Bradley beats Evansville 74-64, and who are the Valley's best players?

Evansville showed that they have a few fine, young shooters, but they just don't have all the pieces..
Their inside game is lacking and they don't have a lot of defensive prowess.
The crowd was good, the refs were OK, and Bradley really didn't have any long dry spells....
Early in the 2nd half, Evansville had a couple consecutive good possessions, but they never got closer than a couple points under 10.
I think Bradley is really playing hard, especially on defense.

But here are a few comments about the offensive performances of players in the Valley............

The top scorers in the Valley yesterday were:
Josh Young (DU) - 20 (8 Field Goals Attempted)
Sam Maniscalco (BU) - 19 (just 10 FGA)
Clevin Hannah (WSU) - 19 (17 FGA)
Kevin Dillard (SIU) - 18 (8 FGA)
Denver Holmes (UE) - 18 (11 FGA)
Seth Van Deest (DU) - 17 (9 FGA)
Andrew Warren (BU) - 17 (just 7 FGA)
JT Durley (WSU) - 16 (13 FGA)
Dinma Odiakosa (ISU) - 16 (9 FGA)
Osiris Eldridge (ISU) - 16 (21 FGA)
Tony Lewis (ISU) - 16 (6 FGA)
Toure Murry (WSU) - 15 (8 FGA)
Justin Bocot (SIU) - 14 (8 FGA)

Then, if we add a look at the very best scoring performances from the rest of this week in the Valley:
Denver Holmes - 23 (13 FG attempts)
Sam Maniscalco (1/20) - 21 (on 9 FG attempts)
Harry Marshall (InSU) - 21 (on 13 FG attempts)
Carl Richard (InSU of 1/19) - 20 (on 10 FG attempts)
JT Durley - 19 (on 11 FG attempts)
Josh Young (1/20) - 18 (on just 7 FG attempts)

Then what we see is that the Valley really does have a lot of good scorers who aren't getting their points just by jacking up tons of shots, with some going in...
note Sammy's total this week of 40 points in two games taking only 19 field goal attempts...getting more than 2 pts per FGA!!
Josh Young of Drake is even more efficient, which likely explains a little why Drake is on a run...he's got 38 points in the past two games since last weekend, taking only 15 shots!!!
In fact there's only one performancxe this past week that stands out starkly as BOGUS.....when a guy has to take over 20 shots to corral 16 points...then just maybe he'd help his team more by letting someone else take a shot once in a while.



Now we'll move on to the scoring in the Valley since the beginning of league play......

Here are the best eight scorers........
1. Marshall, Harry-INS SR 16.4
2. Warren, Andrew-BU JR 16.1
3. Eldridge,Osiris-ILS SR 15.8 (142 pts on 112 FGA)
4. Maniscalco, Sam-BU JR 15.6 (140 pts in 85 FGA)
5. Weems,Kyle-MSU SO 15.1
6. Holmes, Denver-UE SO 14.8
7. Ryan, Colt-UE FR 14.6
8. Young, Josh-DU SR 14.1


Now a list of the eight best in the Valley in FG shooting percentage...
1. Carmichael,Jackie-ILS 29-50 .580
2. Eglseder, Jordan-UNI SR 43-75 .573
3. Egolf, Will-BU SO 37-65 .569
4. Odiakosa,Dinma-ILS SR 38-69 .551
5. Maniscalco, Sam-BU JR 45-85 .529
6. Templeton, Adam-DU SR 37-70 .529
7. Koch, Adam-UNI SR 31-59 .525
8. Patterson,Caleb-MSU SO 27-53 .509

Basically that's the only 8 players in the Valley shooting at or better than 51% - and then compare the two lists.....
There is only one name on the BOTH lists.....Sam Maniscalco....
so he's not only scoring quite well, he isn't missing many shots and giving the ball right back to the opponents for them to score!

And I just wonder how many more pts Sammy would have if he was at 112 field goals attempted...
of course he'd have to be forcing a lot of those shots, but surely he'd have made at least 30-40% of those extra 27 shots, and some would be 3-pointers, so Sammy would have at least 30-40 more points and would be averaging close to 20 ppg, way ahead of everyone else in the Valley............interesting to contemplate!!

Now let's turn to turnovers.........
Kevin Dillard 26
Harry Marshall 23
Kwadzo Ahelegbe 22 (one fewer game played than the rest on the list)
Osiris Eldridge 21
Colt Ryan 20
Adam Koch 17 (one fewer game played than the rest on the list)
Josh Young 17
Tony Freeman 17
Clevin Hannah 17
Lloyd Phillips 16
Adam Leonard 16
P'Allen Stinnett 15 (one fewer game played than the rest on the list)

Sam Maniscalco, who may actually handle the ball for more actual minutes than anyone else on the entire list - is way down the list at only 14 total turnovers thus far in Valley play AND...
he isn't even in the TOP 30 players in the MVC!!!

Here's Sammy compared to the other TWO first team preseason shooting guards...
Sam Maniscalco - 15.6 ppg, 53% FG%, 38% 3ptFG%, 81% on FT, 29 assists, 14 TO
Osiris Eldridge- 15.8 ppg, 41% FG%, 40% 3ptFG%, 91% on FT, 22 assists, 21 TO
P'Allen Stinnett- 8.0 ppg, 34% FG%, 22% 3ptFG%, 63% on FT, 15 assists, 15 TO

Wow, despite playing well enough that Sammy could well lay claim to being the best PG in the league, he also has a pretty solid argument for being the best SG in the league at the same time....
Did anyone see this coming??? (besides me?? ;)

Then the last stat I will look at...at the end of the game, they are going to foul the guy with the ball, so let's look at the free throw percentages of the guy who handle the ball in Valley play...............and for the sake of comparison, these are the ones in the Valley who average MORE than 4 FT attempts per game...

Warren, Andrew-BU JR .950 (38-40)
Brown, Taylor-BU SO .868 (33-38)
Koch, Adam-UNI SR .865
Marshall, Harry-INS SR .854
Mallett,Jermaine-MSU JR .824
Maniscalco, Sam-BU JR .805 (33-41)

wow...three of the top SIX of them are BU guys and all three are over 80%..and all three of the Bradley guys have gone to the line well over four times a game and have made well over 30 pts on FT's (Osiris Eldridge has gone to the FT only 3.6 times per game and has made only 30 pts on FT's..way below what might be expected)

Just a couple other random stats...
Will Egolf is among the leaders at 57% FG accuracy (3rd in the league and ahead of perennial leader Dinma Odiakosa)

Also - BU's sophomore duo of Will Egolf and Taylor Brown are BOTH in the Top 10 in the Valley in rebounding...with Andrew Warren just outside the Top 10.

Get this...only ONE team has THREE of the BEST 15 rebounders in the Valley, and it's BRADLEY (so much to dispel the myth that BU can't rebound because we don't have our "bigs coach"!!)

Andrew Warren is 3rd in Valley play with 47.5% on 3-pointers

Sam Maniscalco is 4th in Assist to Turnovers at 2.1
And contrary to what some have said, Sam is not playing more minutes than everyone in the Valley....
In fact...not at all...Sam is barely in the Top 10...I guess I'd be surprised if our PG wasn't in the Top 10, and Sammy is playing 3 minutes per game less than Evansville's Colt Ryan and two mpg less than Osiris Eldridge.

One final comparison...
Remember, ISU's Dinma Odiakosa was ranked in the preseason as one of the best if not the best center in the league...
many listed Dinma on their First Team All-MVC!

Well, here is a direct, side-by-side comparison between 5th year senior Dinma, and "hobbled" sophomre Will Egolf - who didn't get any notice in the preseason because he was coming off an oft-career-ending, devastating knee injury and hadn't played in a FULL year!

Dinma--9 games, 39-69 (56.5%), 8.4 rpg, 7 blocks, 30 mpg, TWO foul-outs
Will----9 games, 37-65 (56.9%), 6.0 rpg, 8 blocks, 25 mpg, has NOT fouled out

and Will is still getting better..........so who'd have thunk it??