The following “Starting Five” points offer a quick look inside GLVC men’s basketball action this week:
STARTING FIVE
[1 | drury, uindy prep for big week divisional weekends]
Drury
enters the week tied for second in the GLVC West with Quincy at 6-3, and hits the road to West leader Truman State on Thursday and then matches up against the Hawks on Saturday. In the East, co-leader Bellarmine travels to Indianapolis, which sits tied for third in the division at 7-2, but is also the hottest team in the league at this point. UIndy has captured seven straight wins after starting the league slate 0-2. The Greyhounds will turn around and welcome co-East leader Southern Indiana on Saturday.
[2 | bellarmine, southern indiana, uw-parkside ranked in nabc top 25 poll]
Three GLVC teams are represented in this week’s National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Poll,
it was announced Tuesday. No. 10 Bellarmine (16-3, 8-1 GLVC) jumped five spots from 15th after defeating then-No. 9 Southern Indiana and No. 22 UW-Parkside last week. Southern Indiana (18-1, 8-1) dropped to No. 12 in the polls while UW-Parkside (15-3, 7-2) fell three positions to No. 25.
[3 | truman’s myers joins elite company en route to weekly honors]
Truman State senior guard Cory Myers was
named GLVC Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 21.5 points on 14-of-21 shooting (.667) to go along with 7.5 assists, 7.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game during two league road wins last week. Against Maryville last Thursday, he posted the school’s first triple-double since 1995 with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. The triple-double also put him in elite company this year as he is the second GLVC standout to accomplish the feat and among a group of seven in Division II to do so this season. Earlier this year, Southern Indiana’s Jeril Taylor netted 15 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in just 25 minutes in a win over Bluefield State College. Among the seven DII players to have recorded a triple-double this year, the GLVC is the lone conference to boast more than one standout.
[4 | halfway home]
With nine conference games officially in the book, we have reached halftime of the 18-game league slate. Currently Bellarmine and Southern Indiana
sit atop the GLVC East at 8-1, followed by Indianapolis and UW-Parkside at 7-2. In the West, Truman State sits first at 7-2, and is trailed by Drury and Quincy at 6-3. Looking back at the
GLVC Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league coaches, Bellarmine was picked to finish first in the East, while UW-Parkside was slated second and Lewis and Indianapolis were picked third. Perhaps the biggest stunner, with exception of the one coach that picked them to finish first, is USI, which landed in the fifth spot of the preseason poll. Truman State also garnered one first-place vote, but was picked to finish third in the West. With nine first place votes, Quincy edged out Drury, with six first-place votes, by just a mere four points as the division favorite.
[5 | glvc represented among ncaa statistical leaders]
In the latest
NCAA statistical report released Monday, a number of GLVC teams and student-athletes currently rank among the nation’s best in select categories. The GLVC remains the hottest shooting league in NCAA Division II, holding down the nation’s top field goal percentage this week. The GLVC as a whole leads the other 23 Division II conferences with a nation-leading 48.06 field goal percentage (8,410-17,500), ranking ahead of the Mountain East (47.27) and Northern Sun (47.18). GLVC teams have also combined for a 38.47 three-point field goal percentage (2,515-6,538), which ranks also first nationally, and a 72.41 free-throw percentage (4,313-5,956) that rates third overall. To emphasize that nation’s-best field-goal percentage, five GLVC programs rank in the top 11 nationally in that category, including No. 3 Bellarmine (52.7), No. 5 Quincy (52.2), No. 7 Drury (51.6), No. 10 UW-Parkside (51.3), and No. 11 Southern Indiana (51.2). Beyond the arc, four teams rank in the top 10, including No. 2 Truman (44.3), No. 4 Bellarmine (42.6), No. 6 UW-Parkside (42.4), and No. 7 USI (42.3). Among the other national notables, Southern Indiana is second overall in scoring margin (22.4), fourth in rebound margin (10.5) and seventh in scoring offense (93.4), and Bellarmine is third in free-throw percentage (80.0) and 11th in assists per game (18.5). Individually, Quincy’s Herm Senor is ninth with 6.8 assists per game and USI’s Alex Stein is 10th with a 91.7 free-throw percentage.