Grading the Valley – Part Two

(St. Louis, MO) – Five Missouri Valley Conference teams played postseason basketball in 2015 and two participated in 2016. Did the Valley have a good season? We continue our postseason evaluation of all ten MVC teams.

We are grading each program relative to expectations, rather than raw standings. In Part One we looked at Bradley and Drake. Here in our second installment we evaluate Evansville, Illinois State and Indiana State.

Evansville – B

The Purple Aces entered the season with sky high expectations. After winning the College Insider.com Tournament in 2015, Evansville returned virtually every player from that team including two-time scoring champ D.J. Balentine, and two-time rebounding leader Egidijus Mockevicius. No one in the MVC had an inside/outside attack owned by Marty Simmons’ team.

Picked to finish third in the league, the Purple Aces (25-9, 12-6) ended the season tied with Illinois State for second. For the third time in four years Simmons’ team reached the 20 win plateau. It was just the fourth time in UE’s they reached 20 wins and the 25 victories is the high water mark in the program’s Division 1 history.

Despite playing the entire season without explosive guard Duane Gibson, the Aces ran rough shod over the Valley teams not residing in Cedar Falls or Wichita. That’s what holds the Aces’ grade down.

With the expectation of obtaining an NCAA Tournament bid, Evansville was 0 and 5 against the Valley’s standard bearers. When a team wants to win an at-large bid to the ‘Big Dance’ they have to come up with signature wins and that’s where the Aces may have under performed.

Their non-conference schedule included some strong mid-major programs and the Aces were successful on that front with wins over Ohio Valley powers (Belmont and Murray State), and Mountain West Tournament champ Fresno State. In their only ‘money conference’ games they went 0-2.

Balentine won his third straight scoring title and Mockevicius earned his third straight rebounding crown.

Illinois State – B

In early March, 2015 this team looked like a lock for an NCAA Tournament bid in 2016. Then 6-10 shot-blocking machine Reggie Lynch left for Minnesota and expectations were readjusted. ISU was still talented, athletic and relatively deep, but losing Lynch meant competing with Wichita State for Valley supremacy became a long shot.

Minus Lynch, the Redbirds were picked to finish fourth in the MVC and tied for second. For the fourth straight year under Dan Muller, ISU (18-14, 12-6) has won at least 18 games. That was no small feat. Muller set up a murderous schedule and the Birds lost games to San Diego State, Kentucky, Maryland, UAB, St. Joseph’s and South Dakota State. Those six teams combined to win over 160 games this season.

In Valley play, ISU hit their high water mark in late January and early February. They won eight of nine games including a victory over Wichita State. After that run the Birds lost three of their last four games.

Senior guard DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell was the spiritual leader of the team, while sophomores Deontae Hawkins and MiKyle McIntosh began to blossom into the players Valley watchers have anticipated, and guard Paris Lee continued his ascension to elite defender status.

ISU’s finish, and thus no postseason play, kept their grade below the ‘A’ category.

Indiana State – C

Greg Lansing’s team was picked to finish sixth and did. The problem with this evaluation is that the Sycamores dropped seven of their last nine games. Indiana State (15-17, 8-10) witnessed many individual accomplishments by seniors Devonte Brown and Khristian Smith. Sophomore guard Brenton Scott was terrific, but the Sycamores never gained the traction that led to any consistent victory pattern.

The lack of an inside presence plagued the Sycamores all year long. Lansing’s ability to get players to play hard and play good defense is legendary, but this was a team that allowed too many points to survive in the league play.

To illustrate the Sycamore inside problems, back-up 6-1 guard Everett Clemons led the team in rebounding (6.3), but it may have been their offense that truly doomed the Trees. ISU was second last in the league in shooting percentage and in 3-point percentage. Despite being a perimeter oriented team, they were second last in assist-turnover margin and ninth in assists.

Indiana State just wasn’t skilled enough to compete.

With Smith and Brown graduating, the coming season will be a major transition season for ISU.

Do Good