Who will be the MVC Player of the Year

I think several players are neck and neck and whoever has the best final two weeks might be the favorite...

Just a couple days ago, you might have said UNI's Jordan Eglseder was perhaps the leading candidate, but his DUI and 3 game suspension will hurt big time, and probably knocks him out of the running.
Adam Koch & Kwadzo Ahelegbe are both on the Valley's top team, but their individual stats are down from last year and don't rank either of those guys in any Top 10 scoring or defensive categories.
So to be POY shouldn't you have some nice individual stats? Even a couple years ago when Drake's Adam Emmenecker won the Player of the Year, he didn't have great scoring numbers, but he had almost 6.5 assists per game the best total in the MVC in a couple decades!!

So then who is still at the top of the list......

Here's the list of guys who got preseason mention, both All-MVC and Hon. Mention...

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Preseason Player of the Year -- Osiris Eldridge, Illinois State

2009-10 MVC Preseason All-Conference Team
Name, School, Pos., Ht., Wt., Year, Hometown, High School
Kwadzo Ahelegbe, UNI, G, 6-2, 200, Jr., Oakdale (Minn.) Tartan High
Osiris Eldridge, Illinois State, G, 6-3, 215, Sr., Chicago (Ill.) Phillips Academy
Tony Freeman, Southern Illinois, G, 6-1, 195, Sr., Maywood (Ill.) St. Joseph's / Iowa transfer
Adam Koch, UNI, F, 6-8, 255, Sr., Ashawubenon (Wis.) High
P'Allen Stinnett, Creighton, G, 6-3, 180, Jr., Las Vegas (Nev.) Brewster Academy [N.H.]
Josh Young, Drake, G, 6-1, 174, Sr., Lawton (Okla.) Lawton Christian High

HM: Kevin Dillard, Southern Illinois; Clevin Hannah, Wichita State; Jake Kelly, Indiana State; Sam Maniscalco, Bradley; Harry Marshall, Indiana State; Toure' Murry, Wichita State
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Of the 12 players mentioned in the preseason....(and Eglseder was NOT one of them)
--3 are out for probably the rest of the season which hurts their chances (Kelly, Marshall, Stinnett) and probably even eliminates them

--and several are having off years or their teams are doing badly-- I just cannot imagine the POY going to a guy on team below 5th or under .500...

Dillard - his team is 6-9 and one spot out of last place, his individual numbers are still pretty good, though.

Kwadzo - is with the 1st place team so he'll get consideration, but individually he's only averaging 11 ppg, and 2.7 apg - not real impressive.

Osiris - overall scoring numbers are still good, but everything's off from last year and basically he gets points just by jacking plenty.
He is hurting his team with selfishness, and I suspect the people who vote on the awards notice that. (see below)

Tony Freeman - one dimensional - and I doubt the 2nd best player on a 9th place team will get a single vote.

Adam Koch - he might get votes on reputation, but if anyone looks at the numbers, the case gets weaker...individually, as hard as this is to believe,
he's not top-10 in any scoring, rebounding, or defensive category in Valley play!

Josh Young - still has strong numbers, but like Osiris, he's way off from expectations (plus his team is 6-9 tied for 9th) and gets his points
by launching lots of shots and isn't really helping his team.
Also, his team is flirting with 9th place.

Clevin Hannah - is better than expected and should be 1st team

Toure Murry - again...decent numbers, but not really top 10 in much at all...

Then we come to Sammy - who was given only Honorable Mention status in the preseason, but Sam is Top 10 in practically every Valley stat category that numbers are being kept!!!
I think he is the clear favorite as the MOST valuable player in the league and is the best candidate for Player of the Year

Then a couple other players who were left off the preseason accolades have clearly played well enough to get at least 1st team mention (or 2nd/3rd)...

Andrew Warren, Taylor Brown (only player in the TOP 6-8 in scoring AND rebounding AND FT%), Dinma Odiakosa, and just maybe Kyle Weems or Kenny Lawson....

But - if I have to state who are the only guys who actually have a shot at winning the POY, it would be Adam Koch (best player on the best team), Sammy, Dinma, Hannah, or (hold your hats) Andrew Warren!!!
YUP -- how can you NOT consider Warren when he not only helps his team win games, but he's also Top 3 or 4 in several categories such as scoring and FT shooting, and he also ranks among the top rebounders!

-- I believe Eglseder, Eldridge, Harry Marshall, Weems, Lawson, Stinnett, Tony Freeman, and Dillard have all played themselves out of contention and are super longshots.


I think Sam Maniscalco is the clear favorite as the MOST valuable player in the league and is the best candidate for Player of the Year, his numbers alone justify it, he is getting the recognition he deserves in the weekly awards, and he even has tons of those intangibles that knowledgable people like the guys who vote on this award DO notice....like guts, grit, savvy, leadership, and late game leadership and even some heroics!

I'm highly biased, but I have to agree. SM has had a great MVC year, but I'm like others have said, I think it'll be hard for a middle of the pack team's player getting this award....so Bradley needs to finish STRONG and end up in at least 3rd or hopefully 2nd place!

But again.....whoever among the top players has the best performances this week and next week will win the award as those who vote will have a better memory of what's gone on lately. And where the teams finish will also matter.....thus even if Sammy has great games, if BU falters and finishes 6-7th, then he'd be out of the running for sure...so BU must play well and WIN.
Go Braves!!



But for those who still think Osiris Eldridge should be a strong consideration because he has some of the most impressive numbers, let me answer this way....
Just look at the Valley only stats, where Eldridge's scoring drops to 13.6 ppg despite leading the Valley by an ENORMOUS margin in the number of shots jacked up...
OE's FG % isn't even on the map, while Sam Maniscalco's shooting pct. is among the leaders in the entire league...the only guard up there (52.4%).
Eldridge's 3-pt shooting pct. also barely makes the Top 25 in the Valley (he's 24th at 33.7%), and he rarely gets an assist!!


I just checked something else on Osiris Eldridge...feel free to check yourself...
since the ISU site has a game-line play-by-play for every one of their games, I thought I'd check how often Osiris helps his team down the stretch...
I counted all of his shots and scoring in the final 3 minutes of every Valley game...

What I found will astound you...it sure astounded me...
Clearly, if you're a gamer, a POY candidate, then you want the ball in your hands and you help your team by hitting baskets down the stretch, right....

Well, in FIFTEEN MVC games thus far (and I included their one OT period), Osiris Edridge has made only FOUR baskets in the final 3 minutes of games & OT's...

!!!!!....ONLY FOUR !!!!...and if you expand that search to the final FOUR minutes of all Valley games and OT periods, then the number jumps all the way to FIVE baskets in the final four minutes of Valley games & OT periods..... (he had one bucket recently at the 3:58 mark).
This is where he should shine and be making lots of KEY buckets, instead his shooting pct. in the final minutes of games is abysmal...plus there are lots of turnovers, fouls, etc...

In addition......of the four baskets in the final 3 minutes...THREE of them all came in one single game...a horrible loss at Drake when ISU trailed at half 35-15!!!
The game at Drake was where OE was scoreless in the first half then launched a gazillion shots in a losing effort in the 2nd half just to keep ISU from losing at Drake by more than double digits...(they still lost by 10 and the game was never really that close.)
Those 3 buckets in the final 3 minutes of that game obviously were meaningless, as they were just to pad O's stats, and he was launching against Drakes subs and garbage time players.


So my challenge is this...show me where OE has helped ISU win a single game!!
The one and only decent 2nd half or late game performance came in a blowout loss...and the only other basket inside the final 3 minutes of any Valley game was when he lauched FIVE times in the overtime period at SIU and made only one of them helping his team to the loss down at Carbondale...
(finishing the game 5-21, while his counterparts Dillard, Freeman, & Bocot went off for 44 pts.)

I rest my case...he has not helped them win a single game...and even by Tim Jankovich's own words...his performances are hurting his team!!

The Pantagraph said this...
"He isn’t helping the team and is randomly jacking up shots...
Eldridge is mired in a horrendous shooting slump and yes, he does launch some ill-advised shots...Jankovich has taken him out of some recent games after putting up 25-footers."