Missouri Valley Basketball: Analyzing pre-Thanksgiving MTEs for key teams

Searching for significant wins, four Missouri Valley Conference teams play in pre-Thanksgiving multi-team events. Bradley, Drake, Illinois Chicago and Illinois State travel to warmer weather to heat up their rankings. 

Bradley heads to the Myrtle Beach Invitational for games in Conway, South Carolina. The Braves face Texas State in the tournament’s opening round and face either Princeton or Wright State in round two. 

Undefeated Drake travels to Charleston, South Carolina for the Shriners Children’s Classic. On November 21 the Bulldogs face Miami with a shot at either Oklahoma State or Florida Atlantic in round two. 

Illinois Chicago stays State-side too. The Flames head to Daytona, Florida for the Boardwalk Battle. First year coach Rob Ehsan’s team takes on first-year head coach Preston Spradlin and James Madison. La Salle or UC San Diego will be their second round opponent. 

Those three tournaments launch on November 21. 

Illinois State heads to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam. While the Redbirds wait until November 22 to get started, their competition is stiff. McNeese State is Illinois State’s opening round foe with a second round game with either UAB or Longwood. 

All four Valley teams face teams with KenPom ratings better than 200 during the opening rounds of their pre-Thanksgiving MTEs. The headlining game being Drake’s showdown with the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Miami. 

The Shriners Children’s Classic field consists of four ‘power conference’ teams and highly rated, mid-majors Drake, Florida Atlantic, VCU and Nevada. 

Drake is 3-0 under first-year coach Ben McCollum and the Bulldogs are the nation’s fourth best scoring defense team allowing just 51 points-per-game. McCollum made the move to Drake from Division 2 Northwest Missouri State and his top three scorers came with him from his previous school.

Bennett Stirtz (18.7 ppg) leads the team in assists (5.0). Daniel Abreu (17.7) is the team’s top three-point shooter (11 made threes and .550 from deep). Mitch Mascari (10.7) made eight of this ten triples in just one game. 

The undefeated Hurricanes (3-0) haven’t been tested and are sixth nationally in scoring offense (98 points-per-game). Six Hurricanes average double figures in scoring while the team’s average margin of victory is over 32 points per game. 

This will be the stiffest test of the early season for both of these teams. Game time is set for 11:00 am and can be seen on ESPN2.

Bradley’s participation in the Myrtle Beach Invitational has solid competition. Texas State (2-2) nearly defeated TCU. Bradley (3-1) is normally known for its defense, but the Braves are averaging 80.8 points per game and all five starters are averaging 9.3 points-per game or better.

Preseason Valley player of the year pick Duke Deen leads the team with a 13.5 scoring average and four assists per game. Bradley is tenth nationally in three-point percentage (.437) and fifteenth in effective field goal percentage (.610). 

Brian Wardle’s team is looking for its third straight twenty-win season. Tip time is 4:30 pm on ESPNU.

UIC (3-1) heads to the Boardwalk Battle sporting the nation’s twelfth best effective field goal percentage (.616) and with a significant win over Yale and a narrow loss to Northwestern. The Flames are averaging 93.3 points-per-game with four players averaging double figures. Xavier transfer Sasa Ciani averages 13 points and a team leading 8.7 rebounds per game. 

JMU head coach Spradlin and two of his former Morehead State players, Mark Freeman and Eddie Ricks are leading the JMU (2-2) rebuild. Freeman (11.8 ppg) leads the team in assists (4.5 per game). Game time is 10:00 am on Baller TV.

Illinois State’s first round Paradise Jam game will be a stout test. McNeese State is seventeenth nationally in steals (11.7 per game) and despite being just 1-2, they nearly knocked off Alabama. 

Illinois State (3-1) has won three straight games and sophomore sensation Johnny Kinziger leads five Redbird double-digit scorers with a 13-point scoring average. The Redbirds are fourth nationally in free throw percentage (.844).

The Redbirds and Cowboys tip at 2 pm on ESPN+.