Surprise Players in the Valley

[tornado]

OK -- who does everyone list as this year's surprise players thus far...

Here is my All-Surprise Team...both good and bad..not meant as a knock on anyone -- just surprises......

Pleasant surprises
-Walt Lemon -- not too big of a surprise, we knew he was good
-Jordan Prosser -- I didn't think he'd even get this much playing time!
-Creighton's Doug McDermott -- getting loads of playing time and doing well
-Creighton's Antoine Young averaging 13.4 ppg
-SIU's Mamadou Seck - a late signee by CLo averaging 10.5 ppg, 7.1 rpg!

...Honorable Mention, David Kyles -- has always been hyped but now showing some talent, 13.4 ppg
..and Evansville's Kenneth Harris 11.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg


Bad surprises
-Justin Bocot falling off the playing charts -- only 19% from 3-pt and 32% shooting overall, 6 ppg, 2 rpg.
-Creighton's duo of outside shooters, Ethan Wragge & Kaleb Korver - both averaging just 4-5 ppg
-Evansville's full time PG Kavon Lacey averaging just 4.4 ppg, 2.9 apg
-ISU's guards of the future Justin Clark (20% on 3-pt and 4.1 ppg) and Kenyon Smith (only appeared in 5 games, 1.0 ppg & only 5 assists all season) losing playing time to walk ons.
-Missouri State's Adam Leonard averaging only 9 ppg

...Honorable Mention - Wichita's Ehimen Orukpe -- took three years to work the system and get this guy eligible and at WSU and he was hyped as a possible starter -- now he's relegated to the deep bench

[Da Coach]

A couple more-

Good- Sophomore guard Anthony James is leading UNI in scoring at 11.9 ppg. He was lightly recruited out of St. Louis Normandy HS, but is an outstanding player.

Bad- Senior Gabe Blair is the only member of last year's All-Newcomer team, except for Tony Freeman who completed his eligibility, who is not contributing much this season. He is averaging only 4.0 ppg for Wichita State.

Note one poster who did not think Blair deserved to be on the All-Newcomer team last season-

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=170408&highlight=gabe+blair#post170408

also note that the same poster thought that Anthony James might be pretty good-
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread...=anthony+james

[bu fan 9]

mine would be John Wilkins I didn't think he would see the floor much this year.

[TheGuy]

I think Seck has to be the biggest surprise. He came out of nowhere for SIU even though the team is not very good. Without him they would be flat out embarrassing.

Not too sure McDermott, Young or Lemon are too huge of surprises.

I agree, ISU guards are terrible. I think if you did this again in a month, you might be adding Ekey to the list.

[bugregshu]

mine would be John Wilkins I didn't think he would see the floor much this year.

You didn't think a somewhat highly-touted 6'9 guard/forward who is a sophomore and playing for a team that lost about 60% of its scoring last year would 'see the floor much this year?' I did.

[tornado]

I guess I would have to label Bocot as the single biggest surprise....
Between him and Fay -- you'd have two experienced and senior players -- something that would appear to be a STRONG point given so many player departures...
But instead, Justin's playing time has dwindled as Chris Lowery is playing way more minutes with the new guys, and guys like Seck, Surles, Teague, Freeman, and now even Diamond Taylor are getting increasing minutes while Juston's getting decresing minutes.
He's 4 years into his college career (sat out 1st year) and he's never played less than 18-20 minutes per game and generally scored well...and has been
a career 36.4% 3-pt shooter, 37.4% last year.

But he only played NINE minutes last game vs. NIU, and in the last 5 games has lost his starting spot and has been playing only 15-16 minutes average per game.

Even Chris Lowery's media comments about Justin were very optimistic..
"I think you'll see Justin play this year like an experienced veteran.
We are going to utilize his athletic ability more in transition. That's his greatest strength -- getting out in transition and finishing and putting the defense in a bind with his athletic ability.
His leadership is very important to our program."
But you gotta wonder what's going on...his 19% shooting from outside probably has something to do with it..

Here's a story about SIU's Mamadou Seck

http://thesouthern.com/sports/college/basketball/mens/article_82ac5bc6-10ad-11e0-8efc-001cc4c03286.html

[LittleBrave]

Too bad there aren't any surprise TEAMS this year in the Valley.

Drake is surprisingly bad this year for how I thought they'd be.
UNI is better than I thought this year (not surprisingly good) - thought they'd be 5th best in MVC with all their key losses.

In terms of BU surprises,

Good: AW, WL
Bad: WE, DSE

I expect DSE to get BETTER, and for WE to play SMARTER!

[tornado]

-SIU's Mamadou Seck - a late signee by CLo averaging 10.5 ppg, 7.1 rpg!

Mamadou Seck had 18 points and 17 rebounds Thursday..but...he also had no assists and 5 turnovers...and nobody else on the whole team did much of anything..and SIU still lost to Missouri State 64-51...

But to me the real surprises are...(along with BU playing so poorly )

-Diamond Taylor did not even play (word is he's done something and in the doghouse)
-Justin Bocot, who played well against Bradley, played only 17 minutes and was scoreless
-SIU's starting guards combined for 1-8, 3 pts, 2 asst.


other surprises continue to be ISU's point guard Kenyon Smith has fallen below the walk ons in productivity...0.6 ppg, 1 apg
and long range shooter Justin Clark current 3-pt shooting of 8-40 (20%) actually raises his career 3-pt shooting to 19.0%

[TheGuy]

Mamadou Seck had 18 points and 17 rebounds Thursday..but...he also had no assists and 5 turnovers...and nobody else on the whole team did much of anything..and SIU still lost to Missouri State 64-51...

But to me the real surprises are...(along with BU playing so poorly )

-Diamond Taylor did not even play (word is he's done something and in the doghouse)
-Justin Bocot, who played well against Bradley, played only 17 minutes and was scoreless
-SIU's starting guards combined for 1-8, 3 pts, 2 asst.


other surprises continue to be ISU's point guard Kenyon Smith has fallen below the walk ons in productivity...0.6 ppg, 1 apg
and long range shooter Justin Clark current 3-pt shooting of 8-40 (20%) actually raises his career 3-pt shooting to 19.0%

Smith has been hurt on and off this year (back problems) and has been getting limited minutes. Clarks production has been flat out embarrassing.

[real fan]

Mamadou Seck had 18 points and 17 rebounds Thursday..but...he also had no assists and 5 turnovers...and nobody else on the whole team did much of anything..and SIU still lost to Missouri State 64-51...

But to me the real surprises are...(along with BU playing so poorly )

-Diamond Taylor did not even play (word is he's done something and in the doghouse)
-Justin Bocot, who played well against Bradley, played only 17 minutes and was scoreless
-SIU's starting guards combined for 1-8, 3 pts, 2 asst.


other surprises continue to be ISU's point guard Kenyon Smith has fallen below the walk ons in productivity...0.6 ppg, 1 apg
and long range shooter Justin Clark current 3-pt shooting of 8-40 (20%) actually raises his career 3-pt shooting to 19.0%

Would be nice to have a player that could get 17rebounds.

[tornado]

a 17-rebound game is often the product of an awful ot of missed shots...
(60 in this game)

[45otseoj]

Ekey- leading the MVC in blocks

[Da Coach]

Good job by Ekey averaging 1.6 bpg, something he did very well in high school.
I have noticed the MVC is unusually devoid of good shotblockers this season. Ekey is the only MVC player with an average of more than 1.2 blocks per game, and there are only 2 others who average over 1 bpg. Note that there are over 280 Division I players who are averaging more than 1.0 bpg, but only 3 of them in the MVC.

Ekey's MVC-leading average of 1.6 ranks tied for 91st nationally-

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/stats/leaders/NCAAB/BLKAVG/regularseason/yearly?&start_row=51

and the 2nd ranked player(s) in the MVC rank tied for 196th at 1.2 bpg.

[dogsrus]

Starting to worry about Walt just a bit....he remionds me of TCS, (I think that was the guy) who could get to the hole but struggled to finish.

[tornado]

... Walt ... remionds me of TCS...

now I've heard it all......