Early preseason picks for 2011-2012 MVC

[Da Coach]

Writer for the Northern Iowa student newspaper picks next year's MVC race-

http://www.northern-iowan.org/brad-s-sports-blurb-a-way-too-early-look-at-the-2011-12-mvc-1.2549512

He picks Illinois State 10th, Bradley 7th, but he does mistakenly assume Sam Maniscalco will be back next year.
He picks SIU to jump up to 6th, but he also says Gene Teague will return next season.

[45otseoj]

Bad

[AZ BU Fan]

With two scholarships still available, and not knowing who will come back for a fifth year, or medically cleared to play this fall, hard to predict where BU will finish.

Note he picked BU to finish 7th with BOTH SM and TB back........Not a lot of faith in returning players. Guess RA and SH would have put BU up to 1-2 in this guy's preseason 2011-12 MVC picks.

Will see how things shake out over the next 6 months and what the BU roster will look like come Nov. Hopefully by then the Media Poll will have them up to 5-6, where BU has been for the last several preseason MVC polls!

Hopefully, higher!

[Future Walk-On]

Bad

LOL

I definitely am not picking isured last and they are gross

[amckillip]

Bad

Agreed

[TheGuy]

wow. I didn't think someone could be completely off on this early of a prediction, but wow.

I didn't know UNI's rebuilding years keep them at the top of the conference.

Personally, I think you might find UNI near the bottom next year. They don't have any clutch scoring and well.......they don't have any scoring. No more Kwadzo, no more O'Rear running around putting a hurt on guys. It's going to be a tough year for them next season. Oh....and Moran is hurt and will miss the entire summer.

[45otseoj]

FWIW I have no problem with ISU being picked last.
Last place team loses it's top scorer...

But his reasoning behind some other things just seems out there.

[LittleBrave]

Whoever is the Pre-season Valley favorite, they will not run away with the MVC title next season. Every team will have some obvious weaknesses next season. Could be a year where the 5th, 6th, 7th picked team could win it.

From what I've been reading and hearing about, the Valley will be stronger next season. I'm just not seeing any team as strong as our top 2 from last season. (MSU & WSU) I am looking for a close race in the league, and the bottom half teams a little stronger than last season.

ISU (blue), Creighton, Wichita should be good, but not great...maybe not even better than last season.

Who do you all think will be a lot better next season? I heard that UNI's recruiting class is pretty strong. I definitely think BU will improve greatly as long as TB is healthy, and we should be deeper with a coach that seems to get about 10 guys to get sufficient P.T. (more than 5 min/gm)

[Da Coach]

Here is another early preseason evaluation of the 2011-2012 MVC season by an outsider-

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/705765-missouri-valley-conference-basketball-2011-2012-predictions

He picks Bradley 9th. The writer does not appear to be too insightful about new players, recruits, coaching changes, etc., since he doesn't mention any of those things.

[AZ BU Fan]

Breaking News!

Here is how Bleacherreport came up with his MVC preseaon picks:



If the MVC 2011-12 season were a horse race, BU would be taken off the board due to all the changes in players and coaches...

[tornado]

Writer for the Northern Iowa student newspaper picks next year's MVC race-

http://www.northern-iowan.org/brad-s-sports-blurb-a-way-too-early-look-at-the-2011-12-mvc-1.2549512

He picks Illinois State 10th, Bradley 7th, but he does mistakenly assume Sam Maniscalco will be back next year.
He picks SIU to jump up to 6th, but he also says Gene Teague will return next season.

Hmmm.. this writer says...
"For those of you who are like me and eat, sleep and live for men's college basketball 24/7.."

so you'd think he must really know Valley basketball since he writes for UNI ..but clearly he misses on an awful lot...

he never says what he uses to grade the incoming recruiting class but ranks Bradley's awfully low and UNI's at the top.

He also clearly doesn't know Teague and Maniscalco have both been gone two and a half months and more..

And he highlights Creighton as losing only Korver and Lawson but they also lose THREE other seniors a couple of whom were key subs..
and other things really make me doubt he has done much homework...

[45otseoj]

he never says what he uses to grade the incoming recruiting class but ranks Bradley's awfully low and UNI's at the top.

Of course he does. You won't find many fans who don't love their recruits.

It's tricky ranking recruiting classes though. Everyone looks at stars and ratings, but no one ever gets in their car to go watch these kid.

A star rating doesn't tell you the whole story. I've seen a boatload of players this season, and the highest rated were rarely the most impressive.

Of all the players I saw this year, Anthony Davis was clearly the bes, but I would put Chasson Randle #2 in terms of a player tht will make an immediate splash in college.