HoopsReport Countdown - Top 68 Teams 2011-2012

[LittleBrave]

For the Top 144 Preseason countdown (formerly the CHN Top 144), here are the next few since last week - UNI came in at #75:
UNI preview --- http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/2077

College Sports Madness Top 144 ---- http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/...p-144-previews

#67 Indiana State (Men's Basketball Preview)

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/2126

#68 Drexel
#69 George Washington (future BU opponent!)

#54 Northwestern (http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/2191)
#55 Utah State
#56 Georgetown
#57 Virginia
#58 Fairfield
#59 Indiana (http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/2169)
#60 Detroit
#61 Colorado State
#62 Duquesne
#63 Illinois (http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/2147)
#64 Kent State (Somehow this school relates to our team - don't remember why though )
#65 Colorado
#66 Kansas State

[Future Walk-On]

Man all these countdowns have us rated much higher than I would have thought.....

[tornado]

The Sporting News just ranked Wichita State at #39..
and states that the Shockers "lost a ton from that team" last year

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2011-09-30/top-50-countdown-no-29-wichita-state

The Hoops Report has the Shockers at #37...but they say
that the Wichita State has .. "almost its entire lineup returning"

http://thehoopsreport.com/article.aspx?id=791

...they predict Toure Murry to be the team's top rebounder and state




CHM has the Shox @ #50

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/2213

Sports Bank had Creighton at #75 and are counted down now to #40 and still don't have Wichita mentioned - so they must have them inside the top 40 or over the top 111

http://www.thesportsbank.net/college-bball/40-belmont-bruins-college-basketball-111-in-111/

[Future Walk-On]

So is Fairfield really gonna be that good? Along with Duquensceeeefne?

Better than Illinois?

Ok Indiana and NU ahead of Illinois is laughable

[tornado]

Sporting News has Creighton at #35

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2011-10-04/fully-stocked-creighton-could-soar-behind-doug-mcdermott

[tornado]

Creighton comes in at #32 on College Sports Madness (previously College Hoops Net)

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/2363

[LittleBrave]

The Sporting News just ranked Wichita State at #39..
and states that the Shockers "lost a ton from that team" last year

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2011-09-30/top-50-countdown-no-29-wichita-state

The Hoops Report has the Shockers at #37...but they say
that the Wichita State has .. "almost its entire lineup returning"

http://thehoopsreport.com/article.aspx?id=791

...they predict Toure Murry to be the team's top rebounder and state

CHM has the Shox @ #50

2 different stories here - I do believe WSU lost a ton from last year's NIT team and will not be as strong this year.
I'd say #50 is about right, with CU coming close behind.

I'm hearing many Valley fans talking 3-bid league this year, which I'm laughing at...we shall see though. I think we're in for 1 NCAA team again this year, unless the MVC champ loses in the Valley tourney. But the league as a whole should be stronger from top to bottom and very competitive.

[Da Coach]

The only way we get 2 teams in the NCAA tournament is if we can get one team inside the top 30 RPI, and have a different team win the MVC tournament.
And as Missouri State learned under Barry Hinson, even that may not always be good enough. Their RPI of 21 in 2006 is still the best RPI not to get an at-large bid.
Last year, Missouri State's final RPI was 39, and Wichita State's was 35, so neither of those was good enough to get a second team in last year's NCAA tournament.

[tornado]

...
I'm hearing many Valley fans talking 3-bid league this year,....

I kinda agree -- I don't see the Valley as all that stronger than last year...
I hope we get 2 or 3 bids but here's how I see it...

Creighton should definitely be better than last year,
but Wichita State loses their top scorer, half of their top ten scorers, & their top two rebounders so I am not sure I see how they will be better than last year.
Then UNI (Kwadzo, O'Rear), Indiana State (Carter, Kelly, Martin), ISU (Hill, Lewis, Rubin), Drake (Van Deest), SIU (Fay, Cleveland, Teague), and Bradley all lost some key players so I am not convinced they're going to be better..
And Missouri State lost four starters and four of their best 5 players & scorers...so they're not better.
(but I do suspect BU may at least improve if TB is up to potential)
The only team that might be clearly better on paper this season is Evansville but with virtually NOBODY to play post - they're not going to be an NCAA team...

[TheAsianSensation]

I feel like this could be a year similar to 2008 where 2 teams (CU and WSU, with an outside chance of InSU) gets away from everyone in the league and creates an obvious 2-bid situation. Of course, this time, instead of an IlSU team with a non-conference SoS ranked around 5,312, we get a team with a more reasonable SoS and therefore, an at-large bid.