Valley Recruits

[Da Coach]

Valparaiso picks up a transfer off the Transfer Portal. Trevor Anderson, played his first year at Green Bay, then transferred and was a walk-on at Wisconsin for the last 3 seasons. He was a starter and played a lot as a freshman at Green Bay, and averaged 9.8 ppg. But, at Wisconsin, he played very little the last 3 seasons as a deep reserve.
Stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...revor-anderson

https://verbalcommits.com/players/trevor-anderson--2

He is from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and was a high school teammate with Sam and Joey Hauser. Bradley actually recruited Trev Anderson in high school, as well as the Hauser brothers.
https://www.stevenspointjournal.com/...rson/27995491/

[Da Coach]

Indiana State picks up a new 2021 recruit- Cameron Crawford, a 6'4" guard

https://verbalcommits.com/players/cameron-crawford

[Da Coach]

New Indiana State head coach Josh Schertz adds another 2021 recruit- Quimari Peterson, a 6'1" point guard from Gary (Indiana) West Side Academy.

https://verbalcommits.com/players/quimari-peterson

Loyola adds a 2021 walkon Will Smythe- a 6'4" guard from St. Mary's Prep in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

https://verbalcommits.com/players/will-smythe

2021 MVC commits-
Bradley- Connor Hickman, Mikey Howell, Terry Roberts, Maxime Ekono, Malevy Leons
Drake- Connor Enright, Tucker DeVries, Ayo Akinwole
Evansville- Blake Sisley, Blaise Beauchamp, Troy Boynton, Antoine Smith, Jr., Preston Phillips
Illinois State- Mark Freeman
Indiana State- Xavier Bledson, Cameron Henry, Simon Wilbar, Cameron Crawford, Quimari Peterson
Loyola- Ben Schwieger, Ty Johnson, Ryan Schwieger, Chris Knight, Will Smythe (w/o), Saint Thomas
Missouri State- Issac Haney, Donovan Clay
UNI- Michael Duax, Chase Courbat, Landon Wolf
SIU- Scottie Ebube, Troy D'Amico, Foster Wonders, Ben Coupet, Jr.
Valparaiso- Cameron Palesse , Darius DeAviero, Trey Woodyard, Keyondre Young, Kevion Taylor, Trev Anderson, Thomas Kithier, Joe Hedstrom

[Da Coach]

Valparaiso lands a transfer from Michigan State-
Thomas Kithier, a 6'8", 230 pound junior who has spent 3 seasons at Michigan State, is transferring to Valparaiso. He will have 2 years of eligibility left.
He committed to Michigan State in August, 2016, before his junior year in high school at Dakota HS, in Macomb, Michigan. At that point he had only mid-major offers. In his 3 years at Michigan State, he's never played a lot, averaging only 10.8 minutes per game this past season as a junior, 2.4 points per game, and 2.5 rebounds per game.
Stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...thomas-kithier

Evaluation from Michigan State fan blog- https://www.theonlycolors.com/2021/4...thomas-kithier

https://msuspartans.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/thomas-kithier/10821

[Da Coach]

New Indiana State head coach has recruited three of his players from Division II Lincoln Memorial University to transfer and play for him at Indiana State.
The first 2 players sound like good additions at Indiana State, which has lost at least 9 players to the transfer portal so far- Jake LaRavia, Tre Williams, Cooper Neese, Cobie Barnes, Cam Bacote, Tobias Howard, Jr., Ndongo Ndaw, Kailex Stephens, and Jared Hankins. There are also reports that a 10th player, top scorer Tyreke Key, a senior, has also entered the transfer portal, but as of now, his name does not appear on the couple internet sites that list the names in the transfer portal.
The third player sounds like a bit of a project.

Indiana State's Cooper Neese had entered the transfer portal, but now has reconsidered and will be returning to Indiana State to play for new head coach Josh Schertz-
https://twitter.com/CooperNeese/stat...51235073089536
https://www.tribstar.com/sports/loca...a915c309d.html

Indiana State's leading scorer Tyreke Key, a graduating senior, has reportedly still not made a decision whether he will return, enter the transfer portal, or leave school to play pro.

[Da Coach]

Drake picks up a transfer- Ayo Akinwole, a 6'0" senior transfer from Nebraska-Omaha who Bradley had also had interest in before landing Mikey Howell, has committed to Drake.

https://twitter.com/Ayo_Akinwole/status/1385283408176287748

He spent 4 seasons at UNO, and averaged 13.0 ppg his senior year, along with 2.9 apg, and he shot 45.6% from three.
Stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...8/ayo-akinwole

Bradley recruiting interest-

https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sports-forums/basketball-fan-talk/493758-2021-and-beyond-recruits?p=497698#post497698

Seems like he will be mostly a backup to Drake's primary point guard Roman Penn.

[Da Coach]

Valparaiso lands a commitment from Joe Hedstrom, a 7'0", 245 pound redshirt-sophomore at Wisconsin.

https://verbalcommits.com/players/joe-hedstrom

Hedstrom is a class of 2018 recruit originally from Hopkins, Minnesota. He was rated as only a 2-star recruit and had a few mid-major offers. But then Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard offered him a preferred walk-on spot that included a scholarship that he would earn after redshirting his first year. He appeared in 6 games his redshirt-freshman season (2019-20) and averaged only 0.3 ppg and 0.3 rpg before suffering a season-ending knee injury and surgery. He came back as a red-shirt-sophomore this past season (2020-21) and played in only 9 games an average of 1.7 minutes per game. His stats were about the same as last season (0.4 ppg and 0.3 rpg). So he has been on scholarship the last 2 seasons, but has only played a cumulative total of 30 minutes of playing time in 13 games and scored a total of 2 baskets and 6 points in his 2 years at Wisconsin.
Here are his stats-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...8/joe-hedstrom

He is the third Big Ten transfer to commit to Valparaiso-
Trev Anderson- https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...787#post497787
Thomas Kithier- https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...969#post497969

[Da Coach]

Illinois State finally gets a 2021 recruit. They have been the only MVC program for many months without a single recruit for the 2021 recruiting cycle. Dan Muller lands transfer Mark Freeman, a 5'10" sophomore point guard transferring to ISU from Tennessee State.
Tennessee State finished the 2020-21 season with an overall record of 4-19, 3-17, dead last in the Ohio Valley Conference, and RPI 332.
Freeman is originally from Memphis, and he did a year of prep school after graduating high school in 2018.
Bradley recruited him 4 years ago when he was a junior at Memphis Southwind HS. He initially committed to LIU-Brooklyn, before decommitting and heading to the prep school.
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...d-from-memphis

After a year of prep school at The Skill Factory Prep, he landed at Tennessee State-

https://verbalcommits.com/players/mark-freeman

He averaged 6.5 ppg and 4.2 apg as a part-time starter his freshman year (2019-20).
This year (2020-21) he started 20 of 21 games and averaged a team-leading 17.1 ppg, 4.6 apg, and 3.7 turnovers/game. He shot 28.4% from three.
Stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...8/mark-freeman

This appears to be a "package deal". Illinois State head coach Dan Muller just lost one of his assistants (Brian Reese). To fill the vacancy, he just hired Rob Johnson, who was the head coach and program director for the prep and post-graduate program at The Skill Factory. He has no previous college coaching or recruiting experience.
Here is an article from the Bloomington Pantagraph about the new hire.
https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/co...5ad2f15a3.html

Maybe hiring the head of the prep school that Freeman attended prior to college helped get him to transfer to ISU?
ISU, which finished the 2020-21 season dead last in the MVC, still has several open scholarships, and lost their top player, D.J. Horne, as well as several other key players Keith Fisher, Abdou Ndiaye, and Dedric Boyd. Too bad Muller doesn't have a bunch more open assistant coach spots to offer for more package deals.

[Da Coach]

2021 MVC commits-
Bradley- Connor Hickman, Mikey Howell, Terry Roberts, Maxime Ekono, Malevy Leons
Drake- Connor Enright, Tucker DeVries, Ayo Akinwole
Evansville- Blake Sisley, Blaise Beauchamp, Troy Boynton, Antoine Smith, Jr., Preston Phillips
Illinois State- Mark Freeman, Julian Samuels, Kendall Lewis
Indiana State- Xavier Bledson, Cameron Henry, Simon Wilbar, Cameron Crawford, Quimari Peterson, Zach Hobbs, Dearon Tucker
Loyola- Ben Schwieger, Ty Johnson, Ryan Schwieger, Chris Knight, Will Smythe (w/o), Saint Thomas
Missouri State- Issac Haney, Donovan Clay, Jaylen Minnett
UNI- Michael Duax, Chase Courbat, Landon Wolf
SIU- Scottie Ebube, Troy D'Amico, Foster Wonders, Ben Coupet, Jr.
Valparaiso- Cameron Palesse , Darius DeAviero, Trey Woodyard, Keyondre Young, Kevion Taylor, Trev Anderson, Thomas Kithier, Joe Hedstrom, Preston Ruedinger

[Da Coach]

Valparaiso gets a commitment from 2021 walk-on 6'2" guard, Preston Ruedinger, from a small parochial high school, Lourdes Academy in Oshkosh. The school has fewer than 200 students.-
https://www.valpoathletics.com/mbask...tball-program/

https://verbalcommits.com/players/preston-ruedinger

The kid had several offers, mostly D2, but at least one D1 offer, and his stats were terrific. He played for a small school in Wisconsin, where he was an all-state first team selection. He lead his team to the Division 4 Wisconsin state championship by averaging 25.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, five assists and 2.5 steals per game in 2020-21. As a junior in 2020 he averaged 27.2 points per game. He shot 45% on threes in his high school, and finished with 2,349 career points.

[Da Coach]

Illinois State gets a commitment from 6'3" point guard Julian Samuels. He played at Annawan (IL) High School, ut has spent the last year at Central Point Christian Prep in Kissimmee, FL. The article below suggests he will be a preferred walk-on.

https://twitter.com/juliansamuels11/status/1388556041533657089

https://qctimes.com/sports/high-school/basketball/boys/annawans-samuels-eyeing-college-basketball-career/article_4981cacf-6647-5e70-a605-6fc6cd57e359.html

https://www.starcourier.com/story/sports/high-school/basketball/2021/01/12/julian-samuels-bigger-and-better-gap-year/6637567002/

[Da Coach]

Illinois State picks up another commitment, this time from the transfer portal.
Kendall Lewis is a 6'7" sophomore forward who transferred from Appalachian State. He is originally from Georgia, and averaged 9.9 ppg and 4.1 rpg this past season at App. State.

https://verbalcommits.com/players/kendall-lewis-ga

https://twitter.com/Andrew__Slater/status/1388905294630199296

Stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba.../kendall-lewis

[Da Coach]

Missouri State lands a player off the transfer portal- Jaylen Minnett, a 6'1" senior guard from IUPUI announced his commitment to Missouri State today-

https://twitter.com/1kJaymoneyyy/status/1389356098466033664

He was IUPUI's second-leading scorer averaging 16.4 ppg this past season.
Bio- https://iupuijags.com/sports/mens-ba...n-minnett/5444
Career stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...jaylen-minnett

[Da Coach]

Little Rock transfer Ben Coupet, Jr. commits to Southern Illinois.

https://thesouthern.com/sports/college/salukimania/graduate-transfer-guard-commits-to-siu-mens-basketball-team/article_32f0d2bf-2579-5828-9d03-d59d6e0dade9.html

[Da Coach]

Indiana State gets a commitment from Zach Hobbs, a 6'5" shooting guard from Des Moines Area Community College. He is originally from Mesa, AZ.

https://twitter.com/VerbalCommits/status/1391507189416828929

https://verbalcommits.com/players/zach-hobbs-az

Stats- https://www.dmaccbears.com/sports/mb...obbs_zach_zir1

He averaged 12.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg, and he shot 44.1% from three at DMACC.
With Tyreke Key and Cooper Neese returning, Indiana State in the first year under new head coach Josh Schertz will be a guard heavy team.
Here is their 2021-22 roster, which includes a couple guard transfers from Schertz's previous school, Division II Lincoln Memorial University, as well as several new incoming freshman guards-

https://gosycamores.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster

There are only 3 non-guards on their 2021-22 roster, and none of them have had any Division I experience-
6'10" incoming freshman recruit Nick Hittle
6'11" Division II transfer Simon Wilbar, who averaged 2.8 ppg last year at Lincoln Memorial University, and
6'7" junior Kailex Stephens, a former Division II player who redshirted last season at Indiana State after transferring in