MVC Offseason Update – Sycamores & Salukis

Programs on the Rise

(St. Louis, MO) – Indiana State and Southern Illinois had surprisingly good seasons. While the Salukis did fade near the latter portion of the season, each team finished with double digit conference wins and appear to be programs on the rise.

It had been four seasons since Indiana State had accomplished a winning Missouri Valley Conference season and SIU was installing a new coach with an overhauled roster. The Sycamores finished tied with Bradley (11-7) for third place, while the Salukis finished fifth (10-8).

Both teams were hit hard by graduation, but solid cores remain. Todd Hefferman (The Southern) covers SIU and Todd Golden (The Trib Star) follows ISU. Each believes the team they are following is on solid footing.

Returning Nucleus

Indiana State’s Tyreke Key is a proven scorer and is the proverbial ‘gym rat’. The 6’2 senior is the headliner of an established and talented returning core. After leading the league in scoring two seasons ago, Key finished third last year.  The Celina, Tennessee native has recorded 1,255 career Sycamore points.

Second-year forwards Jake LaRavia and Tre Williams played significant roles as rookies and junior Cooper Neese rounds out the talented core quartet of this year’s team.

Golden (@TribStarTodd) says the returning core is special and LaRavia gives it a unique look.

 

 

LaRavia finished among the Valley’s top ten in rebounding, field goal percentage, blocked shots and offensive rebounds. Williams and LaRavia are two of the Valley’s top three returning shot blockers. Golden says Neese, LaRavia and Williams are the next wave of ISU talent.

 

 

SIU’s Marcus Domask is the Valley’s fifth-leading returning scorer (13.6 ppg) and is the league’s reigning ‘Freshman and Newcomer of the Year‘. How second-year coach Bryan Mullins builds around his versatile star will be interesting. Some of Domask’s fellow returners are fellow sophomore guards Lance Jones and Trent Brown. Another returner is red-shirt sophomore Sekou Dembele. The 6’7 Dembele is coming back from a knee injury.

Hefferman (@THefferman) says that returning core learned a lot of valuable rookie season lessons.

 

 

Jones was a starter and Brown averaged over 20 minutes per game while Dembele’s season ended by a mid-January injury.

Programs on the Rise Recruit

SIU signed some talented freshmen but the focus of this year’s newcomers are the transfers. Former Eastern Illinois standout Ben Harvey sat out last season. One of the nation’s highest rated junior college transfers, J.D. Muila and Division 2 transfer Anthony D’Avanzo bring experience and size. SIU struggled to rebound last year and both Muila and D’Avanzo are 6’8 and have been prolific glass cleaners.

Hefferman says coach Mullins addressed the team’s key needs with this recruiting class.

 

 

Hefferman tells us Domask has a history of hard work and improving his game. The hard-working Domask was virtually tied with UNI’s A.J. Green and Bradley’s Darrell Brown in minutes played (34.8 per game). The offensive help coming from Harvey could lift some of that Domask’s load.

 

 

Division One transfers will play a significant role for Indiana State. Golden and many others believe that North Carolina Central transfer Randy Miller can be a difference maker. The 6’2 guard is one of ESPN’s top 100 D1 transfers.

Golden says the talent doesn’t start and stop with Miller.

 

 

League Wide Issues

Three of the league’s top players, Liam Robbins from Drake, Valparaiso’s Javon Freeman-Liberty and Evansville’s DeAndre Williams have transferred. While he didn’t play last season, SIU’s Aaron Cook was a potential all-league player and he transferred.

Valley teams have obviously benefited from signing transfers, but high-level players leaving have damaged the mentioned programs’ ability to become programs on the rise. Golden says he believes transfers ‘are a recruiting correction’ and that players transferring is more of ‘coaching issue’ than a conference problem.

 

 

Other issues facing the Valley and college basketball revolve around the NCAA’s recent rulings on ‘name, image and likeness’ and on the one-time transfer changes. The two veteran reporters weigh in on both of those issues.

Hefferman thinks a more ‘free-agent’ view of transfers is on the way, and Golden believes the players deserve the chance to make some money, but doesn’t think the rulings will have a big effect on the MVC.

 

 

Our two-part podcast can be found at Valley Hoops Insider Podcast. During the first installment we dig deeper into the players on these two programs on the rise. We discuss the coaches, league issues and how these two are fairing during the coronavirus shut down. During Part Two we talk about the coaches (Greg Lansing and Bryan Mullins) and the growing excitement surrounding these two programs.

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