SIU-E's Donivine Stewart

[Da Coach]

I have seen Donivine play a lot in high school and here, and though I agree with much of what you say, I do believe Donivine is a better point guard and a better player that the last 2 point guards our staff has brought in. He is also as good or better than the primary point guard at at least 2 or 3 other MVC teams. I believe he could play at a higher level than SIUE, and that he would be a solid player in the MVC. Maybe he doesn't fit the style of our coach, but he would be a contributing PG on most of the current MVC teams, and he would be a starter on some.

[tornado]

.... It serves no purpose to compare Stewart's current stats to a current Bradley player....

not sure I fully agree - no doubt SIUE is a lesser team even tho we are sitting with RPI over 200.....but he is one of the best players on that team in what's really his first year of experience playing at D-I and we have guys logging minutes who are not playing at the level DS is playing at.
...remember - we have players at BU that couldn't get many minutes of playing time a couple years ago at a similarly weak D-I program...

How about this... SIUE has played several of the same teams Bradley has played also - that's a pretty good comparison...

SIUE and BU have both played Loyola - and SIUE played to within one point of them (lost 73-72) and Stewart was by far the best player in the game on either team - hitting 8-13 & 4-5 from the arc, scoring 22 pts & 3 asst.
No player on either squad did that well when we played at Loyola - Walt came close in scoring with 21 pts - but nobody else had more than 13 pts nor one assist for us.

We have both also played Chicago State, IPFW, CMU & SIU and although DS didn't put up as good of numbers earlier in the season as he is now, he still didn't embarrass himself. We had starters who went scoreless against a couple of those teams who were once hailed as difference makers.
Donivine was unfortunately caught in the middle of a coaching changeover - some believe he could have contributed here but was not given the chance - but that's the head coach's prerogative.

[Chico]

At least the team would have a true point guard and others wouldn't have to be playing out of position. Keep up the good job DS.

[tornado]

one other stat that's not commonly used...
Donivine scores 1.30 points per shot attempted - so he isn't wasting a lot of shots and helps dish off to teammates instead of cranking up low percentage attempts.
This number is pretty good for a point guard and only a couple PG's in the MVC do this well in this stat.

Just for comparison - many top players and starters in the MVC take considerably more shots to score their points - some less - only the best PG's are at the top --
here are some examples...(mostly guards)

FVV - 1.48 pts/shot attempt
Cleanthony Early 1.47 pts/shot attempt
Jake Odum - 1.46 pts/shot attempt
DJ Balentine - 1.44 pts/shot attempt
Desmar Jackson - 1.40 pts/shot attempt
Milton Doyle - 1.37 pts/shot attempt
Anthony Beane - 1.28 pts/shot attempt
Auston Barnes - 1.25 pts/shot attempt (best on our team)
Tyshon Pickett - 1.21 pts/shot attempt
Omari Grier - 1.17 pts/shot attempt
Ka'Darryl Bell - 1.14 pts/shot attempt
Walt Lemon, Jr. - 1.13 pts/shot attempt
Daishon Knight - 1.13 pts/shot attempt
Paris Lee - 1.08 pts/shot attempt
Zach Lofton - 1.02 (worst figure among all MVC guards

if players have games where they shoot poorly and take a lot of shots to score points - then the offense is inefficient and this defines teams that lose as much as they win and do not win consistently

[wily coyote]

I have seen Donivine play a lot in high school and here, and though I agree with much of what you say, I do believe Donivine is a better point guard and a better player that the last 2 point guards our staff has brought in. He is also as good or better than the primary point guard at at least 2 or 3 other MVC teams. I believe he could play at a higher level than SIUE, and that he would be a solid player in the MVC. Maybe he doesn't fit the style of our coach, but he would be a contributing PG on most of the current MVC teams, and he would be a starter on some.

Count me in with agreeing he can play at a higher level than SIUE. Also I agree he's better than either Bell or Fields and I would rather have him running the point than either of those two. Not sure we would be able to compete for a title with DS but we'll never know.

[BuB]

not sure I fully agree - no doubt SIUE is a lesser team even tho we are sitting with RPI over 200.....but he is one of the best players on that team in what's really his first year of experience playing at D-I and we have guys logging minutes who are not playing at the level DS is playing at.
...remember - we have players at BU that couldn't get many minutes of playing time a couple years ago at a similarly weak D-I program...

How about this... SIUE has played several of the same teams Bradley has played also - that's a pretty good comparison...

SIUE and BU have both played Loyola - and SIUE played to within one point of them (lost 73-72) and Stewart was by far the best player in the game on either team - hitting 8-13 & 4-5 from the arc, scoring 22 pts & 3 asst.
No player on either squad did that well when we played at Loyola - Walt came close in scoring with 21 pts - but nobody else had more than 13 pts nor one assist for us.

We have both also played Chicago State, IPFW, CMU & SIU and although DS didn't put up as good of numbers earlier in the season as he is now, he still didn't embarrass himself. We had starters who went scoreless against a couple of those teams who were once hailed as difference makers.
Donivine was unfortunately caught in the middle of a coaching changeover - some believe he could have contributed here but was not given the chance - but that's the head coach's prerogative.

I guess you can compare stats of lesser players at weaker programs to our players if you want. I still feel it serves no purpose. Just like it does not matter that DS had just 22 points and 11 assists combined in 4 losses against those other bad teams you mentioned. Bradley has had 5 common opponents with SIUE. We beat 4 of them in a down year for us and some have said we should have beaten IPFW as well. SIUE lost all 5 games.


Our team is full of players that some have said can't shoot, or can't play defense, or can't rebound, or can't make a pass, or fouls to much, or plays 1 on 1 to much and forces things. Heck, we even have players that some are saying are over matched and will leave after the year is over. I have seen Stewart play 25+ games in his career. I watched him on TV earlier this season. I remain convinced he is slow, to short, lacks the quickness needed as a point guard, and is a bad defender. We have to recruit better guards than DS to be successful and return to being a force in the Valley. We don't need another player with multiple weaknesses. Donivine would be just another player that got exposed by the level of competition we play (or want to get back to playing). The one thing Stewart appears to have done to make himself better is he lost some weight.

[Da Coach]

Donivine had another great game tonight for SIU-E in a road win at Austin Peay.
Donivine had 17 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds to lead SIU-E to the 83-68 win-

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400503218

SIU-E is now solidly in 2nd place in the West Division of the Ohio Valley Conference.

[Da Coach]

Donivine Stewart's season was ended last night when SIUE was eliminated from the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. Donivine had another great game with 13 points, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 5 rebounds.
He finished his sophomore season as SIUE's leading scorer averaging 12.2 points per game and 4.5 assists per game. He shot 44.1% and 37.4% from three for the season. He lead SIUE with 1.6 steals per game, and was near the top of the OVC in assists/turnover ratio. Nice season for Donivine, and he has 2 more years and will improve.


Another area kid- Morton's Brett Bisping also just keeps getting better. In Siena's last game, he was the leading scorer with 17 points, and he added 7 rebounds to lead Siena to a win. His team now will start play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference on Saturday.
Brett will finish this season as Siena's 2nd leading scorer (currently 10.3 ppg), leading rebounder (currently 6.3 rpg), and leading shot blocker. He also leads the team in shooting percentage with 51.6%. Congratulations to Brett on an outstanding sophomore season.


And one final area kid who is having a spectacular freshman season- Alec Peters of Valparaiso. As noted elsewhere, Alec scored 29 points in Valpo's win over UIC Tuesday to boost his season average to 12.5 ppg, and his Horizon League average to 15.0 ppg, and he averages 4.8 rpg. He also has shot 38.2% from three. He will be Valpo's leading returning scorer next year as a sophomore.