Valley Teams are Recruiting Well

Solid Prep Players Joining Valley Programs

(St. Louis, MO) – Highly regarded high school players are joining Missouri Valley Conference programs. It is clear that Valley teams are recruiting well. During the early days of the fall signing period MVC coaches have landed top end players.

Belmont’s Casey Alexander and Northern Iowa’s Ben Jacobson have insisted they will build their teams through high school recruiting. While not ignoring the transfer portal those two coaches have set a priority on high school players. During his first head coaching season, Roger Powell Junior prioritized prep players in building his Valparaiso team.

Recruiting Well – Top 200 Players

Murray State has landed two, top-200 players and Drake has signed one. Big time signings like that start to put programs on the map. UNI’s A.J. Green and Drake’s Tucker DeVries were top 100 players, but Valley programs coming up with top-200 is significant.

Murray State’s Jordan McCullum and D.J. Shine have impressed the rating services. McCullum left Harriman Tennesee to join Huntington Prep (Nevada) and verbalcommits.com ranks the 6’7 forward as the nation’s 137^th best player. Rivals.com ranks Shine as the 149^th best player. Shine recently shifted from his Martinez, Georgia high schoold to join Brewster Academy.

Drake’s Emmerson Tenner is just two spots (151) behind Shine. Both are point guards and fit perfectly into their respective team’s playing style. Tenner is from Memphis, Tennessee.

Top Ten State-Ranked Players

Belmont’s Cooper Haynes, Drake’s Andrell Burton, Illinois State’s Jack Daugherty, Indiana State’s Merritt Alderink, Missouri State’s Julius Thedford and Northern Iowa’s Will Hornseth and Redek Born all rank in the top ten of their respective state’s prephoops.com rankings.

Born is the younger brother of current UNI star Bowen Born and is the third ranked player in Iowa. Hornseth is ranked third in Wisconsin. Daugherty is No. 5 in the Cheese State.

Burton (Kansas) and Thedford (Tennessee) are the second-best players in their individual states. Thedford is Dana Ford’s second straight immensely talented high school signing coup after signing Tyler Bey this year.

Alderink is ranked fourth in Michigan and Haynes is number ten in Tennessee.

More Stars on the Way

Belmont’s Eoin Dillon and Jabez Jenkins come highly rated. Dillon is a Peoria, Illinois native and Jenkins is the latest Georgia native recruited by Alexander. Cade Norris is the younger brother of Loyola’s Cade Norris and is the 15^th best player from Ohio.

International players are still streaming into the Valley. Evansville landed New Zealand star Kaia Berridge and Josh Schertz has brought two foreign players to Indiana State. Iceland’s Robert Sean Birmingham has moved to North Carolina where he is ranked eleventh in the class of 2024 and Christian Nitu comes to Terre Haute from Toronto.

While Carlos Harris III is ranked twelfth in Illinois, he is also listed as the nation’s 234^th best prospect. Powell reached back to his own high school to sign Illinois’ 19^th best player in Justus McNair.

Each coach has his own recruiting philosophy. Alexander has just three transfers on his roster and is coaching the Valley’s youngest team. He has three prep recruits on this list and just two, fifth-year players on his roster. He is building from the bottom up.

Valley coaches are recruiting well when you consider the league’s best player came straight from high school and six of the league’s eleven, first and second-team all conference players have played only in the MVC.

UNI has just one transfer on its current roster. Six current players have won league-wide honors at some point in their Panther career and three of them were named to the Valley’s all-freshman team. Ben Jacobson believes in growing at the grass roots level.

Recruiting Well Overall View

Incoming talent is the life-blood of every basketball program. Valley coaches are recruiting well whether it’s from the prep or transfer portal ranks. Last season, Illinois State didn’t have one scholarship freshman and this year Ryan Pedon has four and he has signed two, highly regarded freshmen for next season.

Transfers like Bradley’s Malevy Leons, Drakes Darnell Brodie, Evansville’s Kenny Strawbridge, Illinois State’s Darius Burford, Missouri State’s Chance Moore and Donovan Clay and Murray state’s Rob Perry have certainly made their mark.

We’re at the very beginning of this season, but Valley Hoops Insider will keep you informed on the all-important recruiting developments as league coaches continue recruiting well.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo courtesy of goracers.com.