Under the Radar Game of the Day: Missouri State vs Georgia Southern

Missouri State vs Georgia Southern, 1:30 PM Eastern, flohoops.com

The eight team Gulf Coast Showcase starts its first game at 11:00 AM Eastern this morning (UMKC vs Manhattan), making it the first game of one of the most fun weeks in college basketball.  While we did have a few exempt tournaments last week, the next seven days will give us the vast majority of the In-Season Tournaments, and will include a handful of events with absolutely stacked fields.  Although the Gulf Coast Showcase is not one of the premiere early season events, it does have an intriguing second quarterfinal today (1:30 PM Eastern) between Missouri State and Georgia Southern.

With Wichita State now playing in the American, the Missouri Valley Conference is as wide open as it has been in years.  That said, one of the preseason favorites is head coach Paul Lusk’s Missouri State Bears.  Missouri State is 2-1 so far this season, with a nice road win at Western Kentucky and a mildly disappointing home loss to North Dakota State.  Alize Johnson has been a force so far for the Bears.  He scored 13 points to go with 8 rebounds against WKU, followed that up with 10 points, 14 boards and 5 assists in a win over Southern, and added an almost amazing 23 points and 20 rebounds (do we call that a twenty-twenty instead of a double-double?) against North Dakota State!  If he continues to have stat lines like that, the Bears should be the favorites to win the Gulf Coast Showcase this week, and do a lot more throughout the MVC regular season.

Georgia Southern enters this afternoon’s game at a perfect 3-0, including an opening night 85-83 win at Wake Forest.  Although so far this season the Demon Deacons appear to be down, the GSU Eagles can build on that victory and prove that they will contend in the Sun Belt this year with a strong showing in this event.  Five different Eagles were in double-digits in scoring in the win at Wake, including a double-double from Montae Glenn.  Also keep an eye on Tookie Brown who dropped 22 against the Demon Deacons and scored 24 in a solid win over Cal State-Bakersfield.