MVC Men's Basketball Weekly Notebook (PDF)



MVC Player of the Week
Tyreke Key, Indiana State
6-3, 205, Sr., Gd.
Celina (Tenn.) Clay County High
Key put together another dominant performance this week, scoring 29 points while shooting 70.7 percent (12-of-17) from the floor and adding five rebounds and two steals in Indiana State’s 76-70 victory over Evansville Feb. 14. The Celina, Tenn. native continues his climb up the Valley scoring list, sitting at No. 2 in the league in points per game with 16.6 ppg. Key is leading the league in minutes played (34.0), and is also fourth in the MVC in free throw percentage (83.5), and has snuck onto the rebounding list at No. 15 (5.3).

MVC Newcomer of the Week
Darnell Brodie, Drake
6-10, 275, Jr., Fwd.
Newark (N.J.) Newark East Side [Seton Hall]
Had 8.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game as Drake went 2-1 including a win over No. 22 Loyola … played a season-high 37 minutes in the win over Loyola with nine points and eight rebounds while holding Cameron Krutwig to 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting … had a crucial block with eight seconds left to preserve Drake’s OT win … also converted on a layup with two minutes left in OT that put the Bulldogs up by three … had 12 points in 19 minutes due to foul trouble in the loss to Loyola on 5-of-7 shooting.


OTHERS NOMINATED

• Gaige Prim, Missouri State, Sr. -- Prim helped lead the Bears to a 3-0 week and extend a league-best five-game win streak by shooting an amazing 79.3 percent from the field (23-of-29), while averaging 16.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game for the Bears. He had an amazing weekend in MSU's weekend sweep of Bradley, posting 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting in game one, followed by another 20-point game on Sunday behind 9-of-12 shooting with 8 rebounds. His weekend output gave Prim seven 20-point scoring efforts this season, while he maintained his hold on the MVC rebounding lead and moved up to No. 3 in the league in scoring.
• Aher Uguak, Loyola, R-Sr. -- Uguak had his best weekend of the season, putting up 15.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game, while sinking 13 of 19 shots (.684) from the field, as Loyola split a pair of road games against Drake. The forward poured in 20 points and corralled five rebounds in the Ramblers’ 81-54 victory in the opener on February 13, for his second career game with 20 or more points. Uguak then totaled 11 points and four boards in a 51-50 overtime loss on February 14. For the year, the Canada native is accounting for 8.0 points and 4.4 boards per outing and has scored in double digits in a career-best three consecutive games.
• Tremell Murphy, Drake, Sr. - Led Drake on the week with 14.7 points per game, 3.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game … shot 66.7 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from the three-point arc … closed the week with a game-high 17 points 6-of-9 shooting in the overtime win over Loyola with four rebounds and two blocks … his final basket proved to be the go-ahead points in overtime … drained a critical three-pointer as the shot clock expired to put Drake within a point with three minutes left in regulation and a minute later had an equally critical block … opened up the week with a team-high 18 points in the home win over UNI on 7-of-9 shooting with two blocks.
• Trae Berhow, UNI, Sr. -- Berhow finished the week averaging 15.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game going 1-2 on the week. Berhow added 8 assists and 3 steals in just over 99 minutes on the court. Berhow finished with 14 points at Drake on Wednesday night, going 5-12 from the field with 4 rebounds and 3 assists. He went 6-13 from the field against Valparaiso on Saturday and added 17 points on Sunday in a 74-60 victory. 
• Donovan Clay, Valparaiso, So. -- Donovan Clay topped the team in scoring this week at 10.7 points per game while also averaging 4.0 rebounds per contest over three games - a home date with Bradley and a back-to-back at UNI. The sophomore knocked in four 3s and went 6-of-7 at the free-throw line this week. He scored 16 of his game-high 17 in the first half of Wednesday's game against Bradley. 
• Sheldon Edwards, Valparaiso, Fr. -- After winning the MVC Newcomer of the Week honor for his play last week, Sheldon Edwards followed up by averaging 8.3 points per game in three outings this week. He started all three contests and finished in double figures on two occasions while also grabbing six steals, dishing out five assists and hauling in 10 rebounds. He drained five 3s and went 4-of-5 at the free-throw line. Edwards has scored in double figures in four of his last five and has multiple steals in five of his last six. 
• Bowen Born, UNI, Fr. -- Freshman Bowen Born averaged 11 points and 3 assists per game last week. The freshman guard shot 39.4% from the field. Born scored 10 points at Drake and dished out 3 assists. Born added 8 points, 5 assists and 5 steals against Valparaiso on Sunday. 
• Braden Norris, Loyola, R-So. -- In a split at Drake over the weekend, Norris averaged 8.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.5 assists, connecting on 5 of 12 shots (.417) from the field and 1-for-5 from three-point range. The transfer from Oakland produced 11 points in 30 minutes in the No. 22 Ramblers’ 81-54 rout of the Bulldogs on February 13, then totaled six points, six rebounds and two assists in a crushing 51-50 overtime loss the following day. For the season, Norris is tallying 7.2 ppg, 2.9 rpg and 2.8 apg and shooting 38.4 percent (33-for-86) from the field. 
• Emon Washington, Illinois State, Fr. -- Averaged 8.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game in two games against Southern Illinois over the weekend. 
• Kyler Filewich, Southern Illinois, Fr. -- Averaged 9 points and 6.7 rebounds for the Salukis last week. He posted his first career double-double with career highs in both points (13) and rebounds (10) against Illinois State on Saturday. He followed that up with 11 points and 7 rebounds in Sunday’s win over the Redbirds. 

Loyola Stays at No. 22 in AP
Loyola maintained its position in both polls this week.  Loyola is No. 22 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, and the Ramblers are 23rd in the Ferris Mowers Coaches Poll (Feb. 15).  It marks the first time Loyola has been ranked in back-to-back weeks as an MVC member. Drake is also receiving votes in both polls this week after being ranked No. 25 in the Feb. 1 AP and coaches polls.  It marks the first time since 2014-15 that two different MVC teams have been ranked by the AP in the same season.

Nothing But NET
Loyola (10) and Drake (35) represent the MVC in the Top 35 of the NCAA’s NET rankings (through Feb. 14).  The last time the MVC had two teams in the Top 35 of a season-ending metric was in 2014-15 (UNI was 11 in the RPI, and Wichita State was 12).  Both reached the NCAA Tournament that season.  After a putting together a 5-game win streak, Missouri State is now No. 87.
 

MVC Leaders (NET)	Q1-2	Q3	Q4
10 - Loyola	5-4	3-0	8-0
35 - Drake	5-1	4-1	9-0
87 - Missouri State	0-4	9-1	3-0
121 - Indiana State	1-7	6-1	4-0

Quite a Road Stretch
Before losing to Drake, 51-50 in overtime on Sunday, Loyola had won seven-straight road games in league play.  Loyola had allowed just 50.1 points per game during that current seven-game MVC road win streak - that’s the best of any team since 1950.

Teams w/7 game road MVC Win Streaks (Since 1950), allowing 60+ ppg or less
50.1 -- Loyola (2020-21)
56.6 -- Wichita State (2013-14/2014-15)
58.1 -- Southern Illinois (2003-04)
58.1 -- Bradley (1986-87)
59.0 -- Wichita State (2014-15/2015-16)

Homecourt Advantage?
Home teams are 17-15 in the first game of a the league’s two-game back-to-back scheduling model and are 19-13 in the second game of the series.  This season, MVC teams have a 40-31 record at home in league play.  That home winning percentage of 56.3 is 15th among conferences.  The MVC led the nation last year with a 64-26 record (71.1 percent) at home in league play.  The MVC has been in the Top 6 in each of the past three seasons (home record in league play).  This year, Valley men’s teams are 34-2 (94.4 pct.) at home against non-league teams -- the best in the MVC since at least 1975-76.

Lowest Point Totals in a Win
Drake defeated No. 22 Loyola on Sunday, 51-50 in overtime.  The 51 points in a league win tied for the 7th-lowest total in MVC play in the past 10 years.  Drake’s 51-point win was the only among those below that went to overtime.

Lowest Point Totals In Win 
(League Games Only, Last 10 Years)
 47 -- UNI (47-41 vs. UE), 2-13-2018
48 -- Illinois State (48-45 at LUC), 1-31-2015
48 -- UNI (48-37 vs. Missouri State), 2-5-2013
49 -- UNI (49-41 vs. SIU), 2-8-2017
50 -- Loyola (50-47 vs. Drake), 1-14-2015
50 -- Illinois State (50-46 vs. SIU), 2-22-2017
51 -- Drake (51-50 1ot vs. LUC), 2-14, 2021
51 -- Loyola (51-41 at UNI), 1-16-2016
51 -- Missouri State (51-48 at BU), 1-21-2012

Pause in the Action
From Nov. 11 through today (Feb. 15), MVC schools had 25 total non-conference games canceled/postponed due to COVID.  A total of 24 of the lost games were replaced by another opponent.  The MVC has had 32 game-date shifts in league play since Christmas.

• Non-Conference Games Permitted:  90
• Non-Conference Games Scheduled:  68
• Games Cancelled/Added:  25/24
• Conference Games Scheduled/Played:  90/71
• MVC Games Postponed/Rescheduled:  17/17
• Total Games Moved:  32
• Games Canceled:  0

Back-to-Back
Below is a statistical snapshot as part of the league’s back-to-back series (cumulative averages, through Feb. 14).  The home team has had a decided advantage in the second game of the back-to-back series in field goal accuracy, while home teams average 3.4 more points in the second games, and visitors, on average, score 3.5 points less in game 2.  Bench scoring actually goes down (on average) for the teams that win the second game (an average of 0.34 points per game fewer than what they scored in G1).

• Home Teams -- 17-15 (G1); 19-13 (G2)
• Points (Home) -- +3.41  |  (Visitors) -- minus-3.47
• FG Pct. Improved G2 (Home) - 19 of 32  (Road) - 8 of 32

Aces’ Turnaround
Only one team in MVC history has followed a winless season with more than six conference wins the following year.  Southern Illinois was 0-16 in league play in 1980-81 and then went 7-9 in conference play in 1981-82.   Last year, UE was 0-18 in league play, and the Aces enter the week with a 6-7 mark.

Ramblers Tops in KenPom
Loyola leads the Missouri Valley Conference with its No. 10 rating in KenPom (Drake is second at 59.)  Notably, the Ramblers were rated 31 in KenPom the year they advanced to the NCAA Final Four (2018). Eighteen previous MVC teams in the past 20 seasons have finished the year in KenPom’s Top 30.  All but one earned an NCAA Tournament berth [the only one not to was Wichita State 2011, and the Shockers won the NIT that year.]  The combined post-season record of those 18 teams:  27-17.

Top MVC KenPom Ratings (Since 2002)
6 -- Wichita State (2014) -- NCAA (1-1)
8 -- Wichita State (2017) -- NCAA (1-1)
10 -- Loyola (2021) -- TBD
11 -- Wichita State (2012) -- NCAA (0-1)
13 -- Wichita State (2015) -- NCAA (2-1)
13 -- Wichita State (2016) -- NCAA (2-1)
15 -- Creighton (2013) -- NCAA (1-1)

Valpo Snaps Streak
Valpo snapped a 14-game losing streak in Cedar Falls with Saturday’s win at UNI, capturing the team’s first-ever victory when visiting the Panthers. Valpo was 0-14 all-time in Cedar Falls before that triumph, although 11 of the 14 losses had come before 1992.

Drake’s Historic Start
In the league’s 114-year history, a total of six MVC men’s basketball teams, including Drake this year, have started a season with 18-straight wins. In the three previous 18-0 MVC starts since World War II -- all three reached the NCAA Tournament, and two advanced to the NCAA Final Four. Drake’s previous best start to a season was 8-0 in 1970-71.

BU .. Deep Team
The Braves feature a deep team with a number of options in their lineup. In its three games last week, eight different players scored in double figures in at least one of the contests, including six in Bradley’s 76-52 victory over Valparaiso on Wednesday. It marked the first time that six Braves scored at least 10 points in a single Bradley game since accomplishing the feat on Dec. 30, 2006 against Evansville.

DU .. Top-25 Victory
Drake’s victory over Loyola marked its first win over a top-25 team since a 74-69 victory against No. 17 ranked Creighton in Des Moines, Jan. 23, 2013. The Bulldogs had dropped five straight games to top-25 nationally ranked teams (dating back to 2013-14 season) until defeating Loyola.

LUC .. Home Cooking
The Ramblers bring a 19-game home court winning streak into Wednesday’s game vs. Valparaiso. That current streak ranks tied for fifth nationally. Loyola has also won 31 of its last 33 home league games, including each of the last 17, since a 65-61 setback versus Missouri State on February 17, 2019. 

UE .. Efficiency at Its Best
UE’s Jawaun Newton is accurate from just about anywhere on the floor, hitting 50.9% of his attempts this season.  Inside the arc, he is even better, shooting 62%.  He has hit over 40% of his attempts in 12 of the last 14 games, but his recent streak is off the charts.  Newton has shot 70% or higher in three of the last five games including an 8-for-11 effort last weekend at Loyola.

UNI .. Jake Closing in On 300
Coach Ben Jacobson of UNI is approaching 300 career wins, currently sitting at 298.  Only three others in MVC history have reached the milestone:  Henry Iba (486), Eddie Hickey (337) and Dana Altman (327).

MOST COACHING WINS -- All Games as MVC Coach
486 -- Henry Iba, Oklahoma State (1934-57) (23 yrs.)
337 -- Eddie Hickey, CU/SLU (1935-43, 46-58) (20 yrs.)
327 -- Dana Altman, Creighton (1994-2010) (17 years)
298 -- Ben Jacobson, UNI (2006-present) (15 years)

INS .. Coaching Milestone
Head coach Greg Lansing became just the 11th coach in Missouri Valley Conference history to reach the 100 career Valley wins with the Sycamores’ 76-70 victory over Evansville Sunday, Feb. 14. The win was also the 11th-year head coach’s 178th, putting him just four behind Indiana State’s winningest coach, the legendary Duane Klueh (182).

MOST COACHING WINS -- Conference Games Only
187 -- Henry Iba, Oklahoma State (1934-57)
182 -- Dana Altman, Creighton (1994-10)
163 -- Eddie Hickey, CU/SLU (1935-43; 1946-58)
158 -- Ben Jacobson, UNI (2006-present)
155 -- Barry Hinson, MSU/SIU (1999-08; 2012-19)
134 -- Gregg Marshall, Wichita State (2007-17)
126 -- Phog Allen, Kansas (1907-09; 1919-28)
111 -- Rich Herrin, Southern Illinois (1985-97)
110 -- Jim Molinari, Bradley (1991-02)
102 -- Porter Moser, ILS/LUC (2003-07; 2013-pres.)
100 -- Greg Lansing, Indiana State (2010-present)

MSU .. 5-Game Win Streak
Missouri State has put together a league-best five-game winning streak, marking the club’s best Valley streak in nearly a decade. The Bears won eight straight MVC games from Feb. 5 to Dec. 31, 2011 the last time they were on a roll this significant. Likewise, with the Bears picking up their 10th MVC victory on Sunday, it marks just the third time since the 2006-07 season the Bears have locked up a winning Valley record (15-3 in 2010-11 and 10-8 in 2018-19).

When Leaders Collide
When then-No. 22 Loyola visited Drake in a two-game set in Des Moines over the weekend, it marked the third late-season matchup (Feb. 4 or later) of league teams with one or no losses in the past seven years:

• 11-0 Illinois State vs. 10-1 Wichita State (2/4/2017) – both teams ended up 17-1 – Wichita State beat Illinois State that night.   Shockers – NCAA; Illinois State – No. 1 seed NIT
• 16-1 Wichita State vs. 16-1 UNI (2/28/2015) – College GameDay – Wichita State beat UNI that day.  Shockers (17-1) – NCAA; UNI (16-2) – NCAA
• 12-1 Loyola vs. 10-1 Drake (2/13 and 2/14, 2021) – The teams split the two-game series in Des Moines, with Loyola winning the first game and Drake taking the second.

ILS .. Young Rebounders
With his 10 rebounds in Illinois State’s 80-55 win over Southern Illinois, ISU freshman Emon Washington became the third Redbird freshman this season to pull down double-digit rebounds in a game (Harouna Sissoko and Howard Fleming Jr. are the other two). This marks the first season in program history that three different freshman had double-digit rebounding games in the same season.

VU .. Complete Performance
The shooting numbers told the tale in Saturday’s win at UNI as Valpo shot a season-high 55.1 percent, the team’s top mark in a road game since December 2017 and best shooting clip in a Missouri Valley Conference road tilt since joining the league. On the flip side, Valpo held UNI to just 33.9 percent shooting, the lowest mark by a Valpo opponent in a road game since Drake posted that same percentage in February 2018.

SIU .. 500-Point Club
Ben Harvey surpassed 500 points career points on Saturday and became the fourth sophomore on SIU’s roster to surpass 500 career points this season, joining Marcus Domask, Lance Jones, and Steven Verplancken Jr.  Sixty-eight percent of SIU’s scoring this season is coming from the sophomore class. 

For the Ages
Evansville is the ‘oldest’ team in the Missouri Valley Conference, as its roster has an average of 21.56 (through 2/14/2021).  Drake, however, leads the league in average age by its “Top 7,” as defined by the most total minutes played.  That Top 7 for Drake has an average age of 22.63.  League-leader Loyola is right behind Drake, at 22.16.