No. 4 – Jaylen Minnett – Missouri State
Minnett might be the Valley’s best three-point shooter. Minnett left IUPUI as the program’s single-season and career three-point leader and hasn’t slowed down at Missouri State. Through the team’s first twelve games, he owns the Valley’s third-best three-point percentage (.473) and is second in triples per game (3.5).
Minnett has seemingly limitless range, routinely taking shots from the large Bears’ logo at center court of JQH Arena. Minnett comes off Dana Ford’s bench, but is the team’s third-leading scorer (13.4 ppg) and has connected on multiple three-pointers in every game but one and he has made eleven of 12 free-throws. He is the Valley’s fifth-leading steals artist.
Missouri State (8-4) has won four straight games.
No. 3 – Ryan Schwieger – Loyola Chicago
Ryan Schwieger is one of Loyola’s two Ivy League transfers and he is LUC’s second-leading scorer (11.5 ppg) and like Minnett comes off the Ramblers’ bench. The Princeton transfer is an elite shooter and provides some instant offense for Drew Valentine’s ‘defense-first’ approach to winning.
Schwieger is making .455 from deep and .889 from the free-throw line. Three times during Loyola’s (9-2) eleven games Schwieger has led the Ramblers in scoring and six times has reached double figures. His teammates claim the 6’7 wing is an unstoppable offensive asset.
Chris Knight is LUC’s other former Ivy Leaguer and leads the Valley in field goal percentage.