The Valley Next Year

[Murph]

I know it's early but who's the favorite next year?


UNI again?

[Big Mike]

My early guess (without everyone being done recruiting) would be between UNI & CU with isu and a Healthy BRADLEY team getting consideration!

[MacabreMob]

C'mon Murph...

Bradley is the favorite EVERY year.

[jeffsu]

Barring any major changes, I foresee something like... (but heck, who knows!)

1. UNI (returning almost 100%)
2. Creighton (always gonna be there...)
3. Bradley (returning AW, quality newcomers, though the TW-loss-effect may change this)
4. ISU (Oguchi being gone will hurt...)
5. Wichita State
6. Southern Illinois (We saw how they played without Mullins...)
7. Indiana State (Tunnell's departure rough, but everyone else is back)
8. Drake
9. Evansville (loss of Shy Ely will definitely hurt)
10. Missouri State (yikes)

[Murph]

C'mon Murph...

Bradley is the favorite EVERY year.

You're drunk on kool aide again...Call your sponsor now....

[jasonpeoria911]

If Prosser and Milos deliver on the defense next season then Bradley is the clear favorite. As of right now though, BU is probably 3rd to start out, maybe 2nd depending on who CU has to fill the senior spots.

Jason

[Tulsa Brave]

We will be predicted 4th or 5th in the preseason...let's see how we actually do.

These will likely be the preseason projections...

1. UNI
2. CU
3. ISU (red)
4. BU
5. WSU
6. SIU
7. ISU (blue)
8. MSU
9. DU
10. UE

[leebiddlecome]

If Prosser and Milos deliver on the defense next season then Bradley is the clear favorite. As of right now though, BU is probably 3rd to start out, maybe 2nd depending on who CU has to fill the senior spots.

Jason

Clear favorite?

Im guessing BU will be picked between 3rd and 5th. Pretty normal sledding.

[Bradleyguy10]

Wow...I say 4-6th and I say we may ACTUALLY finish that way. People are envisioning an extreme BU next year that I just don't see...am I missing something. We have MORE question marks next year than we had coming into this year.

If WE comes in as advertised and all of freshmen improve like they should...then I say we have a good year and could get 2nd or 3rd...but I don't see us winning it. I've learned not to beat on Bradley...too many obstacles get in the way.

[SFP]

I believe AW will change the complexity of our team! I also believe we have enough coming back to make up for TW and with SS coming back we should be fine at the 5. TB showed us what he is capable and with a summer at the Hill Top he'll be fine. We should also be able to field a pretty athletic team again with CR and DD capable of shutting people down. SM did show me something this weekend, he is a winner and can lead us with heart and AW will help his game tremendously. We will though need a bit more from EM. He will need to make people pay for playing off of him. Imagine if they have to start guarding him tight? He'll blow right by them and really set things up!

If AW comes into next season with the right frame of mind there is no one who will be able to stop him. I hope he is conditioning himself to play all 40 minutes with intensity. He was able to coast a bit last year with JC and DR as the leaders but next year it should be his team and there will be no room to coast if we truly want to compete for the championship. The only piece that will hold us back will be how quick WE comes back and can play extended minutes of up to 30 minutes a game. I believe we will have a bit more depth throughout our lineup and a lot more experience.

1st team
1 - EM
2 - SM
3 - AW
4 - TB
5 - SS

2nd team
1- SM
2 - DN
3 - DD,CR
4 - CR, JP, MK
5 - WE, AT

One more thing, I believe we will be able to score more next year without too many dry spells and our D should even be better.

[audacious_aficionado]

i can't believe how right you are jeffsu. that is exactly what i would have said.

Tier 1
uni returns all but travis brown. big deal!
cu loses woodfox and dotzler which will hurt but they're cu! also, their bigs will be great.
BU loses wilson but gains a player who i think is better in AW. also, there were a lot of new DI guys who will have this year of experience under their belt.
isu loses oguchi, holloway, and sampay but they still have a good core in phillips, oe, and odiakosa.

Tier 2
wsu loses clemente but that's about it. lots of young talent and a balanced attack.
siu loses mullins, boyle, and clemmons but has some good talent in dillard, hare, fay, and booker.
insu loses tunnell and that's about it. good group of guards will keep them off the bottom.

Tier 3
du loses their bigs heemskerk and cox with no one to fill the roles. solid guards will win them a few games.
ue loses a lot but they'll have some guard and post returners.
msu loses cooks, the lauries, knapp, and maybe more. i don't like to look at their team. they could surprise with some young talent but it'll be a battle.

[2bradleyfans]

Clearly, with so much talent returning throughout the Valley, we as a conference will be much tougher next year.

I expect 3 teams in the NCAA next year.

[it's boogie time]

SIU will also have the Iowa transfer eligible for his final season.

In my opinion, BU's season will hinge on how much better Egolf and Brown get. There are going to be some good players fighting for minutes on the perimeter. However, the post area is pretty inexperienced. Luckily, there are a lot of bodies available (six guys 6'7" or taller) and there looks to be some talent. Potential needs to turn into production.

I assume Bradley will be picked 4th.

[hoops guru]

There was some off-the-record talk in St. Louis that the MVC brass was angry with Illinois State's scheduling for the second year in a row. It probably robbed ISU of an NCAA bid, and also robbed the MVC of an extra bid, and hurts the whole conference. ISU's non-conference SOS was around 280 which is abysmal, and Creighton's was about 240, not much better. Maybe next year they will learn. There was even some talk of reinstituting some kind of MVC league penalty for teams who schedule down like ISU since it hurts the whole conference. The MVC has lost most of the status they took so long to achieve in 2006 when the rest of the country wondered how the MVC "broke the RPI code" and had so many high RPI teams and got 4 teams in the tournament.

[basketball nut]

Next year the MVC will be harder to predict then possibly it ever has been. 85% of the starters back on ten teams is pretty good. How much do each of these guys improve? We are counting on improvement from all of our returners and so is every other team. The biggest question for BU is how fast do the new guys fit into the picture. If we get the production from JP & MK next year that we got from our freshmen this year we will be OK. Pre-season selections will put us about 4th possibly 3rd.
As for UNI goes they will be hard to beat just because they have the bigs inside and they are a ton to handle. The big boy reminds me of a former brave Jeff Rabey w/ maybe a better 10 foot shot. Just hard to stop because of being so strong and as long as the league isn't going to call anything under the basket when they back down low it makes these guys tougher to handle. CU has holes to fix but always has players that will fill those holes. BU is starting to get the players to do the same thing. Downtown Taylor Brown will do OK filling the role of TW next year-may not be as good next year as TW was this year but will only be a soph w/2 more years after that to get there.