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I am going to take a crack at predicting who on each team in the Valley will be the surprise player with a breakout year.
Definition of "breakout" is that the player will be substantially better than most are predicting or expecting....
Senior Justin Carter (Creighton) will provide leadership and scoring and will fill the gap left by Booker Woodfox.
Senior Adam Koch (Northern Iowa) UNI has a lot of solid players returning, so they might not even need anyone to really step up, but Koch
will be the best big man and improve on his 12 pt/5 reb averages.
Junior Carlton Fay (SIU) this will be the year that Carlton Fay gains confidence, avoids injury, and in the absence of very many good big men in
the Valley, will have a breakout year. 15 ppg!
Junior Austin Hill (Illinois State) ISU will need some scoring, with losses of leading scorer Oguchi (15.2) and Holloway (10.3). One of the many new
guys will have to step up and by midseason it'll be austin Hill, who was a pretty good scorer at juco (15.2 ppg at Southeastern Illinois).
Sophomore Toure' Murry (Wichita State) again, not a surprise, as he came on really strong at the end of the season, and averaged 11 ppg, 3 apg.
WSU will lack a solid post player so they will rely heavily on scoring from their guards.
Sophomore Kyle Weems (Missouri State) This one won't surprise everyone, since Weems came on strong the 2nd half of the season to
average 10.2 ppg in 28 mpg.
Sophomore Dwayne Lathan (Indiana State) ISU blue won't have much this year, but transfer Dwayne Lathan will be the closest thing to a breakout
player, in that he'll come in and average double digits for the Sycs...
as a freshman at Louisiana Tech in 2007-2008, he started 11 games, and averaged 8.2 ppg/4 rpg, and even led the team in blocked shots.
Here's the catch...he also had the worst Assist to Turnover ratio.....his ratio was 14/52!
Freshman Frank Wiseler (Drake) with big losses in Bucky Cox and Josh Parker, Drake will need someone to step up. Craig Stanley will be their main
PG but Wiseler will have a decent year as a backup.
Freshman Colt Ryan (Evansville) the kid can flat out score, and at 6-4 he'll be able to play guard and SF and will be one of the best young scorers in
the Valley since Kyle Korver. He will be good enough that a few bigger schools will be asking for his cell phone number.
Freshman Jordan Prosser (Bradley) will start as a backup to Sam Singh & Will Egolf, but will quickly gain more playing time with his defensive and
offensive abilities.
Definition of "breakout" is that the player will be substantially better than most are predicting or expecting....
Senior Justin Carter (Creighton) will provide leadership and scoring and will fill the gap left by Booker Woodfox.
Senior Adam Koch (Northern Iowa) UNI has a lot of solid players returning, so they might not even need anyone to really step up, but Koch
will be the best big man and improve on his 12 pt/5 reb averages.
Junior Carlton Fay (SIU) this will be the year that Carlton Fay gains confidence, avoids injury, and in the absence of very many good big men in
the Valley, will have a breakout year. 15 ppg!
Junior Austin Hill (Illinois State) ISU will need some scoring, with losses of leading scorer Oguchi (15.2) and Holloway (10.3). One of the many new
guys will have to step up and by midseason it'll be austin Hill, who was a pretty good scorer at juco (15.2 ppg at Southeastern Illinois).
Sophomore Toure' Murry (Wichita State) again, not a surprise, as he came on really strong at the end of the season, and averaged 11 ppg, 3 apg.
WSU will lack a solid post player so they will rely heavily on scoring from their guards.
Sophomore Kyle Weems (Missouri State) This one won't surprise everyone, since Weems came on strong the 2nd half of the season to
average 10.2 ppg in 28 mpg.
Sophomore Dwayne Lathan (Indiana State) ISU blue won't have much this year, but transfer Dwayne Lathan will be the closest thing to a breakout
player, in that he'll come in and average double digits for the Sycs...
as a freshman at Louisiana Tech in 2007-2008, he started 11 games, and averaged 8.2 ppg/4 rpg, and even led the team in blocked shots.
Here's the catch...he also had the worst Assist to Turnover ratio.....his ratio was 14/52!
Freshman Frank Wiseler (Drake) with big losses in Bucky Cox and Josh Parker, Drake will need someone to step up. Craig Stanley will be their main
PG but Wiseler will have a decent year as a backup.
Freshman Colt Ryan (Evansville) the kid can flat out score, and at 6-4 he'll be able to play guard and SF and will be one of the best young scorers in
the Valley since Kyle Korver. He will be good enough that a few bigger schools will be asking for his cell phone number.
Freshman Jordan Prosser (Bradley) will start as a backup to Sam Singh & Will Egolf, but will quickly gain more playing time with his defensive and
offensive abilities.
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