Drake and Southern Illinois will both put their 5-game winning streaks on the line this week.  SIU hosts Murray State on Wednesday, while the Bulldogs face Iowa State on Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.  Notably, during SIU’s five-game winning streak, only one win (vs. Saint Louis) was at SIU Arena, with the Salukis picking up true road wins at Colorado State, SIU Edwardsville and SEMO along with a neutral-site win over Tulsa.  Drake has two road wins and a neutral-site victory in its current streak.

Off to Quick Starts
Indiana State (6-2) is off to its best start after eight games since 2013-14.  At 6-1, Drake is also off to its best start since 2013-14.  In 2013-14, Indiana State won its next game to improve to 7-2 (up next this year:  Dec. 16 at TCU).  That year, Drake lost its 8th game, vs. nationally ranked Iowa in the Hy-Vee Classic (up next for Drake:  Dec. 15 vs. Iowa State in the Hy-Vee Classic).  Drake’s 6-1 start marks the eighth best start to a season in school history and most wins before a second loss since the 2007-08 team rolled out to a 22-1 start.

Weekly Notes (PDF)

MVC Player of the Week
Sean Lloyd, Southern Illinois
6-5, 210, Gd., Sr. Philadelphia (Pa.) Mt. Zion (Md.) Prep
Lloyd averaged 19 points and 6.5 rebounds for the Salukis in a 2-0 week. He shot 58 percent from the field and 44 percent from the 3-point line. Lloyd nearly had a double-double in the win over pre-season Atlantic 10 favorite Saint Louis, adding nine rebounds to his game-high 13 points. He followed that up with a career-high 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting in the true road win at Southeast Missouri on Saturday, going 3-for-6 from the 3-point line. Lloyd has scored double-figures in five-straight games and eight of the last nine.

MVC Newcomer of the Week
Shea Feehan, Evansville
6-0, 155, Gd., Gr., Peoria (Ill.) Notre Dame [Eureka]
Feehan averaged 25 points per game while adding four rebounds per contest for the Purple Aces in the last week of action as he reset his Evansville scoring mark in each game.  In Tuesday’s game at Arkansas State, Feehan was 6-of-13 from the field while going 4-of-10 from outside to finish with 21 points.  On Sunday, he erupted for a career-high 29 points in a huge win over Ball State.  Trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half, Feehan helped his team embark on a 44-11 run to lead the Aces to an 89-77 win.  He hit four more 3-pointers while going 13-of-14 from the line.  He was a 90% shooter from the line (18-of-20) and played 36 minutes per game.

Aces Roll at Home
Evansville beat Ball State on Sunday to improve to 5-0 at home this year.  The Aces have now won 34-straight non-conference games at home dating back to an 81-79 loss in Evansville to visiting Murray State on Dec. 13, 2014.  The Aces put that streak on the line Saturday against visiting Jacksonville State.

2 for 40 Points a Game?
Indiana State’s Jordan Barnes and Tyreke Key are combining to average 41.4 points per game.  The last MVC duo to average 40+ per game for a whole season was Randy Blocker and Cam Johnson of UNI (1993-94).

Making Threes
Valpo made 15 of its 27 3-point attempts in the three-point win at George Washington on Saturday.  Four different league schools have connected on at least 13 treys in a game this year, with Illinois State doing it 3x.

MVC vs. the Top 25
Last season, Loyola won at No. 5 Florida (12/6/18), marking the ninth-straight season the MVC has had at least one non-conference top-25 victory.  The MVC was 4-7 against top-25 schools last season, with all four wins by Loyola (Florida, Miami (Fla.), Tennessee and Nevada).  The league is 0-5 against Top-25 schools so far this year.  Two games against Top 25 schools are on Saturday.

1,000-Point Club
A pair of Valley players (SIU’s Armon Fletcher and Bradley’s Darrell Brown) have eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau this season.  Three others are within 69 points of reaching 1,000. 

Active Leading Scorers in the MVC
1029 - Armon Fletcher, Southern Illinois
1002 - Darrell Brown, Bradley
 975 - Jarred Dixon, Missouri State
 943 - Clayton Custer, Loyola Chicago
 931 - Phil Fayne, Illinois State
totals only include seasons in which a player played for an MVC school

Power Play
League schools will face three Power conference schools this weekend as UNI and Drake take on Iowa and Iowa State, respectively, in the Hy-Vee Classic in Des Moines, while Indiana State is at TCU.  This year, the MVC is 1-12 in 13 previous results against Power conferences (FBS plus the Big East), however, only one of the 13 games has been at home.

Block Party
Missouri State senior Obediah Church has become just the sixth player in Valley history to eclipse 200 career caroms – and the first since Evansville’s Egidijus Mockevicius (2012-16).  Church is nine rejections from moving into fourth place.

Nothing Green About Green
UNI’s AJ Green is the league’s top scoring freshman, averaging 15.8 points per game to rank fourth overall in the MVC. Through games of Dec. 9, he ranks 12th nationally for all freshman guards.  (He’s 20th overall, regardless of position.)  The last MVC freshman to average 15.0 points per game was Illinois State’s Tarise Bryson, 15.5 in 1998-99.  And only eight previous MVC freshmen on record have averaged 15.0 or more.

Top Scoring MVC Freshmen (by PPG)
21.0 Mitchell Anderson, Bradley (1978-79)
18.5 Cleo Littleton, Wichita State (1951-52)
18.4 John S. Williams, Indiana State (1982-83)
16.8 Shea Seals, Tulsa (1993-94)
15.8 AJ Green, UNI (2018-19)
15.8 Cliff Levingston, Wichita State (1979-80)
15.5 Tarise Bryson, Illinois State (1998-99)
15.3 Eddie Bird, Indiana State (1987-88)
15.2 Antoine Carr, Wichita State (1979-80)

Salukis Playing Great ‘D’
SIU held Saint Louis to 56 points in Wednesday’s win over the Billikens. Through 10 games, SIU has held eight opponents to either their lowest or second-lowest point totals of the season, including ranked opponents Kentucky and Buffalo. SIU’s defense is limiting opponents to 40.4 percent shooting and 66 points per game this season, both of which rank second in the MVC.  Three Salukis rank in the Top 5 in the MVC for career steals (among active players).

Long-Distance Snipers
Indiana State’s Jordan Barnes ranks 13th nationally by hitting 51 percent of his 3-pointers while he is 19th by hitting 3.57 treys per game – a number which leads the Missouri Valley Conference.  He leads all active players in the MVC with 183 career 3FG makes.  Only six fellow juniors in the NCAA have more.   Notably, Indiana State continues to lead the nation in 3FG accuracy as a team, connecting on 48.2 percent beyond the arc.  The league single-season record for 3FG percentage was set by Illinois State in 1986-87 (.458), the first year of the three-point shot.

Making Shots
Missouri State’s Obediah Church has a career FG percentage of 62.9 -- that figure leads the MVC and ranks 9th best nationally among active players

MVC in the Metrics
Six of the league’s 10 teams rank in the upper half (top 175) of Division I in the NET rankings with Southern Illinois claiming the top spot at No. 62.  SIU leads seven MVC teams in the Top 175 of KenPom’s ranking.  The MVC is 12th in KenPom as a league (9th last year).

Tourney Fun
Bradley claimed their first regular-season tournament championship in 35 years (1983 River City Shootout) with their crown at the Cancun Challenge earlier this season.  All 10 league teams are participating in a multi-team event (MTE).  Indiana State and Drake open play in their respective events on Sunday/Monday, respectively.