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     UT-Chattanooga star Jean-Baptiste Withdraws From Transfer Portal   David Jean Baptiste made it official today: He will be pulling his name out of the transfer portal and will be returning to Chattanooga to continue his senior campaign.  This is great news for the Mocs as Jean Baptiste was awarded Preseason All-SoCon honors coming off a junior season where he averaged 12.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists helping lead Chattanooga to a 19-12 record. At the start of his senior season, in the 5 games he appeared in for the Mocs he was the leading scorer on the team with 18 points while grabbing 3.8 boards per game and scoring a career high 25 points in a win vs Northern Kentucky. Jean-Baptiste accels in finishing and getting to the basket and showed he could play at the power 5 level with a 15 point performance on 53% shooting at Florida State, who was a top 5 team last year. What does this mean for the rest of the So-Con? Chattanooga is off to an im...

                                          AJ Casey Prospect Overview AJ Casey is one of the best 2022 prospects in the entire country, coming in at #20 in the nation, and has a 5 star rating per 247 sports. Casey is currently the best 2022 prospect in the state of Illinois and currently plays at Whitney Young high school, which has produced major talent in the last few years including former 5 star and current Duke Blue Devil DJ Steward. AJ currently holds offers from DePaul, Illinois, Ohio State, Kansas, Iowa State and Nebraska and interests from many other schools. Casey is a 6’8 200 pound Power Forward, per Rivals. Whitney Young will be AJs third high school, previously playing for Simeon and Tinley Park, respectfully. Casey is known for his rare combination of size and mobility. He received national attention as a freshman at Simeon and made the decision to ...

                                                                       Northwest Missouri State- The Hidden Powerhouse When people think of the best college basketball teams, Duke, Kentucky, and Kansas come to the top of those lists. They have earned their status as a “blue blood” in college basketball for having success and making deep March Madness runs year after year. Although, there is one powerhouse that is not very well known among most casual college basketball fans, and they reside in the middle of rural Missouri. Located in Maryville, Missouri, Northwest Missouri State University is a member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, commonly known as the MIAA. The MIAA is one of, if not the best, D2 conference in all sports, year i...

                                  Missouri State Team Preview 2020-2021        Missouri State is coming off a very average season, where the Bears went 16-17, 9-9 in conference and a second round exit in Arch Madness where they defeated the 3 seed Indiana State, only to get upset by Valpo, who made a run to the Arch Madness title game. The Bears had a couple quality wins throughout last season, but their best overall win was a 74-62 win over Loyola-Chicago, one of if not the best teams in the MVC. They also had a few close losses against power 6 schools, nearly knocking off #21 Xavier on the road in a narrow 59-56, and a close loss against Miami 74-70.  The Bears lost a lot of key pieces over this offseason, including star guard Keandre Cook, who was the leading scorer averaging 14.9 points per game and also grabbing 4.6 boards per game. Cook ended up signing wi...

Based on Kentucky's recent performance, should fans be concerned? To start off the 2020-21 basketball season, the Kentucky Wildcats have had a substandard start. After winning their first game against Morehead State, the Wildcats proceeded to drop the next three games: Richmond, Kansas, and Georgia Tech. Perhaps the most shocking loss was to Georgia Tech, a team already 0-2 with losses to Mercer and Georgia State. Kentucky had high expectations, starting off the season as 10th in the preseason rankings. Additionally, Kentucky had the best recruiting class in the nation, headlined by 5-star freshman Terrence Clarke and Brandon Boston Jr, followed by 4-stars Devin Askew, Isaiah Jackson, Lance Ware, and Cam’Ron Fletcher. Additionally, Kentucky landed 3 transfers who were immediately eligible. Olivier Sarr, a 7’0 center, transferred to Kentucky from Wake Forest, Jacob Toppin transferred from Rhode Island, and Davion Mintz transferred from Creighton. Although this may seem beneficial, K...

  The Rise of Jason Preston Four years ago, Ohio Bobcats guard Jason Preston was a 6’2, 140-pound high school basketball player in Orlando, Florida. He was living with his mom's best friend's son in a little apartment. Jason’s mother had passed away and his father was not in the picture. Jason was averaging 2 points per game in high school and was not even planning on playing basketball in college, he was going to attend the University of Central Florida as a student. One day, one of Jason's high school friends asked him to play in an AAU tournament. After Jason played in this AAU tournament, he got convinced to play at prep school by a coach who saw him at the AAU tournament. So, Jason ended up going to prep school to play ball instead of attending UCF. At the school, they had 4 teams, and Preston ended up making the C team. He played well on the C team, so they ended up moving him onto the B team, and once again Preston performed well so they finally moved him up to the...

  DePaul is coming off another disappointing season, where they started the season going 12-1 non conference picking up quality wins over Boston College and Minnesota on the road, and defeating Texas Tech in a thriller at Wintrust. In conference play they upset #5 Butler at home picked up their first top 5 win in nearly 14 years. They finished 3-15 in Big East play and finished 15-16 in the regular season. They picked up a win in the Big East tournament vs Xavier but the tournament and March Madness was cancelled due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, ending up 16-16 and most likely missing the NCAA tournament for the 16th season in a row. DePaul lost a lot of talent in the offseason, with forward Paul Reed going to the draft. This was a huge loss for the Blue Demons as Reed was second on the team in scoring with 15.1 points per game. Reed also led the Demons in rebounds (10.7 per game) and steals (1.9 per game). DePaul lost guard Jalen-Coleman-Lands to the transfer portal who was 3rd on...

  The Western Illinois Leathernecks came off of a brutal season last year finishing 5-21, with a horrible 2-14 record in conference play. The Leathernecks only beat three division one teams last year, but some new recruits, JUCO transfers and coaching can lead this team to the top of the Summit Conference in the coming years. Over the summer, Western Illinois signed their highest recruit ever, Marcus Watson. The 5’11 guard played at Morgan Park high school in Chicago alongside top 50 recruit Adam Miller, who ended up signing with the Illinois Fighting Illini. Expect Watson to be an immediate impact on a promising Western Illinois team. A key part in Watsons decision to attend Western has Assistant Coach Nick Irvin. Irvin was the head coach for Watsons high school team,Morgan Park for all 4 years Watson played and after this season, took a job as an assistant coach at WIU. The Leathernecks also grabbed freshman forward Ramean Hinton out of Curie HS in Chicago and guard Robert Jete...