Valley Media Day: BU Picked 5th

[Nacho]

http://www.goredbirds.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/102610aaa.html

Wichita State is the league's preseason favorite with 382 votes, including 33 first-place tallies. Missouri State was picked second with 313 votes, Northern Iowa was third with 289, Creighton fourth at 282, Bradley fifth with 262 votes, and Illinois State sixth with 165. Missouri State (1), Northern Iowa (3) and Bradley (2) also received first-place votes in addition to Wichita State.

[Nacho]

MVC Release

http://www.mvc-sports.com//pdf8/718978.pdf

[Nacho]

Sam picked as all conference and Taylor Brown and Andrew Warren were honorable mention...

Kwadzo Ahelegbe, UNI, G, 6-2, 213, Sr., Oakdale (Minn.) Tartan High
Kenny Lawson Jr., Creighton, C, 6-9, 250, Sr., Oceanside (Calif.) Vista High
Sam Maniscalco, Bradley, G, 6-0, 175, Sr., Chicago (Ill.) St. Patrick High
Toure??™ Murry, Wichita State, G, 6-5, 197, Jr., Houston (Texas) Klein Forest High
Kyle Weems, Missouri State, F, 6-6, 232, Jr., Topeka (Kan.) Highland Park High
Honorable Mention: Taylor Brown, Bradley; J.T. Durley, Wichita State; Adam Leonard, Missouri State; Colt Ryan, Evansville; Seth VanDeest, Drake; Andrew Warren, Bradley.
Preseason Player of the Year -- Kenny Lawson Jr., Creighton

[thefish7]

I always find these things interesting... Three Bradley players All-MVC or Honorable mention, and yet picked to finish fifth.

[tornado]

But - interestingly, of the 39 votes (someone didn't get ther votes in), two people picked Bradley for 1st place in the MVC!
Each team has four people who vote, their head coach, their AD, their radio play by play, and their beat reporter.
As a general rule, people don't cast their votes for their own team, but we have seen it's not always the case...as when Royce Waltman in 2005 gave his team a 1st place vote, in a season that they were otherwise picked by everyone else at 8th, and in the final result, they finished LAST (10th) in the Valley that season.
Our four guys who vote would be Jim Les, Dr. Michael Cross, Dave Snell, and Dave Reynolds.
So -- who do you think gave BU the 1st place votes?? I doubt strongly it was any of ur four guys...

[PTownHawkeye]

Boy, the MVC press release is screwed up and confusing at the beginning. They claim UNI is actually picked 2nd and Missouri St is 3rd, even though the graph at the right shows that order to be flip-flopped.

When it talks about Bradley, it says (referring to the trio of SM, AW, and TB): "That trio all averaged better than 31 points per game for coach Jim Les and combined to average 41.0 points per game for the Braves.

Impressive that EACH of them averaged 31 ppg, yet somehow, defying the laws of logic, combined to average 41 ppg.

It also says that Greg Lansing has been an asst coach at InSU since 2002, but I distincly recall having lunch as part of a student group in Iowa City in 2005 when he was an asst coach for Steve Alford at Iowa. I believe he has been at InSU for 4 years, not 8 as it says in the press release.

You'd think they'd double check these things...

[tornado]

budget cuts ..

[BradleyBrave]

We've been building 9 years for this...

[TheAsianSensation]

Notice there's a bit of a 5-man breakaway at the top with the voting. Sure, we're 5th, but we're expected to be a part of the lead pack. Much better than being 5th in a conference with a 4-man breakaway.

[TylerDurden]

But - interestingly, of the 39 votes (someone didn't get ther votes in), two people picked Bradley for 1st place in the MVC!
Each team has four people who vote, their head coach, their AD, their radio play by play, and their beat reporter.
As a general rule, people don't cast their votes for their own team, but we have seen it's not always the case...as when Royce Waltman in 2005 gave his team a 1st place vote, in a season that they were otherwise picked by everyone else at 8th, and in the final result, they finished LAST (10th) in the Valley that season.
Our four guys who vote would be Jim Les, Dr. Michael Cross, Dave Snell, and Dave Reynolds.
So -- who do you think gave BU the 1st place votes?? I doubt strongly it was any of ur four guys...

The ADs don't vote.

[chitown fanatic]

I can already hear the koolaid drinkers boast that we overachieved when we finish 2nd or 3rd

[Buesch N Chips]

I can already hear the koolaid drinkers boast that we overachieved when we finish 2nd or 3rd

Count me in! If we finish 2nd or 3rd, I would call that a solid season.

[BradleyJD]

Count me in! If we finish 2nd or 3rd, I would call that a solid season.

We shouldn't finish any lower than that, IMO.

[Double D]

Count me in! If we finish 2nd or 3rd, I would call that a solid season.

I agree, if we finish 2nd or 3rd, it will mean we have played games in February that matter.

You have to play in those games to have a chance at a reg season title.

We must get to that point along with playing for the tourney title for me to view the season as a success.

[tornado]

that's right, it's not the AD, it's the SID