Mutual Admiration Society

(St. Louis, MO) – Missouri Valley Conference players are receiving national acclaim and while they fight like alley cats during the season, these players truly admire one another.

SB Nation has tabbed Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker of Wichita State, Seth Tuttle from Northern Iowa and Evansville’s D.J. Balentine as four of their top 100 players. Several national publications have named VanVleet and Baker on their all-american teams and these four players and Wichita State’s Tekele Cotton make up the MVC’s pre-season all-conference team.

Balentine finished last season as the eighth highest scorer in the nation. VanVleet was the Valley’s Player of the Year. Those two were joined on last year’s post season all-star team with Tuttle and Baker. Cotton was the MVC’s Defensive Player of the Year. These five are clearly the cream of the Valley’s crop.

But what do they think of each other? I asked them to play ‘word association’ with me when discussing the other players on that all-Valley team.

 

Pre-season honorable mention selections were Southern Illinois’ Anthony Beane, Marcus Marshall of Missouri State, Evansville’s Egidijus Mockevicius and Milton Doyle from Loyola. The vote was taken among Valley media members, coaches and SIDs before Doyle’s season was put in jeopardy with an injured shoulder.

The regular season begins for five MVC teams on November 14^th.

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