5 MVC games Saturday, Dec. 3

[Da Coach]

There are 5 MVC games Saturday, Dec. 3.
3 of them are conference games, and 2 non-conference games.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/seasontype/2/group/18

MVC games- Evansville at UNI, UIC at Drake, and Bradley at Missouri State.
Non-conference games- Indiana State plays at Miami of Ohio, their first real road game, and SIU has a tough game at St. Louis. The Billikens are 5-0 at home this season, including blowout wins over Murray State and Evansville.

[Da Coach]

Indiana State looks like they are for real. With a combination of efficient offense, accurate shooting, and great defense
they lead Miami-Ohio at halftime 58-28. They shot 59.4% in the first half, and 57.9% from three.
DePaul transfer Courvoisier McCauley has 24 points in the 1st half.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401493739

McCauley sustained an ankle injury on the last play of the half, and was helped to the locker room. We'll see if it was serious enough to keep him out of the game. On the replay, it looked like a right ankle sprain.
McCauley is an interesting story. He played for Indiana State head coach Josh Schertz for 2 seasons at Lincoln Memorial University (in Tennessee) where he was a Division II All-American in 2019-20. He averaged 20.0 ppg as a sophomore that year, leading LMU to 32-1 season. But in 2 seasons at DePaul, he was a reserve player despite DePaul being a last-place team in the Big East. He averaged just 4.6 ppg in his 2 seasons at DePaul before transferring to Indiana State for his "Covid" season. He is leading the Sycamores this season with a 15.9 ppg average prior to this game.

Add: McCauley limped through the 2nd half warmups, but did start the 2nd half.

[Nashville Cat]

The MVC needs to mail the freshman of the year trophy to Robbie Avila. Yes, Sycamores are for real.

[Da Coach]

UNI never trailed and easily beat Evansville 72-55-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401490127

SIU trails St. Louis 46-38 at halftime. George Mason transfer Xavier Johnson leads SIU with 17 points and he is 5-6 from three-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401487685

St. Louis has played a good defense focusing on Marcus Domask and Lance Jones. It's worked to neutralize SIU's top 2 scorers, Domask, who is 1-4 from the floor and 0-2 from three, and Johnson, who is 2-6. But as a result, Xavier Johnson, who was averaging just 4.6 ppg and had made just 5 threes all year (5-17, 29%), has gotten a lot of wide open shots and made 5-6 from three to keep SIU in the game.
SIU is playing without their top 2 big men, J.D. Muila (back injury) and Scottie Ebube (broken fingers from a scooter accident, out 6-8 weeks), who are injured.

[Da Coach]

SIU stayed close with St. Louis, and they were down by only 2 points with under 10 minutes left in the 2nd half.
But St. Louis then pulled away and stretched the lead back to double-digits and coasted to a 85-72 win. SIU drops to 5-3.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401487685

[Da Coach]

Drake 77 UIC 64

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401490128