MVC Games Week 2

[Kyle_Saluki_17]

Loyola has successfully earned them a game vs a ranked team by advancing to the last place game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational against Texas A&M

[tribecalledquest]

Solid win for Bradley 73-60 over SEMO. The Braves were already without Reink Mast. Sophomore starter Zek Montgomery is out 3-4 weeks with a hand injury and starting guard Connor Hickman didn’t play with an ankle injury.

Super senior JaShon Henry left for the locker room after getting hammered on a dunk attempt. He’s had a ton of concussions in his career and missed almost all of last season because of one. I’m not sure he should keep playing.

[BEARZ77]

Bears complete the rout of Middle Tennessee St. 75-51. Bad news was hearing that pg Matthew Lee is out for the season with an ACL tear in the BYU game. That really hurts . But this is one year we can probably deal with a loss like that as Alston Mason is really good as the now primary pg. He and Arkansas transfer [ both true sophs] Chance Moore have probably been the two best players thru the first 3 games . Moore, who comes off the bench at 6'6, has led the team in scoring all 3 games and had 19 today. For the year he's averaging 18 ppg, 7 rbs, shooting 62% fg, and 60% 3pt . Donovan Clay had a really good game with 15 pts, 5 rbs, 9 assists, and 3 steals. We now will run numerous sets with Donovan both bringing the ball up court, but also initiating offense
in the halfcourt. It creates mismatches, but perhaps more importantly with the Lee injury, divides ball handling a bit more. Anyway, good win by the Bears.

[Majik45]

Solid win for Bradley 73-60 over SEMO. The Braves were already without Reink Mast. Sophomore starter Zek Montgomery is out 3-4 weeks with a hand injury and starting guard Connor Hickman didn’t play with an ankle injury.

Super senior JaShon Henry left for the locker room after getting hammered on a dunk attempt. He’s had a ton of concussions in his career and missed almost all of last season because of one. I’m not sure he should keep playing.

Henry out indefinitely with another concussion on a similar looking play to what knocked him out all of last year.

Otherwise Bradley took care of business at home with 3 starters out, and giving extended minutes to a bunch of new guys. In theory, playing some other guys and getting the experience will benefit Bradley in the long run, but it sucks to have all these guys out when your next game is against a ranked Auburn.

Leons and Ville Tavehninan really stepped up today for Bradley to gut out a win against a hot shooting SE Mo St. team that just beat Evansville at home.

[SalukiWorld]

Valley seems like a 6 horse race to me with Drake the leader. Drake, SIU, Bradley, Missouri State, Murray State, Indiana State all seem like contenders for the top 4. Maybe Northern Iowa too but haven't seen enough of them. I don't buy Belmont but they did have a nice win over George Mason today. Also Evansville will be a scrappy team that gives the top 6 fits, UIC too.

[hot nuts]

Valley seems like a 6 horse race to me with Drake the leader. Drake, SIU, Bradley, Missouri State, Murray State, Indiana State all seem like contenders for the top 4. Maybe Northern Iowa too but haven't seen enough of them. I don't buy Belmont but they did have a nice win over George Mason today. Also Evansville will be a scrappy team that gives the top 6 fits, UIC too.

Seems fair. Still to early for me to make any conclusions.

[usmcsaluki]

I'm not sold on Indiana State at this point; they're taking care of business nicely, but need to see more against higher quality opponents before they're in the Top 4 discussion. UNI is not there either, but Missouri State might be.

[BEARZ77]

Might be Dana's best team , still early, but they certainly share the ball better and are more aggressive defensively. Good thing we have depth, because like a number of teams, been battling some injuries with Lee out for the year, Graham just now becoming game ready, Carper and Mogbo battling some lower body muscle strains etc. But we have some pieces and pieces behind pieces ; we have some skilled veterans, but I especially like our sophs and freshmen as building blocks [ if you can keep em].

[bradley_townie]

The Braves are extremely banged up heading to Cancun. Four starters are out between Rienk Mast, Zek Montgomery, Connor Hickman and Ja'Shon Henry (though he played most of the SEMO game). Zek broke his wrist during the EMU game and Connor suffered an ankle injury and didn't play against SEMO. Not sure on his status for Cancun.

Henry suffered a concussion against SEMO after getting fouled hard. That is his 4th concussion over the past couple of years and the reason he was out for most of last year. He is not making the trip to Cancun. Things were up in the air last year whether he would come back, but the guy clearly has a passion for basketball and he wanted to give it another go. Hoping he can get healthy and is getting some good advice, even if that means hanging it up. He plays a very physical brand of basketball under the hoop that it seems really likely this happens again.

[Kyle_Saluki_17]

I’m really interested in seeing this Missouri State team against SIU. Last few years it seems that Prim was the lone reason SIU couldn’t handle them. He absolutely dominated us. A ton of talent, but no Prim. Can’t wait for that matchup!