The following “Starting Five” points offer a quick look inside GLVC men’s basketball action this week:
STARTING FIVE
[1 | conference season resumes thursday, saturday]
GLVC men's basketball action
resumes this week with a full slate of cross-division conference play scheduled for Thursday and Saturday. Unbeaten Southern Indiana (12-0, 2-0 GLVC) welcomes William Jewell (3-7, 0-3) on Thursday and Rockhurst (7-4, 1-2) on Saturday. Thursday's featured matchup pits No. 16 Drury (10-1, 3-0) hosting UW-Parkside (10-1, 2-0) at 7:45 p.m. CT. All eight contests will be streamed on GLVCSN.
[2 | three glvc teams remain in nabc top 25 poll]
Three GLVC men’s basketball teams are represented in this week’s NABC NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Poll,
it was announced Tuesday. Drury (10-1, 3-0 GLVC) jumped from 16th to No. 12, followed immediately by No. 13 Bellarmine (10-2, 2-0). Southern Indiana (12-0, 2-0) continues its climb up the charts, moving from 20th to 17th in this week's poll. Quincy (13-1, 3-0) is once again collecting votes outside the top 25. In fact, the Hawks are rated 27th overall in this week's poll, just five points shy of cracking the poll.
[3 | unbeaten southern indiana in elite company of eight]
Eight NCAA Division II men’s basketball programs remain unbeaten through the 2016-17 campaign, and 17th-ranked Southern Indiana is among the elite group. The Screaming Eagles are 12-0 overall for just the fourth time in program history, and join Queens, N.C., Hawai’i Pacific, and Northwest Missouri State in the 12-win club this year. Angelo State, Fairmont State and Shippensburg are all 10-0, while Arkansas-Monticello sits 8-0. The last time a GLVC team had an undefeated mark in January was during the 2014-15 season when Indianapolis ascended to the No. 1 ranking and a 17-0 record before falling at 20th-ranked UW-Parkside, 72-68, on Jan. 29, 2015.
[4 | highlights from the holiday break]
GLVC men’s basketball programs combined for an 8-5 record over the holiday break, and several winning efforts resulted in impressive team and individual performances. Southern Indiana and Truman State both netted 122 points in wins, which tied Saint Joseph’s score against Salem International on Nov. 25 for the league’s season-high point total. Truman netted an 87-point margin of victory (122-35) over Central Christian on New Year’s Eve. It was the first time a GLVC program earned a winning margin of 80 or more points since Rockhurst defeated Calvary Bible 114-33 (81 points) on Dec. 17, 2013. The Bulldogs also hit a school-record 20 three-pointers, which are the most by a GLVC team since Missouri-St. Louis reached 20 treys against Robert Morris-Springfield on Dec. 8, 2015. Four teams have now made 20 three-pointers in a single game over the last 10 years (UW-Parkside, 2006 & Maryville, 2013), while Southern Indiana owns the top mark with 23 against Maryville on Jan. 9, 2010. Speaking of the Screaming Eagles, they posted a 63-point win over Bluefield State on Jan. 2, 122-59. In that victory, three-time and back-to-back
GLVC Player of the Week Jeril Taylor posted a triple-double with 15 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in just 25 minutes, marking just the second-ever triple-double in school history and the first in 19 years. It was the first triple-double by a GLVC player since Missouri S&T’s Bryce Foster (22 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) on Dec. 8, 2013. In addition to Taylor’s effort, five GLVC standouts produced double-double performances. McKendree’s David Franklin, last year’s GLVC scoring leader, made his season debut with game-high totals of 29 points and 14 rebounds against Robert Morris-Peoria on Dec. 30.
[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 and three-point percentage this week. The GLVC as a whole leads the other 23 Division II conferences with a nation-leading 48.74 field goal percentage (5,460-11,203), ranking ahead of the Sunshine State (47.72) and Northern Sun (47.38). GLVC teams have also combined for a 38.90 three-point field goal percentage (1,621-4,167), which ranks first over the Northern Sun (38.63), and a 71.95 free-throw percentage (2,821-3,921) that rates fourth overall. To emphasize that nation’s-best field-goal percentage, five GLVC programs rank in the top 10 nationally in that category, including No. 3 Quincy (53.8), No. 4 UW-Parkside (53.4), No. 7 Bellarmine (52.5), No. 8 Drury (52.2) and No. 9 Southern Indiana (52.2). Beyond the arc, four teams rank in the top 20, including No. 2 UW-Parkside (46.7), No. 4 Truman (45.2), No. 11 Drury (42.9) and No. 16 USI (42.3). Among the notables individually, Drury’s Tevin Foster ranks first with a 97.6 free-throw percentage, Quincy’s Herm Senor is fourth with 95 assists, USI’s Alex Stein is fifth with 81 free throw made, Truman’s Nathan Messer is sixth with 50 3-pointers, and USI’s Julius Rajala is seventh with a 67.7 field-goal percentage.