Missouri Valley Conference news

[Da Coach]

Larry Bird Player of the Year Award- For most of the year, it was a given that the MVC POY would be Greg McDermott, but Colt Ryan has had a great year and will get a number of the votes. Ryan now actually leads McDermott in the MVC scoring race 22.1 ppg for Ryan to 20.9 ppg for McDermott.
However, I still think the award will go to McDermott.-
MVC only stats-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/ind-conf.pdf

Overall stats-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/ind.pdf

Incidentally, since 2000, the Player of the Year award has gone to a member of the top team in the conference every year except twice, and those 2 years it went to a player on the 2nd place team (Tyrese Bryson and Kyle Korver).

1st team All-MVC- McDermott and Ryan are locks for 1st team All-MVC, of course, as is Kyle Weems. But after that it gets a little less certain.
Garrett Stutz leads the league in rebounding in MVC games (9.4 rpg compared to 9.3 for Carmichael) but Jackie Carmichael leads in rebounding overall by a wide margin. Their scoring averages are similar (14.0 for Stutz compared with 13.6 for Carmichael), but I believe Stutz will be 1st team and Jackie 2nd team on the basis of Stutz being a senior and playing for the #1 team. The others who will be in the running for 1st team All-MVC are guards Joe Ragland, Rayvonte Rice, and Jake Odum, IMO.

For the other All-MVC award teams- Ben Simons, Mamadou Seck, Toure Murry, Tyler Brown, Dwayne Lathan, Taylor Brown, Anthony James, and Antoine Young.

Here are some other interesting MVC notes from a good article in the Bloomington Pantagraph-

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/around-the-valley-jays-mcdermott-a-virtual-lock-for-top/article_00c31c9e-5ddc-11e1-b560-0019bb2963f4.html

Jake Odum has had problems all year with plantar fasciitis in his foot, but now it is being reported that he may have a stress fracture in his shin.
After scoring a career-high 34 points against Illinois State on Feb. 14, he went scoreless Saturday against Butler, and scored only 4 points last night in the Sycamores' huge win at Missouri State. Indiana State hosts Creighton in the final game Saturday, and Coach Lansing is considering resting Odum for the MVC tournament. Unfortunately, they need to win Saturday's game to maintain any hope of avoiding the Thursday night play-in games. Indiana State's 270+ Strength of Schedule would lose the tiebreaker with any of the other teams in contention except Illinois State.

[Da Coach]

Evansville’s home crowds have increased only 277 with the move this season to the new downtown Ford Center from Robertson Fieldhouse. The Purple Aces have averaged crowds of 5,190 in 16 home games.
However, Evansville coach Marty Simmons believes the difference will become apparent in the future.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/around-the-valley-jays-mcdermott-a-virtual-lock-for-top/article_00c31c9e-5ddc-11e1-b560-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1nE5l1iVe

It's a bit sad that with the beautiful new downtown Ford Arena just built in Evansville and with a pretty good team and one the finest players in the MVC that the attendance this season has been almost the same as last season. However, it will probably help recruiting a little bit.

By the way, did anyone else note the silly error in the Bloomington Pantagraph's story?
Evansville's old arena was Roberts Arena and not "Robertson Fieldhouse".
Robertson Fieldhouse was Bradley's home arena for decades, but has not been used for men's basketball since 1982. I am not sure if Evansville ever played in the old Robertson Fieldhouse, though it's possible they could have. Evansville did not join the Missouri Valley until 1994, long after Bradley moved to the Carver Arena.

[tornado]

Answer - no Evansville never played in BU's old Fieldhouse..
the very first game Bradley ever played against Evansville was 12/22/86,
then again 12/22/87, then we began the regular series with them every year from 1995 on...

[tornado]

This beat writer from Missouri State is also proclaiming that the Player of the Year Award is NOT wrapped up yet by Doug McDermott.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120224/SPORTS0401/302240029/-1/RSS12

most of what he says may be true - but media people are swayed by the media coverage - thus McDermott will get virtually all the media votes.
I would be surprised if he got anything less that 95% of those votes, but the votes coming from the coaches and other team staff may actually be more thought out - read what Indiana State's Greg Lansing said..

As far as Newcomer of the Week - the ISU folks think it's a lock and that nobody's even close to their rookie PG Nic Moore...

But....that's not what the article says...they mention ....
Anthony Downing...who has won the MVC Newcomer of the Week FOUR times, compared to Moore winning it a grand total of ZERO times!
Seth Tuttle has won the Newcomer award THREE times, as has Grant Gibbs ..


AND Downing (11.4ppg/3.1rpg), Tuttle (10ppg/6rpg), and Gibbs (160 assists) all have substantial statistical advantages on Moore (8.8ppg on 39% shooting and 112 asst)...

[cpacmel]

As far as Newcomer of the Week - the ISU folks think it's a lock and that nobody's even close to their rookie PG Nic Moore...

But....that's not what the article says...they mention ....
Anthony Downing...who has won the MVC Newcomer of the Week FOUR times, compared to Moore winning it a grand total of ZERO times!
Seth Tuttle has won the Newcomer award THREE times, as has Grant Gibbs ..


AND Downing (11.4ppg/3.1rpg), Tuttle (10ppg/6rpg), and Gibbs (160 assists) all have substantial statistical advantages on Moore (8.8ppg on 39% shooting and 112 asst)...

Are you confusing Tyler Brown with Nic Moore?

I have never seen anyone say Moore should win Newcomer of the Year. Not a single person.

Now I have seen many people think he might win Freshman of the Year. I have seen just as many ISU people think Tuttle might win Freshman of the Year.

But getting back to Newcomer of the Year....Tyler Brown does average more points per game than any other newcomer.

1.

McDermott,Doug-CU So 29 262 45 101 670 23.1

2.

Ryan, Colt-UE Jr 28 175 66 167 583 20.8

3.

Rice, Rayvonte-DU So 28 157 24 124 462 16.5

4.

Simons, Ben-DU Jr 24 138 59 49 384 16.0

5.

Weems,Kyle-MSU Sr 30 170 57 67 464 15.5

6.

Brown, Taylor-BU Sr 28 142 25 105 414 14.8

7.

Stutz, Garrett-WSU Sr 28 149 10 85 393 14.0

8.

Ragland, Joe-WSU Sr 28 133 51 66 383 13.7

9.

Carmichael,Jackie-ILS Jr 29 137 1 118 393 13.6

10.

Seck, Mamadou-SIU Sr 29 146 0 89 381 13.1

James, Anthony-UNI

Jr 29 138 34 71 381 13.1

12.

Brown,Tyler-ILS Jr 28 116 58 71 361 12.9

13.

Lathan, Dwayne-INS Sr 28 113 20 110 356 12.7

14.

Patterson,Caleb-MSU Sr 25 117 21 56 311 12.4
15. Lemon Jr., Walt-BU So 30 127 25 87 366 12.2

Just conf games:

1.

Ryan, Colt-UE Jr 17 119 43 94 375 22.1

2.

McDermott,Doug-CU So 17 136 19 64 355 20.9

3.

Simons, Ben-DU Jr 13 79 30 29 217 16.7

4.

Stutz, Garrett-WSU Sr 16 98 8 63 267 16.7

5.

Weems,Kyle-MSU Sr 17 101 35 40 277 16.3

6.

Rice, Rayvonte-DU So 17 86 11 79 262 15.4

7.

Brown, Taylor-BU Sr 16 77 17 64 235 14.7

8.

Lathan, Dwayne-INS Sr 16 75 14 65 229 14.3

9.

Ragland, Joe-WSU Sr 16 75 30 37 217 13.6

10.

Brown,Tyler-ILS Jr 17 73 29 50 225 13.2

11.

Carmichael,Jackie-ILS Jr 17 84 1 53 222 13.1

12.

James, Anthony-UNI Jr 16 78 15 36 207 12.9

13.

Downing,Anthony-MSU Jr 17 78 24 39 219 12.9

14.

Odum, Jake-INS So 17 64 12 77 217 12.8
15. Young,Antoine-CU Sr 17 71 5 68 215 12.6