SIU returns after a week off to restart Valley play at Valpo.
The Beacons are 7-6 overall and 1-2 in Missouri Valley play so far this year. They have quality wins over #129 Jacksonville State and #144 Tulane on neutral courts and bad losses to #282 Illinois Chicago and #205 Charlotte at home. They won 7 of their last 9 games before losing by 27 at Northern Iowa in their last game.
Meet the Beacons:
Like the past few seasons, Valpo saw turnover from the previous season losing leading rebounder and 2nd leading scorer from last year, Donovan Clay, to Missouri State. Valpo is 279th in the country in minutes continuity from last year (33.6%).
Valpo has been a really good shooting team this season. The Beacons are 96th in the country in effective field goal % (52%), 127th in the country in 3 point % (34.2%), and 91st in the country in 2 point % (52.5%). Valpo tends to take care of the ball too, they're 57th in the country in turnover % on the offensive end (16.7%) and 81st in the country in steal % on the offensive end (8.4%). If the game comes down to free throws, Valpo is 24th in the country in free throw % (77.5%). Valpo has struggled with offensive rebounding this year as they're 351st in the country (18.7%).
On the defensive end, Valpo hasn't fared as well. The Beacons are 199th in the country in effective field goal % against (50.3%) and 270th in 3 point field goal % against (35.4%). Valpo has been good at getting steals on the defensive end though as they're 91st in the country in steal % (10.6%).
Valpo's leading scorer is 6'4 Senior Kobe King averaging 15 points per game. King was a 3 star recruit out of La Cross, Wisconsin and began his collegiate career at Wisconsin. King started 20 games and played 63 games in total at Wisconsin before sitting out last year and decided to transfer to Valpo despite previously committing to Nebraska. King had to sit the first 9 games of the season this year but in the 5 games he's played he's been a huge scoring threat for the Beacons. King has scored double digits in points in all but 1 game so far this season and had 14 points and 9 rebounds in the Beacons last game at Northern Iowa.
6'9 Junior Ben Krikke is just behind King in points per game with 14.8 points per game. Krikke is from Edmonton, Alberta and took a big jump last year from his Freshman year where he averaged 12.3 points per game and was named to the All-MVC Third Team and the All-MVC Improved team at the end of the season. This season, Krikke has been getting the majority of possessions and shots for the Beacons. Krikke is 73rd in the country in % of possessions when he's on the floor (29.2%) and 105th in the country in % of shots when he's on the floor (29.9%). Krikke is also 277th in the country in block % (3.8%).
The Beacons leading rebounder is 6'8 Senior Thomas Kithier averaging 6.5 rebounds per game. Kithier was a 3 star recruit out of Macomb, Michigan and chose to start his collegiate career at Michigan State. At Michigan State, Kithier played sparingly, starting 19 games and playing no more than 12.5 minutes per game in a season. This offseason, Kithier transferred to Valpo where he's made more of an impact playing more minutes. Kithier is 31st in the country in 2 point % (70%) and 174th in the country in defensive rebounding % (21.5%). Kithier missed the last two games due to COVID protocols so remains to be seen if he'll play in this one.
6'4 Sophomore Sheldon Edwards has continued to improve on his impressive Freshman season where he averaged 8.1 points per game and saw him named to the All-MVC Freshman team at the end of the season. Edwards doesn't shoot the best percentage but he's good at taking care of the ball and provides value on the defensive end. Edwards is 62nd in the country in turnover rate (8.3%), 142nd in the country in block % (5.6%) and 197th in the country in steal % (3.3%).
Another player that's provided value for Valpo this season is 6'6 Senior Kevion Taylor. Taylor spent 4 years at DII Winona State before transferring to Valpo this offseason. At Winona State, Taylor led his team in scoring with 20.5 points per game and finished top 10 at the program in total points. This season, Taylor has carried the shooting over averaging 10.7 points per game. Taylor is 130th in the country in effective field goal % (59.7%), 151st in the country in true shooting % (61.7%) and 178th in the country in 3 point shooting % (31-73, 42.5%).
Links:
Bryan Mullins with Mike Reis 1/4
Bryan Mullins with the media 1/6
Bryan Mullins with Mike Reis 1/7
Great writeup as usual. Do we have any idea who on our side will be eligible to suit up health wise?
Think it's better if we don't know until warm-ups because Valpo won't know either
UNI blew them out by almost 30. I would really hate to lose to this team.
I really hate losing to any team.
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The line is SIU +1. Expect Valpo to be a lot tougher at home than they looked on the road at UNI. They will most likely get their best rebounder Kithier back from covid protocols. He is a tough match up for Southern. They had been playing pretty well until the UNI game. They will shoot better at home than they did in that game, as they usually shoot the ball well. Any road win in the mvc is huge, let's start 2-0 on the road in conference!
Mike Reis with Bryan Mullins pregame:
Everyone but Harvey is going today:
https://twitter.com/MikeReisSIU/status/1479951051897794561
Valpo seems to have everyone too except Anderson
Feels like SIU hasn’t played in about 3 weeks.
Tonight should be mighty interesting.
Lets go Dawgs!
Valpo's announcers just had a big thing about Domask before the game and showed D'Avanzo the entire time. Nice to see how well they know this SIU team.
No idea why we're running an offense through Muila right now. It's just not working.
Nearly 8 minutes go by without a whistle. Jones starts 0-3 from 3 and is 16-67 on the year. He was so good at outside shooting last year but they're just not falling this year
No idea why we're running an offense through Muila right now. It's just not working.
trying to get him to the FT line
