Missouri Valley Basketball: Grades for each team 1st week of 2022-23 season

Teams that earned an “incomplete” grade

Missouri State, Murray State and Northern Iowa haven’t done enough work yet. Bradley played a non-D1 team and won easily and then lost too easily to Utah State.

Northern Iowa is playing without their starting center Austin Phyfe and defeated a non-D1 team and got handled by Richmond. While there is offensive talent on Ben Jacobson’s team, during the loss to Richmond, they shot just 32% against the Spiders.

Northern Iowa’s anticipated efficient defense has been on display, allowing just 68 points to Richmond, but an uncharacteristic 3/22 shooting night from long range ended UNI’s hopes of knocking off the nationally ranked Spiders. Northern’s game with Virginia was canceled due to the tragic shooting on the UVA campus.

Stop me if you heard this story. Murray State defeated a non-D1 team and lost at Saint Louis. There is just no reading this team yet. D2 transfer Jamari Smith has put up two, 19-point games and Duquesne transfer Rob Perry has shown flashes of what people are expecting of him.

This team is practically brand new, so this incomplete grade seems particularly true.

Missouri State has played only one game and they defeated Division 2’s Missouri S&T. The Bears get started for real this week with a game Wednesday at BYU before returning home to face Middle Tennessee.

One week from today, we will have a much better read on the Missouri Valley Conference. MTE season is upon us and most of the Valley teams are participating and facing some stiff competition.

Next week’s report card will include more pop quizzes and homework assignments included.