Drake & UNI with Big Games on Sunday
(St. Louis, MO) – The Iowa primaries kicked off the presidential election season and some important games Sunday will help define the Missouri Valley Conference’s status this year. Nonconference games against quality opponents are important in the NET, KenPom and other rankings.
While Drake handled D3 York easily enough, the Bulldogs entertain a tough Southland Conference opponent Sunday afternoon in Des Moines. UNI drilled Dubuque and then won an important battle with Milwaukee and now host another mid-major challenge in UC Irvine.
UNI’s game with UC Irvine will be its second straight against preseason top-25, mid-major program. Milwaukee began the season at number 18 and the Anteaters started the season twelfth. Northern Iowa was seventh.
With Illinois Chicago’s win over 13th ranked Yale, Missouri Valley Conference teams are enjoying some early success. Southern Illinois lost a tight game with preseason number twenty-six, College of Charleston.
Stephen F. Austin won 18 games last season and were picked to finish fourth in the Southland Conference.
Bulldogs versus Lumberjacks
Both teams easily won their openers against non-Division 1 teams. This will be Drake coach Ben McCollum’s first Division 1 opponent as a D1 coach. Drake’s 93-41 win was a great warmup for better opponents. Newcomers to Drake, but not to coach McCollum led the way.
Daniel Abreu (30 points) and Bennett Stirtz (18 and seven assists) played for McCollum at Northwest Missouri and are now a part of his first Bulldog roster. Drake is riding a 22-game home winning streak.
The Lumberjacks defeated Dallas 85-51 and have recorded twenty winning seasons over the past 22 years. They average 20-wins per season under head coach Kyle Keller. Chris Johnson (17 points) and Myles Jenkins (14) led SFA’s scoring parade.
Game time in Des Moines is set for 1 pm and can be seen on ESPN+.
Panthers versus Anteaters
This is UC Irvine’s second straight road game to open the season. The Anteaters defeated LMU 66-51. Now they battle the Panthers. UNI (2-0) has been impressive early and during the Milwaukee win, veterans Tytan Anderson (19 points), Jacob Hutson (15) and Trey Campbell (16) led the way. R.J. Taylor and Leon Bond III each scored 11.
The Anteaters are the defending Big West Conference champions. Coach Russell Turner is coaching in his fifteenth season (290 wins) and this is UNI coach Ben Jacobson’s nineteenth season (356 victories).
Game time on ESPN+ is set for 1 pm.
These two Iowa primaries are important tests and narrative builders for these two teams and for the Valley.
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Editor: Cover photo of Tytan Anderson courtesy of unipanthers.com and Andy Saigh.
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