Four Contenders for OVC Freshman of the Year

Four Far Outshine the Rest

(St. Louis, MO) – Recruiting high school players is the life-blood of college basketball programs. Even during ‘Portal Pandemic’ coming up with players that can contribute for longer than one year is critical to program building and sustainable success. Our four contenders for ‘Freshman of the Year‘ are true building blocks for their respective teams.

Ohio Valley Conference powers Belmont and Murray State know that better than most, but the other league coaching staffs are starting to figure it out. While Belmont is headed to the Missouri Valley Conference and Murray is rumored to be following them, their recipe for success is one the other OVC schools should follow and some have begun.

Rising power Morehead State doesn’t have a ‘true freshman’ contributor, but last year’s ‘Freshman of the Year’ Johni Broome is the largest building block in Preston Spradlin’s developing program.

Since players received an extra (covid) year of eligibility, several teams’ rosters were too defined to add prep players this past offseason. Many have ‘red-shirt’ freshmen that played a lot last year and others that played full seasons of junior college, but are called freshmen.

Today, we rank the ‘true freshmen’ and there are four contenders that outshine the rest.

# 4 – Phillip Russell – Southeast Missouri

Russell has burst on the scene. The OVC calls ‘true freshmen’ those that didn’t participate in some formula of games that constitutes a full season and Russell falls into that category. Russell took a ‘round-about’ way to Cape Girardeau.

The 5’10 guard originally signed with SEMO, then decommitted and walked on at Saint Louis University. He participated in eight Billiken games. As an all-stater at St. Louis’ legendary Vashon High School, he helped lead the Wolverines to a State title (2019) and to the semifinals (2020) before covid shut down the tournament.

Russell has reached double-figures in eleven of thirteen games, reaching the 20-point mark three times. His shot selection is good (.451) and is a dangerous three-point weapon (.406) and when fouled he makes opponents pay (.734).

Moments don’t seem to get ‘too big’ for Russell, who is playing well over 30 minutes for Brad Korn on a nightly basis. Even during a tough shooting night against Murray State on Thursday, he handed out six assists and made all eight of his free throws. Korn’s team is set at one guard position for some time.

Twice, Russell has been the league’s ‘Freshman of the Week’.

# 3 – Elijah Hutchins-Everett – Austin Peay

Hutchins-Everett is one of two, hyphenated freshmen stars at Austin Peay. The other, Caleb Stone-Carrawell is a freshman on the APSU roster, but played too many games at Charlotte to be considered a freshman by the OVC.

Hutchins-Everett is a 6’11, four-star rated player and was a recruiting coupe for first year coach Nate James. While Stone-Carrawell edges Hutchins-Everett (12.7 to 12.5 ppg) for the Governors’ scoring leadership, the freshman leads the team and is third in the OVC in rebounding (7.5 per game).

At 270 pounds he is a defensive presence in the middle and is converting over 50% of his shots from the field and over 70% from the charity stripe. He won or shared the OVC’s ‘Freshman of the Week’ honor during the season’s first two weeks of the season.

His 25-point, 14-rebound double-double against Dayton is a testament to Hutchins-Everett’s potential.

# 2 – Will Richard – Belmont

I greatly struggled between numbers one and two. Richard has been a brilliant freshman player on an outstanding team where he doesn’t have to be the star. So, his numbers while outstanding, don’t leap off the page. As one of the four contenders, he shines brightly, but as a ‘team player’ he also plays within the Belmont system.

The Bruins average over 80 points per game and have five outstanding offensive options. Richard is third on Belmont’s squad and 19^th in the OVC at 11.7 points per game, but that only scratches the surface of his value to this 10-3 squad.

The 6’5 guard is a spectacular shooter. His percentages are a sensational .515 from the field, .449 from deep and .833 from the line. He blocks shots, makes steals and is Belmont’s second leading rebounder (5.9 per game).

Richard is an explosive athlete, but on Belmont’s team, he is so under-the-radar that he is yet to have a week where he has been the ‘Freshman of the Week’. When witnessing his play against Saint Louis (15 points, six rebounds, 3-6 from deep), I noticed his competitiveness and tenacity on the defensive end. The Georgia native is a gamer.

# 1 – Ray’Sean Taylor – Southern Illinois Edwardsville

Taylor is the league’s third leading scorer (17.3 ppg) and is the player Brian Barone is building around at SIUE. The Cougars just set a Division 1 non-conference wins record of six and Taylor is the primary reason.

The 6’1 guard does a lot of everything. He leads the Cougars in scoring, assists (3.3), steals (1.7), three-pointers, minutes played (32 per game) and is second in rebounding (5.5). His 2.3 triples per game are fifth in the OVC, as is his free-throw percentage (.784).

Taylor flies up the court, pushing the pace and has reached double-figures in scoring in all 13 of his college basketball games. Of the four contenders, he is the most valuable to his team, plays the most minutes and carries the largest responsibility.

After the opener, where he went 0/3 from deep, he has never had a game without a triple. Taylor has connected 30 times in the last twelve games. His .357 long distance percentage is very respectable considering he is the top of every team’s SIUE scouting report.

Five times the Collinsville, Illinois native has topped the 20-point mark and won or shared the league’s weekly rookie award three times during the season’s first seven weeks. He is a rare talent.

Others of Note

Those four contenders outshine everyone else, but Taylor’s teammate at SIUE DeeJuan Pruitt, UT Martin’s Koby Jeffries, Tennessee Tech’s Kenny White and Eastern Illinois teammates Paul Bizimana and Rodolfo Bolis have all turned heads.

Bizimana is the only player outside of the four contenders to claim a ‘Freshman of the Week’ honor. Jeffries has a solid all-round floor game and Bolis has a unique stat line that finds him amongst the league leaders in both rebounding and steals. Pruitt leads this group of five in scoring at 8.8 points per game.

Two of the four contenders are yet to play a conference game as Belmont’s game at SIUE was a covid casualty. Russell scored 15 points and dished out six assists in SEMO’s road loss at Murray State and Hutchins-Everett scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds during APSU’s narrow loss to the Skyhawks.

The race of ‘Freshman of the Year’ should come down to these four contenders, but there is plenty of first-year talent in the OVC.

Do Good

 

Editor: Feature photo of Will Richard courtesy of BelmontBruins.com.