Missouri's State Alize Johnson was tabbed the top player in the Valley's 1st week. While the competition was weak, Johnson's stats were still eye opening as he shot .824 from the field, 60% from 3pt, was perfect from the foul line and averaged 18pts and 8 rbs . Given the competition, the real encouraging factor was his demonstration of all facets of his game as his ball handling and ability to score inside and out were on full display. At almost 6'9 he is a true stretch four who also rebounds. He needs to improve his interior defense, but offensively he is a pretty tough matchup for most teams because of that versatility.
MSU's other top juco , Ronnie Rousseau has also shined even though he hasn't shot the ball as well as he probably will to date. What has been encouraging is despite a history of being a prolific scorer, he has showed excellent pg mentality preferring to run the offense, using his ulta quickness and good handles to both get to the rim but also set his teammates up off the dribble. He has 12 assists vs just one to.
Tonights game won't show much as it's one of those we couldn't get a decent D-1 game so we went with a lower division to avoid any worse RPI than we already have, in a very weak noncon schedule. We do have a roadie vs DePaul coming up, a 1st round tourney game vs Southern Cal, and a home game against Valpo as probably most valid tests to see where we're at.