Valpo watchers. Isaiah Barnes (Tulsa) and Owen Dease (Texas A&M CC) bring D1 experience to the squad. Barnes who also spent time and Michigan and Dease each stand 6’7 or taller and averaged over nine points and four rebounds per game last season. They bring real promise to that shooting guard/small forward part of the Valpo attack.

Powell reached to the NAIA, Division 2 and the junior college ranks to fill out his roster.

NAIA star Shon Tupoula (14.5 ppg & 12.2 rpg) was an all-River States Conference player and is a Brownsburg, Indiana native. The 6’9 center made .713 of his field goal attempts for St. Mary of the Woods College. His Pomeroys won 28 games and advanced to the NAIA National Tournament.

His head coach at SMWC was new Valpo assistant Jesse McClung.

Snow College transfer Mark Brown Jr is a 5’11 point guard ranked as the 63^rd best junior college player last season while playing for top ranked Snow.  Brown averaged 13.3 points and 4.3 assists. He immediately shores up the point guard position.

Two Great Lakes Valley Conference players, Brody Whitaker and Tucker Tornata come to Valpo from Indianapolis University. Whitaker is a veteran guard who averaged over 14 points and four rebounds per game. The 6’8 Tornata was part of the GLVC’s all-freshman team while averaging 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds.

League Champs are Re-Stocking

Portal shopping for first year coach Eric Henderson has netted seven Division 1 players. Last year’s conference champs featured a host of Division 2 transfers and 31 wins and an NCAA Tournament appearance later, that seemed to be a sound strategy.

While Ben McCollum brought most of the starting lineup with him from his previous spot, ‘Hendo’ has just one South Dakota State player in tow. Owen Larson is following his coach to Des Moines. The 6’1 point guard is the second leading scorer (9.2 ppg) among the recruits.

Henderson saw Summit League foe and Denver transfer Isaiah Carr enough last season to recruit him to Drake. The 6’8 wing averaged 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds during limited action (due to injury) for the Pioneers. Two seasons ago, he led the Summit with 60 blocks.

After an outstanding junior college career, Charlotte transfer Jaehshon Thomas comes to Drake after averaging 9.5 points and 3.8 rebounds for the 49ers. Thomas’ high school career was played at prestigious Chicago Whitney Young.

Loyola Chicago transfer Jalen Quinn appeared in 99 Rambler games, including 30 starts for former Valley coach of the year Drew Valentine.

Wilguens Exacte Jr (6’6) and 6’8 Okku Federiko bring some international experience to the Bulldog roster. Federiko’s name will sound familiar to Bulldog fans. His brother Federiko Federiko played for Texas Tech against the Bulldogs in the NCAA Tournament. Okku is from Finland and redshirted at South Carolina last season.

Exacte averaged a ‘double-quatro’ (4.1 & 4.2) in the Mountain West Conference.

Four of the incoming D1 players are 6’6 or taller including New Mexico transfer Braden Appelhans.

None of Henderson’s incoming portal players are taller than 6’8, but freshman Griffen Goodbary is 6’10. The former South Dakota State coach has historically loaded up on prep players, but the rebuild at Drake required a different approach.

Is Murray State “Creighton South”

Ryan Miller is the new coach tasked with building on Murray State’s winning/championship tradition. Two Creighton players tagged along. Miller’s nephew Mason Miller and center Fredrick King are joining Miller in the Valley. Another former Bluejay (by way of North Texas) is 6’10 Brock Vice.

Creighton has experienced great success, particularly with the use of athletic big men. Last year’s national defensive player of the year was Bluejay center Ryan Kalkbrenner. King, Vice, J.J. Traynor and Boise State transfer Dylan Anderson all stand 6’8 or taller. Anderson is a seven-footer who was a top-100 recruit coming out of high school.

But Miller isn’t abandoning the Murray State tradition of loading up on talented guards. UIC transfer Javon Jackson (11.6 ppg) joins the Racers along with West Virginia transfer K.J. Tenner and ASUN all-freshman team member Layne Taylor. Those three provide significant firepower to the Murray State backcourt.

Santa Barbara’s Ben Shtolzberg is part of that talented group.

All told, nine D1 transfers with legitimate credentials have instantly moved Murray State into the upper half of the Valley’s offseason power rankings. Fans would be wrong to overlook D2 transfer Brayden Shorter. The 6’5 guard averaged 15 points per game for Washburn last season.

Murray State will have the most talented and tallest frontcourt in the MVC.

In Part One of this three part, portal shopping series we looked into Bradley, Illinois State and Northern Iowa’s transfer classes.

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