Truman Game Notes (.PDF)
Drury Game Notes (.PDF)
Missouri S&T Game Notes (.PDF)
KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - As the Truman men's basketball team makes the turn towards the second half of the Great Lakes Valley Conference season, it has quite a bit to be proud of. The Bulldogs have won three in a row, sit alone atop the West Division for first place and have been victorious in six of seven league games on the road. Truman now sets its sights on four straight matchups inside the friendly confines of Pershing Arena beginning with Drury on Thursday (7:30 p.m.) and Missouri S&T on Saturday (3 p.m.).
Taking it back to last week's play, the Bulldogs swept the city of St. Louis with wins over Maryville on Thursday (97-81) and Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday in overtime (86-82). Leading the way for the Purple and White was GLVC Player of the Week,
Cory Myers, as he averaged 21.5 points, 7.5 assists, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 steals, and just 2.5 turnovers per contest. Not to mention the fact that he became the 28th member of Truman's 1,000-point club on Thursday while recording the program's first triple-double in over 22 years.
Entering this week, Drury (13-4, 6-3 GLVC) is tied with Quincy for second place in the West while Missouri S&T (8-8, 2-7 GLVC) currently sits in sixth in the division. The Bulldogs trail the all-time series with the Panthers, 6-8, but lead the Miners, 94-48. Drury was ranked No. 22 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches preseason poll and has won three of its last four. Meanwhile, before Missouri S&T beat William Jewell on Saturday, it was on the short end in eight games in a row.
Scouting the Panthers
Ranked No. 22 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) preseason poll, the Drury Panthers are 13-4 overall and 6-3 in the GLVC in year No. 13 under head coach, Steve Hesser. Drury started the 2016-17 season by winning 10 of its first 11 and climbed as high as No. 12 in the NABC poll on Jan. 3. Since that time, the Panthers have gone just 3-3, but may be getting on the right track with wins in their last two outings against William Jewell (77-53) and Rockhurst (70-68). Drury is led by a trio of guards averaging at least 10 points per game including Tevin Foster (15.2), John Williams (12.5) and Isaac Johnson (11.4). Foster is the trigger man for the Panthers with 4.7 assists per game and that mark is tied with
Cory Myers for fifth-best in the GLVC. Foster's 80 total dimes are tied with
Dwight Sistrunk, Jr.'s for sixth in the league. As a team, Drury is in the bottom half of the conference in scoring offense, but defensively, the Panthers more than handle their own. They are giving up the second-fewest points per game at 69.8 behind Bellarmine's 65.8. Thursday will pit Truman's second-best offense vs. Drury's second-best defense.
Scouting the Miners
Season No. eight with head coach, Jim Glash, at the helm of Missouri S&T men's basketball saw the Miners begin the season by winning seven of their first eight. However, they were then on the short end in seven games in a row before winning against William Jewell this past Saturday by a score of 90-83. Speaking of streaks, the Bulldogs have won six in a row against the Miners dating back to Feb. 7 of the 2004-05 season. Opposite of Drury, Missouri S&T is scoring the fifth-most points per game in the GLVC, but has a tendency to give them up in bunches. The Miners are surrendering an even 82 points per contest and only two teams in the league are allowing more. In its eight losses, Missouri S&T has been outscored by an average of nearly 16 points per game (91.3-75.6). Four Miners are putting up at least 10 points per game including Jalen Myers (14.4), Randy Holmes (11.9), Telloy Simon (11.4), and Juwan Miller (10.4). Myers is one of the best three-point shooters in the GLVC at 42.5 percent (45-of-106).
Know Your Role
After starting 25 of his first 54 games in the Purple and White (46 percent),
Billy Daniel has been one of the first five on the floor for Truman in just eight of his last 49 games (16 percent). That isn't because of anything negative, but because the Davenport, Iowa native has developed into quite the role player for the Bulldogs and has just been better off the bench as of late. Daniel's 6.6 points per contest are better than any other non-starter and his 3.5 rebounds per game are tied with
Zach Fischer for best off the bench. The 6-6 forward has also proved to be very efficient as he is making over 58 percent of the shots he takes (55-for-94) and has missed more than three shots in a game just three times.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Truman's 321 total assists are good for third in the GLVC while its 16.9 per contest are in the fourth-best spot. This season, the Bulldogs have already tied three of the top seven marks for assists in a game when looking at the program's record book. Those three totals came against Central Christian (31 - tied for second), Trevecca Nazarene (28 - tied for sixth) and Maryville (27 - tied for seventh). Truman is on pace to finish the regular season with 474 helpers while Foster's first team (2014-15) had 489 of them, which is eighth-most in school history. Individually,
Cory Myers and
Dwight Sistrunk, Jr. are sixth and seventh in the GLVC in assists per game with 4.7 and 4.2, respectively. When those two combine for nine or more dimes, the Bulldogs are 8-0 this season.
Target Practice
Statistically, the Bulldogs are one of the best three-point shooting teams in all of Division II. Of the 302 teams in the nation, 300 of them have a worse shooting percentage from behind the arc than Truman's blistering 44.3. The only team that has been shooting it better than the Purple and White from behind the arc is ranked No. 1 in the nation at 18-0 and it's Northwest Missouri State with a clip of 44.7 percent. The Bulldogs are also fifth in the country in three-pointers made per game (11.5) and total triples cashed in (218). Those numbers have fueled Truman to put up 87.9 points per contest, the 24th-best mark in the nation. Individually, eight players are shooting at least 40 percent from distance and 11 of the 13 that suit are making over 30 percent of their looks from range.
Up Next
Truman will resume its four-game homestand with Indianapolis on Feb. 2 (7:30 p.m.) and Saint Joseph's on Feb. 4 (3 p.m.).
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