Summit League Tournament Preview and Season Recap

Game 1: #1 University of Oakland 23-8 (17-1) vs. #8 University of Missouri at Kansas City 12-17 (6-12)

Oakland heads into the tournament as the #1 seed for the first time in school history, but they're not the favorite in this tournament taking only the third highest Pomeroy Rating chance of winning. Fortunately for the Golden Grizzly faithful, they drew UMKC in the first round. Oakland will move on to play the winner of South Dakota State and IPFW.

Game 2: #2 Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis 22-9 (15-3) vs. #7 Western Illinois University 13-16 (6-12)

IUPUI would have liked to draw UMKC and not WIU for one reason: Defense. WIU is the stingiest defense in the conference, allowing just 59.6 points per game on the season. Luckily, IUPUI puts 75.1 points per game on the board. IUPUI will move on - but maybe not as handily as they'd like.

Game 3: #3 Oral Roberts University 19-12 (13-5) vs. #6 North Dakota State University 11-17 (8-10)

Oral Roberts is traditionally good in the Summit Tournament, but this year they are playing short handed. North Dakota State is the defending champion of the tournament, but they lost the #1, #2, and #6 all-time scores in school history (including Ben Woodside who almost lead the Bison past Kansas). This will be a game of potential in decline, but ORU will prevail.

Game 4: #4 South Dakota State University 14-15 (10-8) vs. #5 Indiana - Purdue at Fort Wayne 15-14 (9-9)

This is the most interesting game, and rightfully so (it is a 4 v 5 after all). The tournament is being held in South Dakota, which would lead one to believe that they would then have the advantage. However the harder the game on the road, the better IPFW responded - Beating IUPUI at Conseco (considered a home game) and losing by only 3 at Oakland. Unfortunately their inconsistent play (i.e. losing both games against Centenary) leads me to pick South Dakota State. Side Note: This game is going to be marred by ugly and constant 3-point shooting. Both teams shoot 37% from deep, but when you shoot 30 three-balls it's still about 19 misses.

Ken Pomeroy Ratings-

OAK- 23.3% IUPUI- 42.8%

ORU- 23.8% SDST- 5.7% IPFW- 3.0% NDSU- 1.1% WIU- 0.4% UMKC- 0.3%

(Pomeroy Ratings use a log-5 system, which projects the chance of beating an average D-I team on a neutral floor.)

Players to Watch

Oakland Keith Benson - 17.4 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 3.3 bpg, 54.5 FG%

IUPUI Robert Glenn - 19.3 pgg, 6.4 rpg, 1.2 spg, 58.7 FG%

ORU

Dominique Morrison - 15.5 pgg, 5.1 rpg, 2.6 apg, 83.9 FT%

SDST

Kai Williams - 10.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 51.9 FG%, 74.2 FT% IPFW Deilvez Yearby - 14.3 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 1.3 apg, 43.2 FG% NDSU Eric Carlson - 14.9 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.4 apg, 43.0 FG% WIU

Ceola Clark - 14.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 3.3 apg, 40.3 3P% UMKC

Jay Couisnard - 14.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.9 apg, 34.7 3P%

League Leaders, Individual Statistics

Points - Robert Glenn, IUPUI (19.3) Rebounds - Keith Benson, OAK (10.0) Assists - Johnathan Jones, OAK (6.5) FG Shooting - Jon Avery, IUPUI (63.6) FT Shooting - Larry Wright, OAK (92.3)

3P Shooting - Ben Botts, IPFW (45.2) Blocks - Keith Benson, OAK (3.3) Steals - Ceola Clark, WIU (2.7)

League Leaders, Team Stats

Scoring Offense - Oakland (76.7) Rebounds - Oral Roberts (38.5) FG Shooting - IUPUI (50.9) 3P Shooting - IUPUI (39.0) FT Shooting - South Dakota State (74.5) 3P Made Per Game - Centenary (7.8)

My All-Summit First Team

Robert Glenn, IUPUI Alex Young, IUPUI

Keith Benson, OAK

Johnathan Jones, OAK

Ceola Clark, WIU

Summit League Player of the Year

My vote goes to Robert Glenn. True, I got to see him play more, however no one else commanded more respect while on the floor than he did all season. After starting out with 37 against Drake, Glenn went on to average 19.3 ppg (36th nationally). He also grew as a player throughout the year, developing a 3-point shot, as well as becoming a better ball-handler. In the games he didn't score many points he was able to post up a double-double. Most recently, he was having a poor showing at South Dakota State and his teammate (Alex Young) was blowing up for 28 points. When Young fouled out with 3+ to play, Rob completely took over the game. It'll be close between him and Keith Benson, but my vote is for Glenn.

IUPUI's team regular-season breakdown should be up soon!