Four Tier Rankings – Part Two – Scary Potential

Scary Potential – Updated

(St. Louis, MO) – Power conferences be warned, most Missouri Valley Conference teams will be better this coming season. This is Part Two of our Spring evaluation of the Valley programs and these three teams have scary potential. In Part One of this series, we looked at teams that are ‘Stacked and Ready’ to challenge for the title.

Several Valley teams seemed to have thrived during the highly competitive portal recruiting season. However, there is also a significant crop of high level prep players now included in the Valley pipeline. The teams in this tier have a mix of both types of players and their coaches seemed to fill important needs.

By saying ‘scary potential’ we believe these teams could be conference contenders, but if the season breaks the right way, they could be true post season threats.

These three teams have star power, good young talent and expect big things from their newcomers. Our evaluations are listed in alphabetic order.

Four Tier Rankings – Scary Potential

Belmont Bruins – 21-11 (14-6)

Bruin head coach Casey Alexander spent all of last season talking about the difficulties related to his team’s transition to the Valley. He sighted the physicality, outstanding coaching and size as major changes his team faced and had to address. While the Bruins finished a very respectable tied for third in the conference race, Belmont is accustomed to winning titles.

All-Valley guard Ben Sheppard could have used a covid season, but chose to go pro. Following Sheppard out the door due to graduation or transfer were Drew Friberg, Even Brauns, E.J. Bellinger, Michael Shanks and Frank Jakubicek. Even though those moves weren’t surprising, this would represent a gutting of the roster and numerous ‘culture guys’ is very unique for this continuity driven program.

So why are they scary good? The returners and newcomers are seriously talented and Alexander rarely makes mistakes on his recruits and how to utilize them.

Freshman of the Year Cade Tyson and fellow rookie Ja’Kobi Gillespie return and represent the best sophomore duo in the league. Tyson finished thirteenth in the league’s scoring race and finished second to Friberg in three-point percentage (.417) and second to Marcus Domask in free throw percentage (.859). The former North Carolina ‘Mr. Basketball’ can score from everywhere and at 6’7 provides rebounding help.

Gillespie has already collected two, league-wide honors for being named to the all-freshman and all-bench teams. The former Tennessee ‘Mr. Basketball’ was third in the Valley in steals and ninth in assists.

Core Players

‘Old Man’ Keishawn Davidson returns to play his covid season and the 6’2 guard does a little bit of everything. Davidson could be the best player you haven’t thought about. He scores as needed, rebounds well and finished the season fourth in the Valley’s assist race. Davidson has scored over 1,100 points, has handed out 500 dimes and grabbed 343 boards.

A collection of players that came in last year’s recruiting class, Isaiah Walker, Kyler Vanderjagt and Keith Robbins were all well decorated prep players. As Rick Byrd before him, Alexander is the master at recruiting outstanding high school players and giving them time to mature and improve into solid contributors.

The Newcomers

Alexander noted the size differentials in the league and his team will be bigger this season. His shortest incoming freshman is 6’3 guard Win Miller who was the fourth rated player coming out of Alabama. Three 6’8 or better rookies, Sam Orme, Brigham Rogers and Drew Scharnowski will all arrive in Nashville carrying outstanding credentials.

While Orme was rated as the eighth best player in Indiana, Rogers was thirteenth in Georgia and Scharnowski was fifteenth in Illinois.

Prior to Belmont’s joining the league Alexander said he’d be true to the Belmont way of majoring on prep players, which he has done, but that he would utilize the transfer portal as needed. Joining Belmont this season are two ‘power six’ conference post players. Neither played extensively at their former schools, but were outstanding in high school and should shine in the Valley.

Vanderbilt transfer Malik Dia is a 6’9, 240 power forward who was ranked fourth in the State of Tenessee as a high school senior. He averaged 2.6 points and 1.6 rebounds for the Commodores. Will Shaver is a 6’10, 260 pound power forward who played just three games at North Carolina due to a foot injury.

If those two bigs are as good as we suspect and Belmont’s young players continue to develop, the Bruins have scary potential.

Drake Bulldogs – 27-8 (15-5)

The Arch Madness champions lost three of the program’s all-time best players to graduation. So how can they be on THIS list? Darian DeVries’ teams have never won fewer than 20 games. Tucker DeVries is the best player in the league. Other returners know their roles and are proven winners and their newcomers are solid.

Any team with Darian DeVries on the sidelines and Tucker DeVries on the court has a chance to be outstanding. The coach’s record (122-48) by itself, tells you they will win a significant number of games. For the doubters that believe DeVries’ success has been on the backs of a nucleus of players brought during his first season, there are plenty of rebuttals.

There is no doubt Roman Penn D.J. Wilkins, Garrett Sturtz and the Murphy twins were an amazing first season hall and drove much of Drake’s five years of success. That group has been so amazingly in tact that adding other high level players has been overlooked by the crititcs.

With Tucker’s return, Drake boasts of the league’s best player and one that can score 30 points any night of the week. DeVries is the Valley’s leading returning scorer (18.6) and has scored 1,133 points in two years. The other parts of his game are growing, so we can look for his game to become a dominant one this season.

Core Players

The return of big man Darnell Brodie (Most Improved Team) would solidify the post position. Brodie needs an NCAA waiver to recover one more year of eligibility. Added to other returners Sardaar Calhoun and Conor Enright give coach DeVries a solid core. Brodie (9.1 ppg & 7.3 rebounds) lost twenty pounds before last season and truly expanded his game.

Calhoun emerged down the stretch as a player that the Bulldogs could look to for a key bucket. (Correction/update – I have since learned that despite playing just three Division 1 seasons, Calhoun has exhausted his eligibility. It is unlikely he will apply for a waiver).  Enright was named to the Valley’s all-freshman team and Calhoun the all-bench team. The 6’ Enright went from being a player that was just giving Penn a breather, to a player that was making big contributions.

The question lies with the newcomers.

The Newcomers

Recruiting his own son wasn’t rocket science, but remember DeVries also landed Liam Robbins and Joseph Yesufu. Robbins is headed to the NBA and Yesufu worked himself into a very valuable role on last season’s Kansas team. Side note, Yesufu is in the transfer portal. Both would have been all-Valley type of players the past two seasons.

While Drake still has some holes to fill, the Bulldogs’ three additions seem to be exactly what the roster needs. Army transfer Ethan Roberts started 31 games for the Black Knights and accumulated 17 double-digit scoring performances. The Patriot League ‘Rookie of the Year’ averaged 12.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and was a lights out on threes (.407) and frees (.848).

At 6’5, 195 pounds, Roberts brings good size along with his obvious athletic talents.

Incoming freshman Chico Johnson and Keven Overton are bigger guards with considerable talent. Johnson is an ESPN four-star player rated as the thirteenth best player in Ohio. Of Overton, SBLive says “He’s a rare three-level scorer and has potential through the roof. Overton is a smooth shooter and is good from mid-range. His height allows him to elevate over defenders. The Oklahoma native spent last season at nationally known Sunrise Christian Academy (Wichita) as a post-grad player.”

(Breaking – Just hours after this story went live, Drake added 6’9 forward Patrick Bath, the eighth rated high school player coming from the State of Minnesota)

If the freshman are as good as their press clippings and DeVries adds another contributor or two, this team has scary potential.

Indiana State Sycamores – 23-13 (13-7)

The Sycamores lost more talent from last year’s team than most. Indiana State lost second-teamer Courvoisier McCauley, third-teamer Cameron Henry and 1,400 point scorer Cooper Neese.

ISU lost several others to graduation, but coach Josh Schertz has been busy on the recruiting trail. Schertz and his staff landed four top-flight prep players and three ‘ready for prime-time Division 1 transfers.

These additions to returning starters Robbie Avila and Julian Larry, and super subs Xavier Bledson and Jayson Kent, could make Indiana State better than last season’s Sycamore revival.

The 6’10 Avila was an all-freshman team member with great post footwork and has the ability to pick and pop. Larry was named to the all-defensive team and was unjustly left off the Most Improved Team.

Bledson does a little bit of everything and Kent is a long athletic wing who can score from the wing and a solid defender.

The Newcomers

Former Ohio Valley Conference stars Jake Wolfe (Morehead State) and Isaiah Swope (Southern Indiana) change Valleys. Wolfe is a grad transfer from the OVC title-winning Eagles and is an elite defender. He isn’t afraid of the dirty work and hits threes and frees at a great clip.

The all-OVC Swope averaged 15.6 points and scored 28 points on the Sycamores when the teams met back in December. Swope made 42% of his long distance attempts.

A third D1 transfer is Niagara transfer Aaron Gray. The 6’7 wing averaged 12.4 points and 4.5 rebounds. This collection of transfers are proven commodities.

6’6 point guard Eli Shetlar is the top rated player coming out of the State of Kansas. Cameron Mayawu is rated sixth in Missouri. Derek Vorst is a 6’10 center ranked tenth in the State of Ohio and 6’7 Jaden Daughtry comes from historic Hargrave Military Academy.

Those four represent one of the most talented Indiana State collective groups in years.

Look for Indiana State to be better than last season, and that means they have scary potential.

Do Good

Editor: All state rankings via prephoops.com.