Who Is Winning the Recruiting Season?

(St. Louis, MO) – Championships are often won and lost in the off season. Summer work outs, weight training and film sessions are enormously important, but nothing is more important than bringing in talent. So, who is winning the recruiting war in the Missouri Valley Conference?

With the graduation of so many high profile and productive players, the facelift in the Valley will be significant. Defending champion Wichita State has a lot of talented players coming back, but the backbone of Gregg Marshall’s team has graduated. Is this a season when MVC teams can close the gap between themselves and the Shockers?

The Spring signing season isn’t over yet, but there are some significant trends we’ve been watching.

Higher level talent coming to Wichita State, Loyola and Bradley

As we saw last year with the signing of Markis McDuffie and Landry Shamet, Wichita State is now able to recruit a higher class of player than most Valley schools. This offseason is no different. The commitments of Austin Reaves and C.J. Keyser are higher ranked players than most MVC programs attract. Sophomore transfer Peyton Allen (Texas A&M) was a top 100 player coming out of high school.

During this recruiting cycle only Loyola and Bradley seem to be in the same stratosphere as the Shockers. With Loyola landing shooting guard Cameron Satterwhite and Iowa State transfer Clayton Custer, the Ramblers suddenly look like a contender.

Bradley picked up highly rated point guard Darrell Brown and center Koch Bar.

When you factor in that Shamet’s reboot at Wichita, that freshman class is incredible.

Junior College Players Tilting the Scales

Junior College players can be the life-blood of a revamping team or the source of huge frustration for coaches and fan bases that want to see growth and stability in a long-term program.

Last season Southern Illinois received a huge lift from guards Mike Rodriguez and Leo Vincent and won ten more games than the year before. But players like Loomis Gerring (Missouri State) and Willie Wiley (Evansville) haven’t panned out despite impressive Juco resumes.

Loyola and Bradley did well in this category too. The Braves signed three-star power forward Alex Foster (Texas Tech) the Ramblers pulled a coup when they picked up Trinidad State’s Treyvon Andres.

Drake’s landing some late JC transfers in T.J. Thomas and De’Antae McMurray has increased hope in Des Moines. Thik Bol a 6-7 transfer from Iowa Western Community College is helping SIU re-load too. Missouri State snagged JC all-American Ronnie Rousseau and fellow juco transfers Jarrid Rhodes and Alize Johnson, as Paul Lusk looks to add depth and talent to the roster.

Surprisingly Small Incoming Talent Pool

Across the league there are a total of 12 players that receive more than two stars according to verbalcommits.com. Three of them were signed by Gregg Marshall.

While Illinois State’s commits are all of the two-star variety, Dan Muller keeps loading up on long athletic players. Two 6-3 guards (Madison Williams & red shirt Matt Hein) join 6-6 forward Andre Washington and 6-8 swing man Phil Fayne III.

Transfers Hurt Again

After losing Reggie Lynch last year, Illinois State lost top substitute Nick Banyard this year. Evansville thought Harris Brown would be the man to replace D. J. Balentine, but a sub-par freshman season has been followed up with a departure from the program. Drake’s Kale Abrahamsson, a double digit scorer has left the Bulldogs.

Potential Surprises

Indiana State signed one of the top point guards in the midwest in Jordan Barnes (CBC High School) and versatile Donovan Franklin from Gulf Coast College (O’Fallon High School). Northern Iowa walk on Adam McDermott has the gene pool to be good and SIU landed two St. Louis area players that seem to have the pedigree to surprise.

Several teams still have scholarships to offer and time to fill some holes.

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