Stronger OVC

(St. Lous, MO) – What can we expect from the Ohio Valley Conference after a banner year for the Nashville-based league? Solid recruiting classes abound, but there were some major losses to some programs too. New coaches at Eastern Kentucky, Southern Illinois Edwardsville and Southeast Missouri will certainly change the flavor to the league.

The Losses

They were huge. Murray State lost player of the year Cameron Payne when the sophomore decided to turn pro, but they held on to stellar head coach Steve Prohm. Eastern Kentucky lost their successful coach Jeff Neubauer (Fordham)  and all-conference guard Corey Walden to to graduation. Just this week, Eastern Illinois, a program on the rise, saw their best post player Chris Olivier decide to transfer.

All the new coaches, Jon Harris at SIUE; Rick Ray at SEMO and Dan McHale at EKU seem to be outstanding hires and Harris and McHale are putting together a solid coaching staffs. Ray was hired later than both of them.

There is some ‘wow factor’ in this year’s incoming crop of players. I don’t know the last time there were such upper echelon players entering the league.

Game Changers

Look no further than Jacksonville State where Head Coach James Green landed one of the best players the OVC has recruited in recent years. Cameron Biedscheid is a 6’6″ slasher from St. Louis that was a four-star player coming out of Cardinal Ritter High School and averaged over six points per game as a freshman at Notre Dame. He transferred briefly to Missouri and has ended up with the Gamecocks. If Biedscheid’s head is right, he could be the best player in ‘The O”.

If Biedscheid isn’t the best player joining to OVC this year, then it is probably Damarcus Croaker. Murray State added the 6’4″ transfer from Texas. Biedscheid was a top 50 player nationally and Croaker was rated as high as 110.

Strength in Numbers

Five different teams are bringing in five new players to their rosters. More bodies means more competition and that can only make those teams better.

Eastern Illinois is one of those teams and not only is the crop large in numbers, Jay Spoonhour has accumulated some experience in A. J. Riley and Demetrius McReynolds, but his three freshmen, Casey Teson, Aleksa Novakovic and Lucas Jones have flashed the ability to be Panther building blocks.

Dave Loos was a high school coach in the St. Louis area and two members of his five man class were from the Gateway City. Stephen Harris and Zach Glotta were both prolific prep players.

Perhaps the best player of Sean Woods’ Morehead State recruits is Chipola College transfer DeJuan Marrero, but he and freshman Malik Maitland were both three-star players among most of the rating services. Marrero is a 6’5″ small forward from Gary, Indiana and Maitland is a sub-6′ point guard from New York.

Dana Fords’ class at Tennessee State doesn’t include a freshman! But it does include 6’10” junior transfer Neville Fincher, his college teammate at Navarro College Wayne Martin and the highly touted transfer Johnny Woodard. Ford clearly believes some of his younger players need the help of some older players. Every player is 6’4″ are bigger.

None of the new coaches have big classes, nor players that make you stand up and take notice. All three programs could and very well may, add more players. The building process could take time at SEMO and SIUE, while EKU is very used to winning and will expect a lot out of McHale’s Colonels.

Do Good