6 MVC games Wednesday, Nov. 29

[Da Coach]

There are 6 MVC games Wednesday, November 29, including 4 more matches in the MWC-MVC Challenge. The MVC is 2-1 so far in the Challenge-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/18/date/20171129

[tornado]

Indiana State leads Air Force 33-29 at halftime

The game is on ESPN3

http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3200128/air-force-vs-indiana-state-m-basketball

[tornado]

so far so good....

Indiana State beats Air Force 74-64

and the rest of today's MVC games that are underway - all look winnable

Drake trails Omaha 34-31 at half
SIU 35-22 over SIUE at half
UNI up 34-31 at half over UNLV

later we have Evansville at New Mexico and ISU at Nevada

[Da Coach]

Indiana State shot the ball well, and lead nearly the entire game, though Air Force stayed close until the final couple minutes when INSU opened a double digit lead. Jordan Barnes and Brenton Scott each scored 25 points. Air Force is not very big, not very athletic, and not very good and they will have trouble beating many teams in the MWC.-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989631

[Da Coach]

later we have ....ISU at Nevada

Milik Yarbrough is back in Dan Muller's starting lineup tonight against 6-0 Nevada. Let's see if he can stay out of trouble with his coach.

[Da Coach]

Drake lost a tough one at Omaha 75-73.
Omaha was 0-7 coming into the game, but Drake's leading scorer, Reed Timmer, had a bad game scoring only 12 points on 2-9 from the floor.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989317

SIU had no problem clobbering SIUE in Carbondale 86-59-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989632

UNI is tied 61-61 with UNLV at the end of regulation, and they are going to overtime.
UNI is getting virtually nothing offensively from their guards. At the end of regulation, their 3 starting guards- Juwan McCloud has 2 points, Isaiah Brown has 0 points, and Tywhon Pickford has 3 points.
Bennett Koch (23 points) and Clint Carlson (19 points) are carrying them so far.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989633

[Da Coach]

UNI outscored UNLV in overtime 16-7 to win 77-68. way to go UNI!

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989633

MWC-MVC Challenge so far, MVC leads 4 games to 1.

[Da Coach]

5-1 Evansville lost to New Mexico 78-59-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/18

And Illinois State hung close to Nevada for a while, but now the game is getting away from them.
Nevada leads at halftime 51-36.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989630

Considering ISU was one of the best defensive teams in the country last year, their defense tonight has been terrible and is on pace to yield over 100 points. Nevada has only 4 turnovers in the first half despite the extremely fast-paced offense, and ISU has managed only 1 steal, indicating their softness on defense. Nevada is getting all the wide open three point shots they want and are 9-20 from three (45%) in the first half. And Nevada's big men seem to be able to get to the basket for easy inside points, too. Their shooting percentage on two point shots is 67% (10-15)! And Nevada is outrebounding ISU 19-14.

Manwhile, ISU is settling mostly for long three pointers. 19 of their 26 shot attempts in the first half have been threes. Fortunately, they have made 9-19 from three to try to stay close, but from what I have seen, their tendency to hang around the perimeter is hurting their rebounding. They have only 2 offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes!

Milik Yarbrough started and played well for ISU (14 points), but he was injured when he was hit in the jaw by a Nevada player's knee as he turned the ball over on a drive to the basket. He left the game and did not return for the last 7:54 of the half. With him out of the lineup, Nevada expanded a 6-point lead to a 15 point lead at halftime, and they are threatening to blow the game open.

One other note- Elijah Clarance, who played 3 minutes in his first appearance this season in ISU's last game, a loss to Charleston Southern, has not played at all this game, and does not appear to be dressed or on the bench. Maybe he had a setback in his recovery from a stress fracture in his foot?

[YATittle]

The Redbirds will be outrebounded every game they play this year. Freshman Bruninga will likely outscore Tinsley over the course of the year. Tinsley is a bust offensively. Matt Hein should be playing intramurals.

[Da Coach]

The Redbirds will be outrebounded every game they play this year. Freshman Bruninga will likely outscore Tinsley over the course of the year. Tinsley is a bust offensively. Matt Hein should be playing intramurals.

I am starting to agree about Tinsley. He is getting all the opportunity he could ask for in the absence of Copeland, Clarance, N'Diaye, Romine, and now Yarbrough. But despite playing 27 minutes so far in this game, he is scoreless and appears to be afraid to even take a shot now. And his 0-3 from three tonight brings him to 5-33 on the season (15%). And he is not a freshman or a novice. He is a juco transfer, and you expect juco kids to be productive right away.

ISU now getting blown out. They were within 12 points with under 14 minutes left, and now 6?? minutes later, they are trailing by 23 points 78-55-

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=191989

[Da Coach]

The last MVC game of the night has ended, and Nevada beats Illinois State 98-68-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989630

The MVC goes 2-2 in the MWC-MVC Challenge tonight, and the MVC leads 4-3 overall so far this year with 2 games Saturday (San Jose State at SIU & Drake at Wyoming), and one game Sunday (Bradley at SDSU).

[Da Coach]

One slightly related story- former Illinois State player Deontae Hawkins, who is now playing a senior-grad year at Boston College, was injured in their game tonight against Nebraska. He started, played just 11 minutes, left the game with an apparent ankle or leg injury after landing akwardly on his leg with about 8 minutes left in the first half, and did not return. Boston College lost to Nebraska 71-62, and Hawkins had just 4 points and 1 rebound in his limited time. The Nebraska win was the only Big Ten win tonight out of 6 games in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. With one game left tomorrow night (Notre Dame at Michigan State), the ACC leads the Big Ten 11-2 this year. That brings their total record in the 19 years of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge to 120-90.
And with their series win this year, the ACC record in the Challenges is now 13-5-2.

[tornado]

Evansville without Taylor have no other weapons...
Now that everyone knows about Evans and guards him, ISU has few other weapons
Likewise if Timmer has a bad game, Drake has few other weapons
Nobody in the MVC is very deep- injuries have been an issue....but nobody allowed Bradley to use that excuse when we lost multiple starters almost every year from 2007-2011

we will be fortunate to come out of the MVC/MWC Challenge 5-5


and in the ISU game, the Pantagraph's Jim Benson describes Yarbough as looking dazed on the bench when he came out after halftime, it was already decided he was not going to play in the 2nd half - and yet just coming out & sitting on the bench - he apparently got sicker...
Why didn't they just leave him in the lockerroom to rest?
Plus you saw how much they need his scoring ability - wonder how long he stays out with their next game coming up Saturday....they have a stretch of tough games coming up.

Muller keeps saying that their tough schedule should help them but how can that be if so many of their minutes are being played by walk-ons and walk-on-caliber players who are not going to help you - and maybe not going to help you even next year?