1st day of official college basketball- 6 MVC games

[Da Coach]

Bradley doesn't play their first game until tomorrow, Wed. Nov. 7, but today, Tues. Nov. 6 is the first day Division I colleges can play.

There are 147 games involving Division I teams today, including one morning game at 11:30 AM with Wisconsin-Green Bay hosting Wisconsin Lutheran, 2 afternoon games, and 144 games tonight.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/50/date/20181106

6 MVC teams play tonight-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/18/date/20181106

Concordia University Chicago at Valparaiso 7:00 p.m. CT TV: Valley on ESPN
Florida Gulf Coast at Illinois State 6 p.m. Radio: TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Oral Roberts at Missouri State 7:00 p.m. TV: ESPN3
Bemidji State University at UNI 7 p.m. TV: ESPN+
Indiana State at Ball State 7:00 p.m. CT TV: ESPN+
UMKC at Loyola 8:00 p.m. CT TV: NBC Sports Chicago

[tornado]

MVC should go 6-0 altho there's one or two tough ones there so I wouldn't be surprised if it was 5-1

Oral Roberts is picked 5th in the Summit and Ball State is picked 2nd in the MAC plus it's a road game for Indiana State

btw - great TV exposure on Day-1
ISU gets NBCSport Chicago at 6pm, and Loyola gets the 8pm game right in the middle of all the election coverage!

[tornado]

...
Bemidji State University at UNI 7 p.m. TV: ESPN+...

two key UNI players and likely starters - Tywhon Pickford & Austin Phyfe - are out with injuries

Valpo also has two key guys out - both possible starters if they are healthy -
Micah Bradford who was their 1st guard off the bench last year & 7-footer Jaume Sorolla who started about 1/2 their games


and the first Division I win is in the books...
Green Bay just beat Wisconsin Lutheran 110-54 ... Wisconsin Lutheran is a small DIII school from Milwaukee - they were 8-17 last year.
Two former Bradley recruits helped lead the way - Manuel Patterson had 14 pts/6 reb & ShanQuan Hemphill had 13 pts/4 reb/3 asst
This was a huge mismatch, as Green Bay only played one guy more than 19 minutes and all 12 players who played scored.
They opened up a 39 point lead in the 1st half then extended it to as much as 59 points in the 2nd half.
Green Bay forced 33 turnovers and grabbed 26 steals - scoring 55 points off turnovers.
Green Bay plays Indiana State Friday. They also play Evansville in December.

[tornado]

Florida Gulf Coast at Illinois State 6 p.m. Radio: TV: NBC Sports Chicago....

ISU leads by 5 late in 1st half but
what is up with ISU?? Their lower bowl is half empty - an incredible amount of empty seats...
But I will be surprised if they report anything less than 5000-6000 attendance


update...
ISU leads by 9 at half
Indiana State tied with Ball State at half

[Da Coach]

Ball State is pulling away from Indiana State in the 2nd half

Illinois State holding onto a small lead at home against Florida Gulf Coast. ISU playing great defense, and have caused nearly 20 turnovers so far by FGCU.

Missouri State, UNI, and Valpo are all going to win big against weak opponents- Missouri State pulling away over an Oral Roberts team picked in the lower half of the Summit League, UNI against a weak D2 Bemidji State team, and Valpo playing one of the weakest D3 schools in the country Concordia Chicago.

Loyola will play a bad UMKC team starting a bit after 8:00 PM. UMKC was picked 7th out of 8 teams in the terrible WAC conference. only Chicago State was picked lower.

So it looks good for a 5-1 record tonight for the MVC.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/18/date/20181106

[LongTimeFan]

Indiana State down 12 points a few minutes ago. They are on ESPN+.

[Da Coach]

The first MVC final score of the night-

Illinois State wins 74-66 over FGCU

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game?gameId=401086652

[Da Coach]

The second final score from the MVC-

Indiana State loses at Ball State 86-69-

https://ballstatesports.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

Ball State was picked 2nd in the MAC Western Division (3rd overall in the MAC)

[Da Coach]

The MVC will go 5-1 on opening night as Loyola is winning easily over UMKC-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/18/date/20181106

[tornado]

only one MVC game on Wednesday...
Wisconsin-Parkside at Bradley


Friday, SIU plays at Kentucky - let's see if they can kick Calipari's team while they are down...
...also - one other SIU freshman, Sam Shafer has now decided he will redshirt..
...that's 3 redshirt freshmen plus a couple lingering injuries...

[tornado]

MVC is 6-1 but won't be for long...

Evansville is playing at Illinois and not playing well...
nearing the end of the 1st half Illinois leads 37-16

Drake is beating Buena Vista 33-17


edit - Evansville down by 31 already in the 1st half


...and SIU plays at Kentucky tomorrow...

[tornado]

Evansville got blown by 40 at Illinois (picked 13th in the Big Ten) and the Illini starters only played 20-25 min
Shea Feehan had 12 but 1-5 from the arc & 10 in the 2nd half when Illinois had taken their foot off the gas...but he also had no assists and no rebounds with 4 turnovers
It looks like they plan to use him as their primary offensive weapon but if he doesn't rebound or dish out assists it won't help much.
The Illini full court pressed them and Evansville melted.

Drake clobbered DIII Buena Vista- Nick Norton had 17

MVC is 7-2 now

[braves16]

MVC is 6-1 but won't be for long...

Evansville is playing at Illinois and not playing well...
nearing the end of the 1st half Illinois leads 37-16

Drake is beating Buena Vista 33-17


edit - Evansville down by 31 already in the 1st half


...and SIU plays at Kentucky tomorrow...

The SIU game is on the SEC Network, 611 on Directv.

[tornado]

Drake beat Buena Vista by about 40 but...
over the final 8 minutes of the game, they outscored Buena Vista 22-0

so they went from 76-52 to 98-52

https://godrakebulldogs.com/boxscore.aspx?path=mbball&id=8244

And...
Geno Ford's Stony Brook team got outscored 22-0 at George Washington to start the game Tuesday .. then 25-2!!!
but they came back to overcome those 22 & 23 point holes and won 77-74

https://gwsports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=10481&path=mbball

...sound familiar?