Today In The Valley (Nov. 19)
Northern Iowa (1-0) at Illinois-Chicago (0-1)
7:00 p.m.
UIC Pavilion; Chicago, Illinois
ESPN Full Court
UNI travels to "The Windy City" to take on the Flames in a return matchup from last year’s Bracketbuster game, which UIC won in Cedar Falls. It will be the Panthers’ first road test of the year. Last Saturday, UNI scored 42 points in the second half to defeat Denver 61-56. It appears the offense took its time to click, which is due in part to a young team learning to play together as well as Jordan Eglseder's (17 points) return to the lineup. He missed early season practices as well as two exhibition games. For one of the few times this year he will see eye to eye with his defender when he battles the Flames’ 7-footer Scott Vander Meer.
This will be the Flames' second contest against a Valley opponent in as many games. Last Friday, UIC traveled to Peoria to take on Bradley. They took an 8-point halftime lead against the Braves yet lost 67-61 (sound familiar, Jays fans?) Robo Kreps lit up the Braves for a game-high 24 points, including five 3-pointers (He doesn’t really look like a “Robo,” though, does he?). Vander Meer had a double-double (15 points, 11 rebounds).
This will be a tough game for UNI. As we have seen recently, the combination of wind and flames can be difficult to handle.
~ Panon
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Drake (0-1) vs. Morehead State (0-2)
7:00 p.m.
Knapp Center; Des Moines, Iowa
The Eagles of Morehead State squared off against Warhawks (Louisiana-Monroe) and Commodores (Vanderbilt) in their first two contests and soundly lost to their brethren of the sky. So, they’ll swoop into Des Moines for the school’s first meeting versus Drake in history. Actually, they lost by just 2 points at Monroe, but dropped the contest against Vandy by 26. They are led by guard Robert Murray (12 ppg) and forward Leon Buchanan (11 ppg; 4 rpg).
The Bulldogs look to fare a bit better than they did in their showdown with another set of Bulldogs, last weekend’s 58-48 loss to Butler. Maybe warmer temps and sunnier skies will light a fire beneath their offense. The game against the Eagles is the first for Drake in the 2008 Cancun Challenge, which will find the Bulldogs also hosting South Dakota State this weekend. Mark Phelps, Josh Young, and the rest of the Drake team will then head south of the border to take on Vanderbilt and then either Virginia Commonwealth or New Mexico. Young dropped 19 points on Butler, but he’ll need more help offensively than what he got in that game.
Matchup to watch: Jonathon Cox vs. Kenneth Faried. Faried, a sophomore forward, was picked to the preseason all-Ohio Valley Conference team. Cox is a versatile forward who can score inside or from long range. This will be an interesting battle to watch (but only if you are in Des Moines, as the game will be on Mediacom locally).
Pregame handshake/man hug to watch: Drake’s John Michael Hall (no, not the kid from “The Breakfast Club”) vs. Buchanan. They were teammates at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia, from 2005-2007. They led the Golden Stallions (um, really?!) to a #11 ranking in the National Junior College Athletic Association season-ending poll.
Seriously, the Golden Stallions?
~ Creighton Otter
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Wichita State (1-0) vs. Missouri-Kansas City (0-2)
7:00 p.m.
Koch Arena; Wichita, Kansas
You can bet that last year’s 3-point loss at the Kangaroos’ home court still vexes Gregggggggg Marshall. (Interesting note: former Jay-for-about-10-seconds Tim Blackwell scored 12 points in that UMKC win. So, even past and current Creighton players made Marshall’s first year at WSU a nightmare. Nice.) In fact, as Wichita Eagle Shox reporter Paul Suellentrop points out in one of his great blog postings, “Last season’s loss at UMKC was one of the low points. Marshall was so mad in the post-game interview he could not speak more than one sentence in reply to each question. If the Shockers are on the right track, this is a game they must win.”
Not only can I imagine that press conference vividly; I tend to agree with Suellentrop about the Shox need to win this game. This year is going to be a learning experience for all of the fresh faces decorating the Shocker bench, but enacting some retribution for one of last year’s worst losses would be a positive step in the right direction for a guy who didn’t have many positive steps at all last year (except maybe the ones he took leaving the court early during his team’s play-in night loss in St. Louis after getting the boot from the refs).
Look for the Kangaroos to try to win with 3-point shooting. In a 71-56 loss at Kansas a few nights ago (a game that was tied at halftime), UMKC launched 31 long-range bombs. The ‘Roos can win if senior small forward Dane Brumagin is on offensively. And that could very well be the case; we know WSU doesn’t do well against guys named “Dane.”
~ Creighton Otter
7:00 p.m.
UIC Pavilion; Chicago, Illinois
ESPN Full Court
UNI travels to "The Windy City" to take on the Flames in a return matchup from last year’s Bracketbuster game, which UIC won in Cedar Falls. It will be the Panthers’ first road test of the year. Last Saturday, UNI scored 42 points in the second half to defeat Denver 61-56. It appears the offense took its time to click, which is due in part to a young team learning to play together as well as Jordan Eglseder's (17 points) return to the lineup. He missed early season practices as well as two exhibition games. For one of the few times this year he will see eye to eye with his defender when he battles the Flames’ 7-footer Scott Vander Meer.
This will be the Flames' second contest against a Valley opponent in as many games. Last Friday, UIC traveled to Peoria to take on Bradley. They took an 8-point halftime lead against the Braves yet lost 67-61 (sound familiar, Jays fans?) Robo Kreps lit up the Braves for a game-high 24 points, including five 3-pointers (He doesn’t really look like a “Robo,” though, does he?). Vander Meer had a double-double (15 points, 11 rebounds).
This will be a tough game for UNI. As we have seen recently, the combination of wind and flames can be difficult to handle.
~ Panon
---
Drake (0-1) vs. Morehead State (0-2)
7:00 p.m.
Knapp Center; Des Moines, Iowa
The Eagles of Morehead State squared off against Warhawks (Louisiana-Monroe) and Commodores (Vanderbilt) in their first two contests and soundly lost to their brethren of the sky. So, they’ll swoop into Des Moines for the school’s first meeting versus Drake in history. Actually, they lost by just 2 points at Monroe, but dropped the contest against Vandy by 26. They are led by guard Robert Murray (12 ppg) and forward Leon Buchanan (11 ppg; 4 rpg).
The Bulldogs look to fare a bit better than they did in their showdown with another set of Bulldogs, last weekend’s 58-48 loss to Butler. Maybe warmer temps and sunnier skies will light a fire beneath their offense. The game against the Eagles is the first for Drake in the 2008 Cancun Challenge, which will find the Bulldogs also hosting South Dakota State this weekend. Mark Phelps, Josh Young, and the rest of the Drake team will then head south of the border to take on Vanderbilt and then either Virginia Commonwealth or New Mexico. Young dropped 19 points on Butler, but he’ll need more help offensively than what he got in that game.
Matchup to watch: Jonathon Cox vs. Kenneth Faried. Faried, a sophomore forward, was picked to the preseason all-Ohio Valley Conference team. Cox is a versatile forward who can score inside or from long range. This will be an interesting battle to watch (but only if you are in Des Moines, as the game will be on Mediacom locally).
Pregame handshake/man hug to watch: Drake’s John Michael Hall (no, not the kid from “The Breakfast Club”) vs. Buchanan. They were teammates at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia, from 2005-2007. They led the Golden Stallions (um, really?!) to a #11 ranking in the National Junior College Athletic Association season-ending poll.
Seriously, the Golden Stallions?
~ Creighton Otter
---
Wichita State (1-0) vs. Missouri-Kansas City (0-2)
7:00 p.m.
Koch Arena; Wichita, Kansas
You can bet that last year’s 3-point loss at the Kangaroos’ home court still vexes Gregggggggg Marshall. (Interesting note: former Jay-for-about-10-seconds Tim Blackwell scored 12 points in that UMKC win. So, even past and current Creighton players made Marshall’s first year at WSU a nightmare. Nice.) In fact, as Wichita Eagle Shox reporter Paul Suellentrop points out in one of his great blog postings, “Last season’s loss at UMKC was one of the low points. Marshall was so mad in the post-game interview he could not speak more than one sentence in reply to each question. If the Shockers are on the right track, this is a game they must win.”
Not only can I imagine that press conference vividly; I tend to agree with Suellentrop about the Shox need to win this game. This year is going to be a learning experience for all of the fresh faces decorating the Shocker bench, but enacting some retribution for one of last year’s worst losses would be a positive step in the right direction for a guy who didn’t have many positive steps at all last year (except maybe the ones he took leaving the court early during his team’s play-in night loss in St. Louis after getting the boot from the refs).
Look for the Kangaroos to try to win with 3-point shooting. In a 71-56 loss at Kansas a few nights ago (a game that was tied at halftime), UMKC launched 31 long-range bombs. The ‘Roos can win if senior small forward Dane Brumagin is on offensively. And that could very well be the case; we know WSU doesn’t do well against guys named “Dane.”
~ Creighton Otter
posted by Creighton Otter at 12:45 AM
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