MVC Top Freshmen for 2015-16

[tornado]

Just an update.....right now, watching our freshmen develop is one of the best pleasures we Braves fans are having, so indulge me...
among the MVC freshmen who have played at least 70% of their team's games, here are the top scorers...

Scoring...
1- Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye 9.3 ppg
2- Antoine Pittman 8.0 ppg
3- Markis McDuffie 7.5 ppg
4- Luuk van Bree 7.1 ppg
5- Ronnie Suggs 6.7 ppg
6- Obediah Church (MSU) 6.5 ppg
7- Callum Barker 6.3 ppg
7 (tie)- Roland Griffin (ISU) 6.3 ppg
9- Armon Fletcher (SIU) 5.7 ppg
10- Jarred Dixon (MSU) 5.8 ppg
11- Scottie James 4.5 ppg


and Rebounding....
1- Obediah Church (MSU) 5.6 rpg
2- Callum Barker 4.5 rpg
3- Dawyne Lautier Ogunleye 4.3 rpg
4- Luuk van Bree 4.3 rpg
5- Dominik Olejniksak (Drake) 3.6 rpg
6- Ronnie Suggs 3.2.rpg
7- Scottie James 2.9 rpg
8- Roland Griffin (ISU) 2.9 rpg
9- Markis McDuffie (Wichita) 2.9 rpg
10- Armon Fletcher (SIU) 2.4 rpg

and unless some freshman comes out of the woodwork and has a tremendous final 16 games-
the race for All Freshman and FOY will come down to the guys at the top of those groups.

[Da Coach]

Newcomer of the Year appears a little more clear- Drake's Kale Abrahamson, a junior who transferred from Northwestern, is averaging 15.9 ppg, fifth best among MVC players. The closest of any other newcomer is his own teammate Graham Woodward, a 6' guard who transferred to Drake from Penn State, who is averaging 12.9 ppg.

This year's juco crop is very thin. The only juco newcomer this season in the top 35 scorers in the MVC so far this season is SIU's point guard Mike Rodriguez, who is currently averaging 10.5 ppg (23rd among MVC players), but he has helped lead the Salukis to their surprising 13-2 start, and may be a dark horse for the NOY.

[tornado]

Abrahamson's numbers have dropped off sharply since league play started......now averaging 12.9 ppg overall and only 7.3 ppg in MVC play

and here's a revised ranking of the top scoring freshmen in the MVC...and again, I am only including the freshman who play regularly and contribute regularly - and I arbitrarily went with those who have played at least 3/4 of their team's games
(Missouri State's Ryan Kreklow averages 7.1 ppg but has only played in 16 games)

Bradley still has 5 of the top 10 but Scottie James (3.7 ppg) has fallen just outside of the Top 10
Ronnie Suggs 8.3 ppg
Markis McDuffie 8.2 ppg
Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye 7.9 ppg
Luuk van Bree 7.6 ppg
Antoine Pittman 7.2 ppg
Ryan Kreklow 7.1 ppg
Obediah Church 7.0 ppg (Church is also avg 7.3 rebounds in Valley play)
Jarrid Dixon 7.0 ppg
Callum Barker 5.8 ppg
Armon Fletcher 4.9 ppg


I am a bit puzzled about Roland Griffin...
he was playing well - averaging 23 minutes per game - then missed 4 games with a supposed toe injury but came back and played (a bit unproductively) against Evansville on Jan. 15 but then has not played a single minute since. ? Doghouse?
Muller uses the injury excuse- but a whole month out for a sprained toe? Muller says that even any injury to any one of the top seven players on your team will hurt the team.

https://twitter.com/JCTSports/status/689524285178802176

[cpacmel]

I am a bit puzzled about Roland Griffin...
he was playing well - averaging 23 minutes per game - then missed 4 games with a supposed toe injury but came back and played (a bit unproductively) against Evansville on Jan. 15 but then has not played a single minute since. ? Doghouse?
Muller uses the injury excuse- but a whole month out for a sprained toe? Muller says that even any injury to any one of the top seven players on your team will hurt the team.
https://twitter.com/JCTSports/status/689524285178802176

He's in the doghouse...they are making him wear a boot on his foot as punishment

https://mobile.twitter.com/Pg_Benson/status/692136843677155330

[tornado]

an update on the top scoring freshmen in the MVC
Bradley now has the top three


Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye 8.5 ppg - also 6th in MVC play in assists & 7th in Assists/Turnover Ratio
Ronnie Suggs 8.3 ppg - also 4th in FT%
Luuk van Bree 8.3 ppg - also 9th in 3-pt%
Markis McDuffie 8.0 ppg
Antoine Pittman 7.8 ppg - also 2nd in FT%
Obediah Church 6.9 ppg - Church is also 6th in rebounds, 2nd in blks, 4th in MVC FG%
Ryan Kreklow 6.9 ppg - also 7th in MVC 3-pt%
Jarrid Dixon 7.4 ppg - also 7th in steals
Callum Barker 5.5 ppg
Armon Fletcher 4.9 ppg
Scottie James 3.5 ppg in only 1/3 the playing time that DLO & others have -in fact Scottie leads all our freshmen in points per minute played and is a close 2nd on the entire team only to Donte

[tornado]

In a D-League interview- Scott Suggs gives a shout-out to his brother Ronnie Suggs

https://upsidemotor.com/2016/02/08/scott-suggs-d-league-all-star-weekend-raptors-905-success-ronald-roberts-jr/

[tornado]

Here's a discussion on who is the League's TOP NEWCOMER...

the guy they favor isn't a freshman - it's juco Dequon Miller of Missouri State

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/shockwaves/article59978666.html

they mention a couple other possibilities but seem to completely discount anyone from Bradley or UNI's Jesperson (12ppg), Drake's Abrahamson (12ppg) or Obediah Church (6.4rpg)
...while mentioning Indiana State's Everett Clemons -
a guy who is a sub - and who scored only 3 pts against us a few days ago and only one point Monday against SIU and averages just 5ppg

[DUBulldog]

Here's a discussion on who is the League's TOP NEWCOMER...

the guy they favor isn't a freshman - it's juco Dequon Miller of Missouri State

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/shockwaves/article59978666.html

they mention a couple other possibilities but seem to completely discount anyone from Bradley or UNI's Jesperson (12ppg), Drake's Abrahamson (12ppg) or Obediah Church (6.4rpg)
...while mentioning Indiana State's Everett Clemons -
a guy who is a sub - and who scored only 3 pts against us a few days ago and only one point Monday against SIU and averages just 5ppg

Jesperson isn't a newcomer, and Abrahamson has been absolutely horrible in league play.....averaging about 7 ppg and shooting terribly. His kenpom offensive rating in conference games is < 80, which is kind of like the Mendoza Line.

[tornado]

yeah - sorry on Jesperson - he transferred then played last year...
Abrahamson has had some pretty good games and is one of only two MVC players who has won the Weekly Newcomer Award more than once so at least he's in the running
The two SIU newcomers, Vincent & Rodriguez, also have to at least be in the running..

[tornado]

Nice BU Scout column on DLO

http://www.bradleyscout.com/sports/getting-to-know-d-lo/

BU now holds the TOP THREE spots among MVC Freshmen scorers...and four of the top 5
DLO continues as the TOP scoring freshman in the MVC at 8.92 ppg,
Ronnie Suggs is 2nd at 8.4 ppg,
Luuk van Bree 3rd at 8.3 ppg,
Jarred Dixon has moved up to 4th at 7.65 ppg
Antoine Pittman, 5th, has 7.6 ppg and
6th is Markis McDuffie at 7.5 ppg...


Evansville's only freshman, Harris Brown, gets suspended - becoming the 2nd MVC freshman recently suspended....

http://www.courierpress.com/sports/college/evansville/ues-harris-brown-suspended-two-games-for-violating-team-rules-2b71a24e-9065-2fc0-e053-0100007fbf61-368369741.html

as for the freshman leaders in MVC play - only a couple freshmen appear anywhere inside the TOP 20 players in scoring or rebounding...
None in the scoring - but Obediah Church is 7th in rebounding at 6.2 rpg,
and both Callum Barker & Luuk van Bree are inside the Top 20 at 4.8 rpg & 4.6 rpg respectively

[tornado]

BU's top trio of freshmen boost their scoring averages to
DLO 9.0
Ronnie Suggs 8.7
Luuk van Bree 8.5

[Art Haines is God]

BU's top trio of freshmen boost their scoring averages to
DLO 9.0
Ronnie Suggs 8.7
Luuk van Bree 8.5

It is hard to imagine Van Bree getting any minutes on any other Valley team. Hard to imagine DLO getting as many shots on any other Valley team.
Suggs is a legit candidate.

[Da Coach]

I disagree with you on van Bree. I think most Valley teams would like a 6'9" kid who can dribble, create shots, and shoot 36% on threes, plus rebound. He would not play nearly as much on most other teams, but he'd get playing time.

[Bradleyfan1]

Luuuuuuuuk . Any team in the conf would love to have him. I am really excited for the future for him and Dontae Suggs DLO and I'm hopeful about Joel and James too.

[tornado]

Just for interest sake...here are a couple of our former threads about freshmen in the MVC

From 2008- the all time best freshman seasons in Bradley's history...going back to pre-1950, which isn't really comparable since so many of those 1940'-50's guys came out of the service and were 24-26 years old & had played plenty of amateur ball, and even comparing to the 1970's is difficult.

We have FIVE current freshman players whose scoring average would make the top 10-15 on this list..
but ......the TOP TEN best scoring averages since Hersey Hawkins extend all the way down to 5-6 ppg- and we have 6 players in that range currently.

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=8142

From 2009- many of the most productive freshmen in the MVC had scoring averages of 4-6 ppg
Some even far under that, like Marc Sonnen (1.9 ppg) and Dyricus (4.6 ppg) turned out to have very fine careers in the MVC

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13959