Top Tier
No. 4 – Murray State – 6-2 (1-0)
Murray State has won three straight games and five of its last six. A big game with Western Kentucky looming next weekend. The Racers are doing what winning teams do. They rank second in the Valley in scoring defense, they hit threes and excel at ‘team’ rebounding.
Six times, the Racers have held their opponents under seventy points. Since the three-point line is so critical in today’s collegiate game, the Racers are a dangerous team. They are second best among Valley teams in making threes (.411) and they are the MVC’s best at stopping their opponents’ long-range game (.261).
Senior JaCobi Wood is having an MVP kind of season. The point guard leads Murray State with a 14.1 scoring average and in assists (5.5 per game). He is one of six Racers averaging 8.9 points or more.
KyeRon Lindsay leads the Valley (2.0) in blocks.
No. 3 – Northern Iowa – 5-4 (1-0)
UNI’s record doesn’t stand out, but all four of the Panther losses have come at the hands of top-100 teams. They have won two straight games and have found their traditional defensive prowess. While UNI is the Valley’s third best scoring defense team (65.1 per game), they have held their last two opponents under 60 points and have accomplished that feat four times this season.
The Panther offense is improving too. UNI is fifth nationally in effective field goal percentage (.597) and they lead the Valley in overall field goal percentage (.519).
Winning road games in the Valley are difficult, but Ben Jacobson’s team defeated UIC in Chicago and won the game by 13 points. They play four of their next five games at home, with the only game away from the McLeod Center is a neutral site contest.
Three Panthers average double digits in scoring and six average at least 7.5 points per game. Preseason all-Valley forward Tytan Anderson leads the team in scoring (13.1 ppg) and rebounding (6.1) while making a team best .562 from the field.
No. 2 – Drake – 8-0 (1-0)
Drake is making some national waves by defeating power conference teams (Miami and Vanderbilt) and winning its first eight games. The Bulldogs lead Bradley in the NET, but trail the Braves at kenpom.com, barttorvik.com and ESPN’s BPI.
First year coach Ben McCollum has his team leading the Valley in scoring defense (57.8 points per game) and they’ve achieved the second best rebounding margin (8.4). McCollum urges his team to assert their will on the opponents and so far his Bulldogs have done it to perfection.
Drake’s 43 NET is outstanding and the Bulldogs are twentieth in the old fashioned RPI.
McCollum won four Division 2 national championships and four of his former Northwest Missouri State players came with him to Des Moines.
Junior Bennett Stirtz leads the league in assists (6.0 per game) and minutes played (38.4 per game) and is second in scoring (18.8) and steals (2.1). Another former Bearcat, Mitch Mascari (12.6 ppg) has an other worldly .952 success rate from the free throw line. Mascari is sixth in three-point percentage (.472). Forward Cam Manyawu leads the Valley in field goal percentage (.667) and is seventh in rebounds (6.9).
Drake plays a slower pace so their low scoring outputs are a bit deceiving. They are efficient offensively but they’ve failed to score 70 points in four of their eight games.
Drake was the Charleston Classic champion.
No. 1 – Bradley – 8-1 (1-0)
Like the Bulldogs, the Braves were an MTE champion. Bradley won the Myrtle Beach Invitational. The preseason favorites and have not disappointed. While they have not battled a ‘power conference’ team, their schedule has been solid and their next two games are against top-100 teams.
The Braves lead the league in scoring, three-point-percentage and lead the NATION ineffective field goal percentage (.612). Bradley’s win at Southern Illinois was impressive. The Braves made 14 triples and handed out twenty assists on the way to a 23-point win in Carbondale, Illinois.
Five Braves average double-figures in scoring with Duke Deen and Zek Montgomery each scoring 124 points for an average of 13.8 per game. Deen, the preseason player of the year is tied for third in made three-pointers and tied for fourth in assists (4.7 per game).
Forward Darius Hannah ranks among the lead leaders in scoring, rebounds, field goal percentage, blocked shots and steals.
Brian Wardle’s teams typically improve as the season wears on. If that’s true this year, but Braves are a scary Missouri Valley Conference team.