Big Time Saturday Battles

Two First Place Collisions

(St. Louis, MO) – Five Missouri Valley Conference teams are tied for first place and four of those teams face one-another on Saturday. These will be big time Saturday battles. We are running past the ‘quarter poll’ of the season and there is a clear demarcation between the top six and bottom six teams. It could and probably will all change, but right now there are two tiers to the MVC.

Belmont, Drake, Indiana State, Murray State and Southern Illinois stand at 4-1 with Bradley right behind at 3-2. The two big time Saturday battles include Belmont’s visit to Indiana State and Southern Illinois’ hosting of Drake. Murray State hosts Northern Iowa on Sunday.

At least two teams will still have just one loss by Sunday night. It’s early, we’re just at the quarter poll, but this race is crazy.

Big Time Saturday Battles – Belmont @ Indiana State – 1:00 pm – ESPN+

These two have had two epic competitions during Belmont’s short time in the Valley. During last year’s regular season the Bruins came from behind to to defeat the Scyamores 89-88 in Nashville. Then they played a 94-91 thriller at Arch Madness. Once again Belmont came from behind to take the lead with just over two minutes remaining. Indiana State prevailed behind the uncanny shooting of Cooper Neese.

These are the Valley’s top two scoring teams and the top two in field goal percentage and two of the top three in three-point shooting. If you like offensive skill and creativity this is the game for you. Belmont’s Casey Alexander and Indiana State’s Josh Schertz are two of the nation’s very best in creating offensive opportunities and they play fast.

Both squads are in the nation’s top 30 in effective field goal percentage, in the top 50 in adjusted tempo and the length of their offensive possessions. Belmont is thirty-fifth in 3-point shooting percentage (.373) and fifty-fifth in two-point shooting (.552). As impressive as that is, Indiana State is fourth nationally from deep (.408) and sixth (.600) from inside the arc.

This should be a shootout!

The Players

Each team has a multi-dimensional center and the showdown between Belmont’s Malik Dia and Indiana State’s Robbie Avila will be worth the ESPN+ subscription. Both big men bury threes, are nifty around the rim and are accomplished distributors. Avila is the Sycamore assist leader and Dia’s game has elevated even further since re-entering the starting lineup two games ago.

Belmont will likely be without outstanding point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie. He had wrist surgery last week. That is a huge blow for the Bruins, but they are 2-0 since he went down. Gillespie is averaging 16.2 points and 4.1 assists per contest.

Neither team is extremely deep, but star power is everywhere. Belmont’s Cade Tysson is the reigning Valley ‘Freshman of the Year’ and is the league’s sixth leading scorer (16.7 points per game). Guard Keishawn Davidson is a 1,000 point scorer and guard Isaiah Walker is growing into potential Alexander saw when the former Cincinnati high school player of the year signed with Belmont.

All five Sycamores score in double figures. Guard Isaiah Swope is the Valley’s third leading scorer (18.4 ppg) and leads the Valley and is seventh nationally in triples-per-game (3.47). Swope is third in steals (Gillespie was first prior to his injury). South Florida transfer Ryan Conwell (15.3), Avila (15.1), Jayson Kent (13.5) and Julian Larry (10.2) make it impossible to key on Swope.

Playing inside the revamped Hulman Center should give the Sycamores an edge in this first place struggle.

Big Time Saturday Battles – Drake @ Southern Illinois – 6:00 pm – ESPN+

SIU is the Valley’s hottest team. The Salukis have won six straight and have the nation’s second leading scorer in Xavier Johnson (24.1 points per game). SIU hangs its hat on defense and is the Valley’s top team in scoring defense (63.8 ppg) and preventing the three-point shot (.264).

Johnson is a leading candidate to claim the league’s MVP award.

Oh, but so is Drake’s Tucker DeVries. The Drake junior is the reigning ‘Player of the Year’ and is second to Johnson in the scoring race (19.5) and has improved his rebounding and assist numbers from last year’s MVP numbers.

Drake handled Indiana State on Wednesday and now must face the ‘Dawg Pound’ at SIU’s Banterra Center. Coach Darian DeVries brings plenty of offensive talent to this contest with the Valley’s best defensive team.

Atin Wright (15.2), center Darnell Brodie (11.2) and Kevin Overton (12.8) can carry the load when teams overload on the coach’s son. Brodie is the Valley’s leading rebounder (7.8). The Bulldogs are the league’s third highest scoring team and lead the conference in both turnover margin and ‘assist/turnover ratio’. DeVries’ team rarely makes mistakes.

During their Wednesday win over Indiana State the Bulldogs turned over the Sycamores 15 times and had just three miscues of their own.

A key matchup in this one will be whether SIU’s trio of posts can handle Brodie in the middle. The biggest question might be which team’s star player will have a ‘star player’ kind of game?

These big time Saturday battles are the first of many huge collisions between the Valley’s top six teams. Who knows? A seventh or eighth team could fight its way into the mix during this most entertaining Valley season.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo credit Maeve Coulter