The MVC Preseason Poll

[Bradleyguy10]

Ok....now take away their top returning scorer and a starting center. I wonder which team would finish ahead of the other?

Yeah I completely agree. And that's what happened to us last year. But this year I made those predictions based on no injuries to anyone on any team; which isn't realistic but I can't predict who will get hurt.


BTW, King O get's hurt this year. Book it! haha

[Grassman]

[quote=dogsrus;141932]

Here are the actual most recent scoring abverages of BU's guards vs. UNI's...

BU: .......AW 13.2, SM-12.6, DD-10.7, CR 8.7, EM 5.6
UNI: Kwadzo-11.8, Ali-9.6, Moran-8.4, Dunham 3.8



SO why do you thing they finished 1st and we were 4th......coaching...post play...?????

One reason being, you see the guy with 13.2? Well he sat out the year
The other being what post play

[dogsrus]

[QUOTE=Grassman;141936]

One reason being, you see the guy with 13.2? Well he sat out the year
The other being what post play

Yes...I agree. I was going to take out AW but didn't want to alter the post. I assumed that was a given since we all know he didn't play.

So again...I agree...it comes down to post play and coaching. Frankly I think JL is a better coach then given credit for and not as good a recruitier, not bad but not as great as some hype him to be. I don't see us getting any better recruits then the rest of the Valley.

With injuries though JL has had to adjust on the fly AND scrap an entire offensive scheme one year.

To finish 4th with what we lost was a very good coaching job IMO.

So I think it comes down to post play....or lack of one.

[BUFAN]

I'm just afraid it is going to be a very long season. With no proven jump shooter, no rebounders and no one who can play defence I don't see us winning without scoring 90 points. So I'm gonna pray for a few wins at carver and go for 7th.

[Da Coach]

I'm just afraid it is going to be a very long season. With no proven jump shooter, no rebounders and no one who can play defence I don't see us winning without scoring 90 points. So I'm gonna pray for a few wins at carver and go for 7th.

I don't agree at all that Bradley has "no one who can play defence".

Bradley's defensive average last year was 66.3 points per game overall, and 63.4 ppg in the MVC, which ranked 3rd in the conference, ahead of good defensive teams like SIU, Creighton, Drake, and Wichita.

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/tm_conf.pdf

And, we have nearly all of our best defensive players returning in DD, CR, and EM, plus AW returning, who is also a fine defensive player.
Bradley will rank among the leaders in the MVC again in 2009-2010.

[SFP]

I expect us to have a better D this year and much better defensive rebounding team then 2 years ago. EM, DD, CR and TB are in their 2nd year on this team and will be able to react a bunch more to situations then thinking them through. You usually see a player improve much more defensively then offensively the 2nd year. I expect us to to be able to press a bit more and pick up some easy baskets. The area that scares me a bit is the ability for our guards to keep the other teams from penetrating which creates havoc and keeping our main bigs on the floor to box out and rebound. I believe we will have enough O to go around where if WE and SS concentrate on rebounding on both sides of the ball and pick up junk points we'll be fine. I'll be satisfied with 15 ppg from the 5 but I also want 15 rpg from that position.

[shaunguth]

Ok....now take away their top returning scorer and a starting center. I wonder which team would finish ahead of the other?

Yeah I completely agree. And that's what happened to us last year. But this year I made those predictions based on no injuries to anyone on any team; which isn't realistic but I can't predict who will get hurt.

I was referring to this.....

Yeah we proved it head to head I guess..each team winning by 4 on their home court, but ISU still beat us in the Valley. Playing the same schedule they got more wins than us bottom line, they were better.

Assuming they lose King O for the entire season and a starting center for all but a few games, I guess I would look forward to saying Bradley was the better team by winning more Valley games.

I know, I'm just making excuses for finishing a full game behind the mighty redbirds, but I believe that's fair given the circumstances.

[Bradleyguy10]

I agree.