Who Can Challenge Wichita State?

(St. Louis, MO) – Wichita State is the heavy favorite to win the Missouri Valley basketball title, but if the unthinkable would happen, Wichita State would stumble, which Valley team has a chance to make a run? Northern Iowa gave it a shot last year and Illinois State is building an athletic roster, but a dark horse may be emerging at Evansville.

Illinois State looked to be the best team to fit the bill as a rival to the nationally known Shockers, but with the transfer of big man Reggie Lynch and the recent suspension of Teddy Hawkins, they seem to be less of a threat.

Loyola and Evansville both won post season titles last year. Loyola won the College Basketball Insider tournament and the Purple Aces taking home College Insider.com Post-Season Tournament championship. They have the look of a team ready to ride high.

No one doubts that Wichita State with their two all-american guards and solid additions, but Evansville’s deep and veteran team could give them a challenge.

Head Coach Marty Simmons has the luxury of starting the league’s best scoring guard in D. J. Balentine and the MVC’s best pure post player in 6’10 Egidijus Mockevicius. So ‘Mr. Inside’ and ‘Mr. Outside’ present real challenges to Valley teams. Balentine averaged 20.4 last season and Mockevicius averaged a double-double (12.5 & 9.9) and runs the floor extremely well.

But they are not a two-player team. Mislav Broja (7.5 ppg & 4.5 rpg) is one of the most versatile MVC performers but missed significant time last year because of injuries. The Aces will come at you in waves this season. Perimeter players Jaylon Brown (5.3), Adam Wing (7.5) and Blake Simmons (7.3) are all fundamentally sound, average more than five points per game, can hit the open shot and no MVC team outside of Wichita grabs ‘team rebounds’ like UE. 6’8 forward David Howard is a strong defender and helps Mockevicius on the defensive glass. The continual development of explosive guard Duane Gibson (5.1) is a real wild card for Simmons.

And there are newcomers! Junior College all-american Willie Wiley (6’7) could crack the starting line up and 7’1” Nebraska transfer Sergej Vucetic provides depth and experience behind Mockevicius.

Simmons knows how to develop scoring guards. After four years of Colt Ryan setting scoring records in the purple and orange, and Balentine is closing in on Ryan’s marks, the Purple Aces signed prep scoring star Harris Brown. Evansville watchers believe he is the next big thing to fill the nets at Ford Center.

The CIT championship helped Simmons’ team learn how to win clutch games. Balentine took a bigger leadership role during their championship run and Mockevicius played at a much more emotional level. Simmons says the CIT experience was valuable for many different reasons.

 

 

No, we do not expect Wichita State to falter, but the team with the best chance of being a threat to the Shockers’ MVC reign is Evansville.

Do Good