Curious ??

[BEARZ77]

Yesterday was interesting day for vintage MSU sports alums as a number of former Bears were in the news. Alize Johnson was given the start at pf in the first NBA exhibition game for the Indiana Pacers, Luke Voit made the start at 1B for the Yankees in their opening game and it was announced that Matt Hall had made the Red Sox roster and might be in their starting rotation at the start of this season, and Dylan Cole is in the mix for a starting linebacker position with the Texans of the NFL. [ Not sure if there are any former Ice Bears on NHL rosters, and while Alexa Willard just signed to play professionally in WB in Europe, we don't have any current LB's in the WNBA]. There are numerous other Bears across baseball and of course the Bears and most MVC teams have players in other pro basketball leagues, numerous NFL players are from the MVC Football League, and major and minor league baseball have many reps from the MVC , some at significant levels of status.

But the report on the 3 major American sports leagues made me curious if any other MVC schools had a representative at the highest level in each of the 3 leagues currently ?

[BEARZ77]

Alize Johnson got his first start in a regular season game for the Indiana Pacers today; typical Ze game performance 11 points and 17 rebounds . Said it when he was at Missouri State, elite rebounders are one of the rarest skill sets out there because it's as much about desire/effort as it is about talent, and most just don't have the grit to get after it.

[ahunte1]

That's amazing. Congrats!

[BEARZ77]

Former Bear Luke Voit just on a tear for the Yankees. With Judge and Stanton out recently, Voit has carried the Yanks , 6 home runs in last 6 games, leads majors with 20 dingers. Only 3rd Yankee in history with 20 homeruns in 50 games [ Ruth/Mantle] Could be in race for AL MVP. Quite a story !!

[Birdfan2018]

James Robinson (Illinois State) is an Undrafted Free Agent RB with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
J-Rob is on pace to finish #3 in Rushing in the NFL (#2 in the AFC).
Will most likely be in the Pro-Bowl (if they have one) and make AFC 1st Team Running Back.
After 12 games, has 1,278 total yards (968 rushing /310 receiving) with 4 remaining games.
He is on pace to break the NFL record for rushing yards & total yards for a Rookie Undrafted Free Agent.
Has scored 9 TD’s (7 rushing/2 receiving).
Most likely will reach 1,000 rushing yards in game #13 next Sunday.

[BEARZ77]

James Robinson (Illinois State) is an Undrafted Free Agent RB with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
J-Rob is on pace to finish #3 in Rushing in the NFL (#2 in the AFC).
Will most likely be in the Pro-Bowl (if they have one) and make AFC 1st Team Running Back.
After 12 games, has 1,278 total yards (968 rushing /310 receiving) with 4 remaining games.
He is on pace to break the NFL record for rushing yards & total yards for a Rookie Undrafted Free Agent.
Has scored 9 TD’s (7 rushing/2 receiving).
Most likely will reach 1,000 rushing yards in game #13 next Sunday.

Excellent !!

[mvfcfan]

I don't pay attention too closely to pro sports, although I do watch them from time to time. With that said the Sycamores have Robert Tonyan who is a TE for the Packers that starts and has been having a really good season it sounds like.

We also have Sean Manea who pitches for the Oakland A's. I want to say there are a couple of other former Sycamores in the MLB but I can't remember who they are and I could very well be wrong about that. I'm also pretty sure we have several in the minor leagues. Baseball is our best sport here though and the one we seem to have consistent success in.

We don't have anyone in the NBA.

Between the MVC, OVC, and the MVFC I have seen a lot of really good players come through. I always pull for Valley players in the pros even if I didn't necessarily root for them while they were in college.

[BEARZ77]

I don't know exactly without doing some research, but i think the Bears have about 5-6 in the majors right now and quite a few in the minors. Baseball by far has been our best sport for producing professionals and has included some real stars like Ryan Howard, Billy Mueller, to name a couple.

[squirrel]

Bradley had 5 and at one point 6 counting MLS in the 2000's:

NBA: Anthony Parker, Danny Granger
NFL: Marcus Pollard
MLB: Brian Shouse, Bryan Rekar
MLS: Bryan Namoff