Talent Staying and Talent Coming

Encouraging Signs in the Valley

(St. Louis, MO) – There is some big time talent staying and big time talent coming to the Missouri Valley Conference. Immediately after our last story about MVC roster updates, several significant stories emerged.

Some of it related to existing players staying with their Valley squads and some concerinng freshly signed newcomers.

It’s been a good week in the Valley.

Talent Staying – Kinziger and Others

During our previous story we said “Illinois State’s rating all comes down to Johnny Kinziger.” Well, the all-conference guard is staying. Randy Reinhardt’s video sent celebrations throughout Illinois State fans and a sigh of relief throughout the league. When star players stay put, the entire conference benefits.

Kinziger (14.6 ppg) said he wanted to continue with his teammates and that he felt like Illinois State was ‘home’.

“Coach says everyday, you win with people,” said Kinziger. “This place just has the best people. I just couldn’t imagine myself playing with other guys. This is my home and I’m happy to be back. These are my brothers.”

Prior to Kinziger’s announcement, teammate Ty Pence confirmed his return. The Redbirds now retain a four-player nucleus of Kinziger, all-league post Chase Walker (15.2), Pence (7.4) and all-freshman team member Jack Daugherty (.476 from deep).

Thursday, Landon Wolf and Brandon Lieb announced they are returning.

Coupled with an outstanding four-member high school recruiting class, the Redbirds will be near the top of next fall’s MVC power rankings. However, people forget, as I did in the previous article, there are two other difference-makers still to hear from.

Coach Ryan Pedon expected North Dakota State-transfer Boden Skunberg to be an upper-echelon player last season, before he missed the entire campaign due to injury. Pedon expected center Brandon Lieb to be an inside presence, but he missed the season with a hand injury.

Skunberg hasn’t entered the portal, nor made an ‘I’m staying’ announcement. I’m told his likelihood of returning looks good right now. If he returns, the Redbirds will be the preseason, runaway favorites to claim the Valley crown.

Less flashy, but very significant is the return of Indiana State wing, Bruno Alocen. The 6’5 Alocen (5.7 ppg) gives Matthew Graves three players with deep experience who demonstrated the ability to compete in the MVC. Camp Wagner, Derek Vorst and Alocen give Graves three legitimate rotational players and his incoming recruiting class has genuine potential.

Talent Coming

New coaches at Murray State and Drake have been busy.

Murray State’s Ryan Miller had already signed Creighton transfer (and coach’s nephew) Mason Miller, but this week added Bluejay big man Fred King. The 6’9 post player averaged 2.7 points for Greg McDermott playing behind the national defensive player of the year, Ryan Kalkbrenner.

Then Miller landed Memphis native and West Virginia transfer Emerson (KJ) Tenner. The 6’1 Tenner is a former ‘Mr. Basketball’ in Tennessee and originally committed to Darian DeVries in a recruiting coue at Drake. When DeVries left for the Mountaineers, Tenner did too. Now that DeVries moved on the Indiana Tenner has signed with the Racers.

This is a significant signing.

Another former Bluejay joined the team Thursday. Ben Shtolzberg spent his freshman season in Omaha and the last two at UC Santa Barbara. The 6’4 guard averaged 3.8 points coming off the Gauchos’ bench.

New Drake head coach Eric Henderson has picked up his first two players. We’re still wondering about the status of two prep players signed by the last coaching staff. Tate Sage and Simm Marten Saadi are yet to make announcements. Saadi is a 6’9, 3.64-star player from prestigious Sunrise Christian Academy.

Henderson’s new signees are New Mexico transfer Braden Appelhans and high school senior Bryson Bahl. Appelhans averaged 3.3 points for the Lobos last season and Bahl is rated as the second-best prep player in the state of Nebraska.

See our previous article about other incoming talent.

Do Good