The following “Starting Five” points offer a quick look inside GLVC men’s basketball action this week:
STARTING FIVE
[1 | ready for tipoff]
Fourteen GLVC men’s basketball teams will
open the 2016-17 season this weekend, including Bellarmine, Maryville, Missouri-St. Louis, Quincy, Saint Joseph’s and Truman State competing on Friday. The featured matchup of the weekend will be No. 3 Bellarmine traveling to No. 4 Saginaw Valley State on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. The Knights join Indianapolis, defending GLVC Champion Lewis, Missouri-St. Louis, Quincy, Saint Joseph’s, Southern Indiana and UW-Parkside as participants in the GLVC/GLIAC Challenge.
[2 | bellarmine, drury, uindy enter nationally ranked]
Bellarmine
opens the season ranked No. 3 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), having already earned the No. 1 ranking by Division II Bulletin. Drury is set to start the season ranked 22
nd by the NABC and 11
th by DII Bulletin. The publication also ranked Indianapolis 17
th in the annual preseason rankings.
[3 | knights, hawks picked to win glvc divisions]
Bellarmine and Quincy have been picked to win the GLVC East and West Divisions, as announced on Oct. 27 following
a vote by the league coaches. The Knights earned nine of the 16 votes, while four other schools nabbed at least one first-place vote. UW-Parkside was picked to finish second, while Lewis and Indianapolis tied for the third sport and Southern Indiana was fifth. In the West, Quincy also picked up nine first-place votes to top the rankings, followed closely by Drury with six first-place votes and Truman State with one. Rockhurst and Missouri-St. Louis were picked to finish fourth and fifth, respectively. Last season, Bellarmine and UW-Parkside shared the East title while Drury picked up the West crown. At the GLVC Championship Tournament, Lewis picked up its sixth conference title and first since 2002.
[4 | troutman leads group of top returnees]
Bellarmine senior guard Rusty Troutman leads a handful of All-Conference honorees back to the court this season. Troutman was recognized as a Preseason All-America honorable mention selection by the Sporting News as well as a
Super 16 selection by DII Bulletin. He is the lone of five unanimous first-team All-GLVC selections to return this season. Other first-team All-GLVC standouts returning include Drury junior guard Tevin Foster, Quincy senior center Joseph Tagarelli, and Truman State senior guard Cory Myers. Six second-team picks along with reigning co-GLVC Freshman of the Year honorees, Lewis guard Delaney Blaylock and Southern Indiana guard Alex Stein.
[5 | mckendree’s franklin back to score more]
McKendree senior guard David Franklin is back to defend his GLVC scoring crown. Franklin scored 21.7 points per game overall last year and 21.8 points each time in conference games only. In fact, the league’s second through sixth top scorers have since graduated or transferred, leaving the next highest scorer as Franklin’s teammate, sophomore Nate Michael (17.6 ppg). Quincy’s Joseph Tagraelli (17.1) and Bellarmine’s Rusty Troutman (16.7) finished eighth and ninth, respectively, over the course of 18 GLVC contests last season.