MVC Games Week 7

[E-Villan]

UE turned a 9 point half time deficit around to beat Bellarmine 73-61. Good final non-con game.

Strange ending to that game. Bellarmine was pressing full court in the last minute, UE broke the press with a pass to Yacine Toumi who dunked the ball. This completely triggered Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport. He waved his players off the handshake line, refused to shake as well, then proceeded to jump all over Ragland as he was walking the baseline near the students. Rags just kept smiling to him. He finally left to a rain of boos.

If you are pressing and fouling, you can't expect the other team to sit on the ball.

[DUBulldog]

Drake beat St. Ambrose 124-48, largest margin of victory in Drake's history.

A totally meaningless game, but a good chance to get the young guys a lot of minutes. Not like Drake was trying to run up the score. All of the starters played less than 20 minutes, and then bench outscored the starters 72-52

Most notable thing in the game for Drake fans was that Issa Samake played for the time in 21 months after a bad knee injury. If (and that's a big if) he can shake off the rust, Samake gives Drake the rim protector they've been missing.

[bradley_townie]

Bradley fans were down after losing Terry Roberts to the transfer portal, but Duke Deen has become a scoring threat of his own, going 11-18 from 3 in his last two games. He is a more natural point guard and Terry was more of a 2 playing the 1.

[tribecalledquest]

Bradley fans were down after losing Terry Roberts to the transfer portal, but Duke Deen has become a scoring threat of his own, going 11-18 from 3 in his last two games. He is a more natural point guard and Terry was more of a 2 playing the 1.

Duke Deen is also a two playing the one - he just happens to be 5-8

[Chuck A]

UIC got completely steamrolled at Northwestern, losing by close to 40 points. UIC is not a good basketball team.

I dont understand why I see so many Valley fans giving them way too much credit for their record. They have beaten some pretty bad teams, but are 0-2 in the Valley with two blowout losses. I have watched them many times this year and never come away thinking "wow, this team is solid". I think the Flames look every part of a 10th or 11th place team in this conference.

Stop it! I haven't seen any Flames fan or even any Valley fans claiming that UIC will blow up in the Conference and wind up in the top 4! They may very well be every part of a 10th or 11th place team. I don't think people are giving UIC too much credit for their record...just the opposite. I've seen the criticism of a weak schedule that won't properly prepare them for the toughness of the MVC. What I have seen are fans impressed with our freshmen class and their potential. The fans also realize how young and inexperienced they are. Sure, they're gonna get run out of quite a few Valley gyms this season, but they will improve and get better. The team has 6 freshmen (including a redshirt), 2 transfers (Toby Okani & Tre Anderson) and 3 returners. They're still learning each other. Barring any portal defections, I like our team's trajectory better than Loyola's and even Valpo's when they joined.

Personally, I still think the team is better than Valpo, Evansville and Illinois State.

[BruinGrad]

UIC got completely steamrolled at Northwestern, losing by close to 40 points. UIC is not a good basketball team.

I dont understand why I see so many Valley fans giving them way too much credit for their record. They have beaten some pretty bad teams, but are 0-2 in the Valley with two blowout losses. I have watched them many times this year and never come away thinking "wow, this team is solid". I think the Flames look every part of a 10th or 11th place team in this conference.

Stop it! I haven't seen any Flames fan or even any Valley fans claiming that UIC will blow up in the Conference and wind up in the top 4! They may very well be every part of a 10th or 11th place team. I don't think people are giving UIC too much credit for their record...just the opposite. I've seen the criticism of a weak schedule that won't properly prepare them for the toughness of the MVC. What I have seen are fans impressed with our freshmen class and their potential. The fans also realize how young and inexperienced they are. Sure, they're gonna get run out of quite a few Valley gyms this season, but they will improve and get better. The team has 6 freshmen (including a redshirt), 2 transfers (Toby Okani & Tre Anderson) and 3 returners. They're still learning each other. Barring any portal defections, I like our team's trajectory better than Loyola's and even Valpo's when they joined.

Personally, I still think the team is better than Valpo, Evansville and Illinois State.

To your point, with 6 freshmen, you need to have a weaker schedule. This gives them an opportunity to develop without getting too frustrated. I know Belmont has a slightly weaker schedule this year because we have mostly new roster. With a lot of freshmen, our coach didn't schedule any Power 5 schools.

[Chuck A]

UIC got completely steamrolled at Northwestern, losing by close to 40 points. UIC is not a good basketball team.

I dont understand why I see so many Valley fans giving them way too much credit for their record. They have beaten some pretty bad teams, but are 0-2 in the Valley with two blowout losses. I have watched them many times this year and never come away thinking "wow, this team is solid". I think the Flames look every part of a 10th or 11th place team in this conference.

Stop it! I haven't seen any Flames fan or even any Valley fans claiming that UIC will blow up in the Conference and wind up in the top 4! They may very well be every part of a 10th or 11th place team. I don't think people are giving UIC too much credit for their record...just the opposite. I've seen the criticism of a weak schedule that won't properly prepare them for the toughness of the MVC. What I have seen are fans impressed with our freshmen class and their potential. The fans also realize how young and inexperienced they are. Sure, they're gonna get run out of quite a few Valley gyms this season, but they will improve and get better. The team has 6 freshmen (including a redshirt), 2 transfers (Toby Okani & Tre Anderson) and 3 returners. They're still learning each other. Barring any portal defections, I like our team's trajectory better than Loyola's and even Valpo's when they joined.

Personally, I still think the team is better than Valpo, Evansville and Illinois State.

To your point, with 6 freshmen, you need to have a weaker schedule. This gives them an opportunity to develop without getting too frustrated. I know Belmont has a slightly weaker schedule this year because we have mostly new roster. With a lot of freshmen, our coach didn't schedule any Power 5 schools.

Exactly! Thanks for knowing.

[BCPanther]

Welp.

Nate Heise had a setback in his recovery from finger surgery that required a second procedure. He will miss the rest of the season.

That's a massive blow to UNI.