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MVC Preseason games

Da Coach

Da Coach

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Dates and times for the MVC Preseason Exhibition Games-
Sat., Oct. 11- 1pm- Drake at Wichita State
Sat., Oct. 11- 6pm- Bradley at UW-Green Bay
Fri., Oct. 17- 6pm- Austin Peay at SIU
Sat. Oct. 18- 1pm- Murray State at Xavier
Sun., Oct. 19- 2pm- ISU at Illinois
Thurs., Oct. 23- Time TBA- St. Louis at Bradley
Sat., Oct. 25- Time TBA- Henderson State at Evansville
Sun., Oct. 26- 4pm- Northern State at Murray State
Mon., Oct. 27- 6:30pm- Tenn Tech at Belmont
Tues., Oct. 28- 7pm- Brescia at Valparaiso
Wed., Oct. 29- 6pm- Indiana State at Butler
Wed., Oct. 29- 7pm- SIU at Lindenwood
Wed., Oct. 29- 7pm- ISU at Northwestern
Sat., Nov. 1- 7pm- Upper Iowa at UNI

Bradley, Murray State, SIU, and ISU each have two exhibition games listed on their schedules.
UIC does not have any exhibition games listed. The other 6 teams each have one exhibition game.
 
Drake/Wichita State, St. Louis/Bradley. Sounds like old times in the MVC when the Valley was one of the best, if not the best, conference in the country.

I wonder how much Murray is paying Northern State to travel from South Dakota (unless there's another Northern State that's closer to Murray that I'm not aware of). Henderson State at Evansville is a bit of a trek, also.
 
Yep, I thought of that, too. The Northern State that Murray State is playing on Oct. 26 is a D2 school from Aberdeen, South Dakota. That is located in northeast part of South Dakota, a pretty isolated part of the country. Their schedule shows that they do a lot of traveling-

2025-26 Men's Basketball Schedule - Northern State University Athletics

The official 2025-26 Men's Basketball schedule for the Northern State University Wolves
nsuwolves.com nsuwolves.com

They have had a good basketball history in their past, but not in the last couple years. As recently as 2020-21, they were 19-2 overall and 13-1 in their conference (Covid year). And in 2019-20, they were 26-6, 18-4.
In 2017-18, they were 36-4, and made it to the D2 National Championship game, losing a close game to Ferris State 69-71.
But last year, they were just 2-26, 1-21. They lost 3 of their top 4 scorers from last year, so this should be a relatively easy game for Murray State.
I noticed they have a Peoria kid on their roster- Nelson Reynolds, a Peoria Notre Dame grad.
 
Nelson is the younger brother of Noah Reynolds, who Bradley recruited and who played at Wyoming, Green Bay & TCU,
and also the younger brother of Nic Reynolds, who is an assistant at Wyoming & formerly Green Bay.
They all went to Peoria Notre Dame & are all half-brothers of Nate Reynolds who played on Peoria Christian's IHSA 2004 Final Four basketball team.
 
The MVC is 4-1 now in preseason exhibition games, after Illinois State lost to Illinois.
The next MVC preseason exhibition game is Bradley hosting St. Louis on Thursday, Oct. 23, 7:00 pm, at Carver Arena.

Sat., Oct. 11- 1pm- Drake at Wichita State- Drake 69 Wichita State 62
Sat., Oct. 11- 6pm- Bradley at UW-Green Bay- Bradley 83 Green Bay 78
Fri., Oct. 17- 6pm- Austin Peay at SIU- SIU 84 Austin Peay 79
Sat. Oct. 18- 1pm- Murray State at Xavier- Murray State 75 Xavier 70
Sun., Oct. 19- 2pm- ISU at Illinois- Illinois 92 Illinois State 65
Thurs., Oct. 23- 7pm- St. Louis at Bradley
Sat., Oct. 25- 1pm- Henderson State at Evansville
Sun., Oct. 26- 4pm- Northern State at Murray State
Mon., Oct. 27- 6:30pm- Tennessee Tech at Belmont
Tues., Oct. 28- 7pm- Brescia at Valparaiso
Wed., Oct. 29- 6pm- Indiana State at Butler
Wed., Oct. 29- 7pm- SIU at Lindenwood
Wed., Oct. 29- 7pm- ISU at Northwestern
Sat., Nov. 1- 7pm- Upper Iowa at UNI
 
Thanks for ruining our perfect record, ISU. But seriously, it's nice that U of I finally remembered there are other D1 schools in the state, even if it was preseason - I predict they'll return to selective amnesia.
 
Da Coach - is it true that ISU's superstar big man, Chase Walker, had a walking boot on and appeared to have some sort
of significant leg injury?
Plus, Ty Pence played the game with a soft cast on his left (non-shooting) forearm!

btw- in addition to three other injured likely Illini starters, Illinois also held out Mihailo Petrovic, their 22-year old rookie phenom and presumably freshman from Serbia, who played on Euro pro teams and averaged 14 ppg & 7 assists & was runnerup in his pro league to MVP,
because he has not yet been cleared by NCAA.

One more thing- exhibitions and scrimmages are of value if your guys get useful experience learning how to compete & adapt in tough or close games. But if you play an opponent without half your team, then get blown out so badly that the other team isn't even playing hard against you or using their key players, then how valuable is such an exhibition?

ISU has one more exhibition on Wednesday of next week at Northwestern. Will they show up or maybe buy out that contract to avoid further embarrassment?

Here's enlarged (and unfortunately somewhat blurry) screenshots from yesterday's stream of the ISU game
Showing Pence with a pink cast of his left arm and showing Walker on the bench in the boot.


IMG_4706.jpeg.

IMG_4705 (1).jpeg
 
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Northern State has a player from Peoria Notre Dame, Nelson Reynolds, brother of a former Bradley recruit - he scored 9 pts & had 4 rebounds
 
Belmont beat Tennessee Tech last night in their only exhibition game 74-70.
TTU Recap- https://www.ttusports.com/sports/mbkb/2025-26/releases/20251027vzr9vh
Belmont recap- https://belmontbruins.com/news/2025...efeats-tennessee-tech-in-exhibition-play.aspx

Belmont pulled out to a double-digit lead and lead at halftime, 34-22. But their lead evaporated in the 2nd half before finally holding on for the 4 point win. Belmont head coach Casey Alexander made a lot of substitutions throughout the game, playing 14 players, 10 of whom scored. Tennessee Tech was 15-17 last year, and 10-10 in the Ohio Valley Conference. They have not had a winning season in the last 8 years, and they were picked 7th in the 11-team OVC for 2025-26.
Belmont's leading scorer was Sam Orme with 16 points. Their leading rebounder was 6'3" guard Nic McClain, a transfer from Eastern Washington. Belmont shot only 28% from three in the game. Their top returning scorer, and the top three point shooter in the country last year, Tyler Lundblade, was not mentioned in the recap article, nor was Eoin Dillon from Peoria Notre Dame, who redshirted last season.

Here are the remaining MVC exhibition games-
Tues., Oct. 28- 7pm- Brescia at Valparaiso
Wed., Oct. 29- 6pm- Indiana State at Butler
Wed., Oct. 29- 7pm- SIU at Lindenwood
Wed., Oct. 29- 7pm- ISU at Northwestern
Sat., Nov. 1- 7pm- Upper Iowa at UNI
 
The only report is from twitter.
Freshman JT Pettigrew was the leading scorer with 22 points and eight rebounds in 17 minutes of action.
Sophomore Justus McNair added 21 points, including 11-12 on FTs.

Strange that with the NCAA allowing schools to play exhibitions against other D1 schools, Valpo decided to play their only exhibition against a really bad NAIA program. Beating them by 42 points doesn't seem to accomplish much.
 
I did some digging and Valpo did play a closed game/scrimmage against IPFW. IPFW (which has one of the best mascots in the country - the Mastodons), won 19 games last year and was picked 5th in the Horizon League this year. I haven't even been able to find a score for it, but at least they did play against one Div I school.
 
'06, are you sure Valpo Men's basketball scrimmaged "IPFW"?
I don't know, but...

IPFW is now known as PFW
and their Athletic web site describes their exhibition game Mon. Oct. 27 as their first...and the fans on the Valpo message board likewise are saying this Brescia game was their first exhibition.
 
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Yes, I'm using PFW and IPFW interchangeably ... didn't mean to confuse.

One of the people on the Valpo board specifically called them out as who was played in the secret scrimmage.

I'm backing this up by Roger Powell noting that they played a secret scrimmage against a DI school that nearly won 20 games last year during the MVC media day. PFW won 19 games, so that matches up as well.

I wouldn't expect much more to be publicly out there because when teams have a private scrimmage they seem to hold those very close to the vest versus these public exhibition games.
 
What’s the excuse gonna be this time?
Chase Walker, Kinzinger, Pence & Skunberg are all playing and ISU still getting beat
Northwestern up 10 in the first half

Meanwhile Indiana State is down almost 20 at Butler, late in the game

SIU giving up 39 pts & 56% shooting to Lindenwood in the first half & are tied 39-39 with 20 min to go
 
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