There’s no getting around it; this has not been a vintage season for the Missouri Valley Conference.
A season that entered with promise with a presumed top four teams (all from the state of Illinois) all returning a whole bunch of key players hasn’t lived up to expectations. Current flagbearer Loyola (Ill.)-with three starters back including the defending league player of the year from its Final Four team-has seen some lofty highs but also some unsightly lows, and Bradley, Illinois State and Southern Illinois have also been beset by inconsistency.
The Valley as a whole also has dealt with a mix of inconsistent play, injuries and young teams taking some lumps early on, and the result was the league whiffing in virtually all of its chances for high-profile wins in November and December but also losing a number of games its teams reliably have taken care of in the past. The other byproduct, though, has been a mass of parity throughout the league, where as of last week nine teams were within two games of first place, two games still separate third through 10th, and defending champion Loyola’s two MVC losses are by 19 at Evansville and by-gulp-35 at Missouri State.
Halfway through the Missouri Valley double round-robin, two teams have separated for the time being, and they’re now set to square off Saturday. Loyola is 7-2 in the Valley after squeaking by young Northern Iowa 61-60 on Wednesday, while Illinois State is a game back at 6-3 after an impressive 69-55 win at upstart Drake.
Loyola held on for a win at home despite trailing the stubborn Panthers by six in the late going and for a majority of the game. Cameron Krutwig (22 points) and Marques Townes (19) carried a big load supported by Bruno Skokna with 11. Krutwig hit his first three-pointer of the season in the final minute to at last give the Ramblers some breathing room. Skokna in particular also is going to be a key moving forward, as on Wednesday Loyola announced that sophomore guard Lucas Williamson will be out for 3-4 weeks after having surgery on his right hand this week, an injury that has been an issue going back to November.
Illinois State went on the road and was terrific, jumping on Drake in the second half and at one point opening up a 23-point lead with just over four minutes left. The Redbirds were a chic pick to win the MVC in the preseason with a talented returning trio of Phil Fayne, Milik Yarbrough and Keyshawn Evans, and those three played well (combined 50 points), but Zach Copeland also added 19 points and made four three-pointers to give ISU a much-needed extra burst.
Illinois State in particular had plenty of chances for some eye-catching wins in November and December, but the best it could do was a comeback win over BYU. The Redbirds have slowly come around in the MVC, though, despite continuing to be nagged by injuries that left them with eight scholarship players in uniform Wednesday night. And now ISU will host Loyola Saturday night for a late primetime (9 p.m. local) showcase on ESPN2 and a chance to tie the Ramblers for first place and avenge an earlier three-point loss at Loyola.
By the way: Wednesday night also was a good one for the MVC’s other two Illinois schools. Bradley won on the road at Evansville 81-73, continuing a recent rally of three wins in four games for a Braves team that topped SMU and Penn State in November before slumping badly soon after. And Southern Illinois also added an 88-73 win over Indiana State, with Armon Fletcher scoring a career-high 34 points for the Salukis.
Side Dishes:
- A busy night in the Big East was led by Marquette winning again, dumping Butler 76-58. Three players essentially outscored the Bulldogs (Markus Howard with 32, Sam Hauser 19 and Sacar Anim 14). And is Marquette finally becoming a good defensive team? The stats supported that in this one, as Butler playing at home shot just 32.8%, including 6 of 26 from three-point range. Also at the top of the league, Villanova drained 15 three-pointers in winning 86-74 at DePaul, where the temperature was -20 outside in Chicago.
- Big-time bounceback on the road by St. John’s, which won convincingly at Creighton 83-67. Shamorie Ponds flirted with a triple-double (26 points, eight rebounds, eight assists), the Johnnies shot 57.9% and the Bluejays’ scoring machine sputtered, making just 9 of 34 from three-point range.
- Seton Hall also picked up a sorely needed victory, edging Providence 65-63. It took Myles Powell scoring 31 of the Pirates’ 65 points to pull this one out, but this one serves a double purpose of strengthening the Hall’s resume while also denying the Friars a chance to improve theirs.
- It’s officially time to worry about Indiana, which is now 3-7 in the Big Ten and only 12-9 overall after a 66-58 loss at Rutgers. The Hoosiers don’t even look like an NIT team right now, while the Scarlet Knights have suddenly won three straight. Meanwhile, Minnesota did well to avenge a 27-point loss at Illinois, this time topping the Fighting Illini 86-75 with a balanced effort including four scoring in double figures,
- Mississippi was one of the great stories of the first half of this season, but the Rebels have hit an air pocket with three straight losses now, the latest against Florida 90-86 in overtime. Ole Miss surrendered a lot of points one game after the Gators scored 50 in a loss to TCU. KeVaughn Allen hit a three-pointer to send the game to OT, and Florida won despite getting pounded on the glass (41-27) and Ole Miss’s Terence Davis having another excellent game (26 points, 12 rebounds).
- Chris Clemons has had a memorable career at Campbell, and the 5-foot-9 guard added another signature moment, hitting a game-winning 28-footer at the buzzer for a 68-67 win at Radford. It capped a night when Clemons scored 39, including eight three-pointers. That’s the first loss in the Big South for the Highlanders, too.
- The 186th meeting between ancient Western New York rivals went to Niagara, which topped Canisius 78-70 in a game that was played despite blizzard conditions. Marvin Prochet scored 23 points and the Purple Eagles are trying to get on a roll, now with two straight wins in the MAAC. The Golden Griffins, on the other hand, just can’t find the magic they had a year ago, and star guard Isaiah Reese only played the game’s first 7:50 before sitting the rest of the way, with coach Reggie Witherspoon saying after the game he did not return due to an “in-house issue.” Courtesy of Buffalo News reporter Rachel Lenzi:
Canisius coach Reggie Witherspoon said Isaiah Reese sat for all but 7:50 of the loss to Niagara because of an “in-house issue.”
When asked if it was disciplinary: “I’ll just leave it at ‘in-house, for now.”— Rachel Lenzi (@rachelmlenzi) January 31, 2019
- Here comes UMBC again. It was just about this time a year ago that the Retrievers started their late-season push that resulted in one of the all-time moments in NCAA Tournament history. Maryland-Baltimore County now has won five in a row in the America East and is just one-half game off the pace of league-leading Vermont after a 57-49 win over fellow contender Stony Brook. Joe Sherburne-the leading returnee from last year’s squad-scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for his fourth career double-double, and UMBC held the Seawolves to 30.9% shooting.
- A bright spot in a season full of competitive losses for Maine: Andrew Fleming scored 38 points as the Black Bears handled Massachusetts-Lowell 78-59. The 6-foot-7 junior Fleming is a native of Maine, and he made 18 of 20 shots while posting the biggest scoring game by a Black Bear in over 17 years. The 18 field goals also tied a single-game America East record, quite an achievement in a league that has had greats like Reggie Lewis, Malik Rose, Craig Claxton, Taylor Coppenrath and Jameel Warney over a 40-year run.
- Sam Houston State continues to roll in the Southland. The Bearkats went just 5-8 out of conference but are now 8-0 in league after a 62-52 win at SE Louisiana. Sam Houston State has not allowed more than 69 points in a game-including holding five to 59 or less-in its current nine-game winning streak.
- Chalk up a 10th straight win for LSU in the form of a 72-57 win at Texas A&M. Also chalk up 36 points for Tremont Waters, and they were mighty important on a night when the rest of his teammates combined to shoot 15 of 52, or 28.8%.
- Washington just keeps winning in the Pac-12. The Huskies improved to 8-0 within the league with a 75-62 win over USC. Noah Dickerson scored 21 points, going 7-for-10 from both the field and the foul line, and Washington won despite committing 19 turnovers. Ugly as the Pac-12’s season has been, at some point the Huskies’ dominance still will deserve to be acknowledged.
- Michigan State announced yesterday what many were fearing, that Joshua Langford will miss the rest of the season due to the foot injury that has sidelined him since December. A team captain, Langford was averaging 15.0 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Prior to a dud at Purdue on Sunday, the Spartans were managing well without him, but his firepower will be missed.
Tonight’s Menu:
- The night gets off to an early start with LIU at Fairleigh Dickinson in the Northeast Conference on ESPNU (5 p.m. Eastern). These two are part of a six-way tie-yes, six-for third in the NEC at 4-4. The Blackbirds won the first meeting, but FDU has won three straight coming in. Also in the NEC, another of those 4-4 squads is preseason favorite St. Francis (Pa.), which faces western Pennyslvania rival Robert Morris, which at 7-1 is the only team to separate from the rest of the league so far.
- Temple goes to Houston (7 p.m., ESPN2) in a rematch of one of the season’s more memorable games, where the Owls gave the Cougars their first loss with a controversial call finishing it out. Seeing how badly Temple struggled on the glass against Cincinnati on Sunday doesn’t bode well for this one.
- Purdue is the ‘it’ team of the moment after its blowout of Michigan State on Sunday. Now: a trap game, as the Boilermakers go to Penn State, which has lost seven straight but many in close fashion. (7 p.m., FS1)
- Two important games in Conference USA have North Texas at Old Dominion and Texas-San Antonio at Western Kentucky. Both feature quality contrasts, with UNT and UTSA both favoring the three-pointer while both ODU and WKU are much more inside-the-arc oriented, especially the Hilltoppers. Enjoy the guard matchup in the latter game with Jhivvan Jackson against Tavion Hollingsworth.
- If you get a chance, would recommend checking out Austin Peay at Tennessee Tech (7 p.m., ESPNews), because the Governors have a star in Terry Taylor, force a bunch of turnovers and are one of the better unsung teams in the country. Another big one in the Ohio Valley has Murray State at Jacksonville State, where first place is on the line. The Gamecocks and their bruising frontline have come alive in conference play and swept Belmont already.
- The Southern Conference seems to have big ones almost every night. This evening’s is East Tennessee State at Samford. Don’t be fooled by the Bulldogs’ 3-6 league mark-it’s a team that won at Furman last time out and lost at Wofford at the buzzer the game before that.
- The bottom eight teams in the Big East are separated by half a game. Good grief. Xavier is at Georgetown (8 p.m., CBSSN), with the Hoyas trying to gain some slight separation from the bottom half of that mess. The Musketeers won the first meeting this year.
- Central Florida is going to be on tenuous ground for an NCAA Tournament at-large berth for the rest of the season, so the Knights can’t afford to lose tricky games at home against the likes of Connecticut (9 p.m., ESPNU).
- A big rivalry game in the Pac-12: Arizona is at Arizona State (9 p.m., ESPN2). We’re still guessing at least one of or maybe both of these teams sneak into the NCAA Tournament.
- A potential stumbling block for Gonzaga: the Bulldogs are at BYU (11 p.m., ESPN2), a team that has had success against the Zags in recent years, though strangely it seems to happen more in Spokane. This isn’t a vintage recent Cougars team, but there’s still plenty of firepower to beat Gonzaga if the chips fall right.
- Finally, perhaps the best game of the night is in the Big West where UC Irvine is at UC Santa Barbara with first place on the line (11 p.m., ESPNU). First off, it’s the Anteaters against the Gauchos, and that alone makes this a great matchup. They’re also two balanced teams that are excellent on D, rebound well and take care of the ball, especially UCSB, which is also has a bit more firepower on offense. The Thunderdome should be rocking for this one.
Enjoy your Thursday. Stay warm in the Midwest and East.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
