NAIA Schedule and Links, Games of the Day and Five Players to Watch: Saturday, January 2nd

Saturday, January 2nd NAIA Games

Games of the Day:

Concordia (NE) @ RV Northwestern 3:00pm CT Live Video

Concordia currently sits 4th in the GPAC Standings and just 1 game up in the loss column over Northwestern. Even with minimal fans, road games in the GPAC are tough. Both teams have a great group of returners who will be ready to go in this game. This will be a big one when it comes to seeding for the GPAC Tournament.

Thomas More @ 11 Cumberlands (KY) 4:00pm ET Live Video

Thomas More is coming off of a big year last season. However, they came out after the break and dropped one to UPike. Life in the MidSouth doesn’t get any easier either as they hit the road again today to face #11 Cumberlands. Ryan Battle and Reid Jolley will need to have big games for the Saints today. Cumberlands have now lost 3 of their last 5 games including their last game at RV Shawnee State. Looking forward to seeing the fight they come out with tonight to try and bounce back.

William Jessup @ #7 College of Idaho 3:00pm MT Live Video $

A rematch from yesterday’s OT game that saw William Jessup miss a last second 3 that would have given them the road win. In the uniqueness of the 2020-2021 season, we get Game 2 between these two today. Both teams are really well coached, so it will be interesting to see what adjustments are made overnight to get ready for today’s game. College of Idaho really had the clamps down on Jessup’s stud Freshman Myles Corey last night, holding him to just 4-12 from the field. The Warriors got a game high 24 points to go with 9 rebounds from Tarren Sotrey-Way. Ricardo Time dropped 23 points to go with 6 rebounds in the win.. He has really had a great season thus far for the Yotes.

Five Players To Watch

#11 Myles Corey 6'1 PG - William Jessup

#5 De'Ron Kyle 6'4 W - Arizona Christian

#21 Kyran Jones 6'5 F - Georgetown

#45 Alex Gross - 6'10 C - Olivet Nazarene

#22 Darius Yohe 6'9 C - William Woods

We have talked about Myles Corey a lot this season already and for good reason. Myles has performed well against the NCAA D1 programs that Jessup has faced. College of Idaho’s defense is really good and held him to just 4-12 from the field yesterday. He still finished the game with 9pts and 10assts. The Warriors lost in OT yesterday, but in Game 2 today, Myles will need to look to score more to help push Jessup to a victory.

The All-American from last season found himself in a lot of foul trouble against Indiana Wesleyan. He still managed to have 17 points to go along with 9 rebounds. De’Ron is a talented wing that can fill it up. This is an interesting road trip that the Firestorm are on right now. They play @ William Woods today and then will play #17 Talladega tomorrow at William Woods. Look for De’Ron Kyle to have a big weekend!

We tweeted out on Thursday that Kyran Jones is starting to etch his name into the long list of Georgetown greats. Jones is just a Sophomore and is starting to really come into form to fill the shoes left by NAIA D1 NPOY Chris Coffey from last season. Jones has become a walking double-double. In fact, he had one by half time on Thursday. Jones motor is a good as they come and the Tigers have found themselves another stud!

Olivet-Nazarene have only played twice thus far. However, there was almost two full months between those games. In their most recent game, Alex just missed a quadruple double as he finished with 26pts, 17reb, 9assts and 7blks. The big man is a real force for the Tigers and combined with John Contant the Tigers will get things figured out as they make a run in the Chicago Collegiate Athletic Conference. Today they kick off CCAC play against Trinity Christian.

This is our first look at Yohe this season. He is coming off a year where he was named the AMC Defensive Player of the Year. Arizona Christian struggled to finish at the rim against 7’0 Seth Maxwell in their game with #1 Indiana Wesleyan. Yohe will need to show off some of that same defensive prowess tonight if the Owls want to knock off #5 Arizona Christian.