OVC Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)
By Joey Loose
24. Josiah Wallace
A 6’4 guard from Marshall, Illinois, Wallace spent his collegiate career relatively close to home. He spent his first season at Olney Central College in southern Illinois before transferring into the OVC at Eastern Illinois. Spending three seasons with the Panthers program, Wallace would become an important weapon, albeit for an Eastern Illinois that struggle for consistency.
He was an important piece right off the bat, averaging 15.5 points per game in his sophomore year, his first on Eastern Illinois’ campus. As a junior, he helped guide the Panthers to 17 wins and a 5th-place finish in the OVC, the program’s best result in recent memory. He’d again average greater than 15 points a game in that junior season and had decent numbers in his senior year after the start of the pandemic. He had a really nice run at the end of that junior year, including a 25-point effort in the OVC Tournament over Jacksonville State.
One of the best newcomers in the league back in 2019, Wallace earned First Team All-OVC honors twice in his career, demonstrating his talent as a scorer and leader for this program. Eastern Illinois hasn’t moved mountains or been a great program in recent years, but Wallace was a talented weapon who fit well in Jay Spoonhour’s system in his final years as head coach. Wallace’s offensive contributions are missed in Charleston.