Final Push For Missouri Valley Teams

(St. Louis, MO) – Wth five games left in the conference season, there is so much to be accomplished by Missouri Valley Conference teams. Play-off positioning, regular season titles, individual awards and team achievements lie before the Valley squads, players and coaches.

Regular Season Title

Can anyone pull an upset over Wichita State or Illinois State? Will either of them trip on the way to Arch Madness 2017? This year’s two top teams look destined to finish in a tie for the regular season title. The Redbirds (20-5, 12-1) play three of their final five games at home, while the Shockers (22-4, 12-1) play three on the road. Both teams play dangerous Northern Iowa, with ILS traveling to Cedar Falls and WSU hosting the Panthers.

Injured Redbird MiKyle McIntosh could possibly be back in the lineup for the game at UNI, but if not, that is the most likely upset opportunity left on either team’s schedule.

Avoiding Thursday Night

Valley teams fight like their lives depend on it, to avoid playing in the Thursday night game of the conference tournament in St. Louis. Indiana State (9-16, 3-10) and Evansville (12-14, 3-10) seem destined for that fate, but the battle rages among six other teams. Three games separate those six teams and mathematically speaking, all of them could finish between third and eighth place. For all intents and purposes, third through sixth places are irrelevant. Not finishing seventh through tenth is paramount.

Bradley (9-16, 4-9) and Drake (7-18, 5-8) face the stiffest challenges to escape Thursday night. Before those two finish the season against one another on February 25^th, Bradley has to play at both Northern Iowa and Illinois State. Both teams play three of five on the road and each plays Missouri State and Evansville. Drake’s path seems less daunting.

Both teams are chasing Loyola (16-10, 6-7), Missouri State (15-11, 6-7), UNI (12-12, 7-6) and SIU (14-12, 7-6) all who currently wouldn’t play until the Friday quarterfinals of Arch Madness. The final five games will be a free-for-all, like rats leaving a sinking ship, to get out of those first round games.

Establishing Legacies

Illinois State guard Paris Lee has made his mark on the Redbird record book as the most productive ILS player with 236 career steals, but his 1,147 career point total ranks him 30^th and the left-handed guard is well within reach of being one of the top 25 scorers in program history. Lee’s 344 assists place him 11^th on the Redbird list and could easily finish as high as eighth, and his 156 three-pointers rank him eighth in ILS history. With three more, he would move into sixth place.

‘Captain Morgan’ (Northern Iowa’s Jeremy) is climbing the all-time Panther charts. He’s currently 26^th in scoring (1,123 points) and just 77 points from 1,200 and 18^th on that list. His 513 reounbounds, 218 assists and 106 blocks make him one of the most diverse stars in UNI history. He needs seven steals to become the all-time leader in that Panther department.

Season Ending Awards

With the ‘Newcomer of the Year’ award already sewn up by Missouri State’s Alize Johnson, the other major awards are truly up for grabs. The ‘Larry Bird – Player of the Year’ award and the defensive player of the year could go to any of several players. There is a much more narrow field when it comes to ‘Freshman of the Year’.

Bradley’s Darrell Brown Jr. and Wichita State’s Landry Shamet are the finalists for this award. The diminutive Brown leads Bradley in scoring, assists, three-pointers and free throw conversions. He averages 12.7 points per game and is making over 39% of his shots from long distance. He is the only Brave averaging double figures in scoring.

Shamet is the trigger man for much of what goes on for power house Wichita State. The red-shirt freshman is averaging 10.7 points per game and he too, leads his team in assists. The 6’4 Kansas City native owns nearly a three to one assist-to-turn over ratio, practically unheard of for a freshman. Shamet is converting over 41% of his shots from deep, over 82% from the line. In head coach Gregg Marshall’s first eight years at WSU, he never had player named as the ‘Freshman of the Year’. Last year Markis McDuffie ended that drought and this year Shamet should make it two-in-a-row for the Shockers.

As far as ‘Player of the Year’ is concerned, Morgan, McDuffie and Lee could be in the mix. Illinois State’s Deontae Hawkins could be considered, as could SIU’s Sean O’Brien. Milton Doyle could finish strong at Loyola, but this is a ‘pick ‘em’ as far as I’m concerned.

The same could be said about the defensive player award. Both guards at Illinois State (Lee and Tony Wills) are respected league wide for their defensive prowess. We’ve already mentioned UNI’s Morgan who is about to become the all-time steals leader at Northern Iowa. WSU’s Zach Brown could figure in the mix, as could SIU’s Thik Bol and Missouri State’s Obadiah Church.

 

Team Achievements

Wichita State needs three wins to reach 25 wins for the the eighth straight season. No Valley team has even recorded seven-in-a-row, prior to this historic Shocker run.

Drake has already won more conference games than last season, but one more win would give the Bulldogs more victories overall, than last season.

Under Ben Jacobson, Northern Iowa has never finished worse than 9-9 in league play. The Panthers must win at least two of their final five to keep that streak alive.

Two more victories would give Missouri State its second largest total under Paul Lusk’s leadership, and give the Bears their second winning season in Lusk’s six years in Springfield.

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