2014-15 CSM Top 144 Countdown

[tornado]

The top 144 team countdown has begun...

So far they have revealed all the way down to #116...lots of really obscure teams - not sure they all belong but...

Only one MVC team so far, Evansville, at #131 - picked 7th in the MVC
so there will be six more MVC teams yet to come...

#144 Fordham
#143 Arizona State (whoa!, really low)
#142 Alabama State
#141 Holy Cross
#140 NC-Central
#139 Coastal Carolina
#138 Bryant
#137 Chattanooga
#136 Long Beach State
#135 Stony Brook
#134 UCF
#133 Radford
#132 Fresno State
#131 Evansville - LINK - oddly absolutely no mention of transfer Brzoja
#130 St. Mary's
#129 Drexel
#128 Southern Miss
#127 St. Joseph's
#126 Princeton
#125 Wofford
#124 Akron
#123 Sam Houston
#122 Weber State
#121 Siena
#120 FGCU
#119 Clemson
#118 Texas Tech
#117 South Dakota
#116 Ole Miss

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/mens-basketball/top-144-previews

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/mens-basketball/top-144-previews?page=1

[LittleBrave]

Wonder if BU will crack the Top 100

[tornado]

#115 Boise State
#114 San Diego

still no other MVC teams -
but here's what I think - since the labelled Evansville as being their pick at #7 in the Valley

- then I suspect they have Bradley, Drake, and Loyola as the 3 teams in spots #8-10 given what everyone else is picking in their preseason previews

- that leaves Wichita, UNI, Indiana State, MSU, SIU, and ISU as their teams in spots #1-6 (not necessarily in that order) ..but time will tell as they reveal more names...

[tornado]

Indiana State comes in at #110, and 6th in the MVC

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9412

upcoming BU opponent, UC-Irvine is #106

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9449

[tornado]

the countdown continues...

Missouri State ranked #91, 5th in MVC, pegged for CIT

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9589

USA Today now starting their Top 68 countdown
FGCU is #63

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/08/11/college-basketball-countdown-no-63-florida-gulf-coast/13889331/

[tornado]

Update thus far - 3 Valley teams named with four more to go so I strongly suspect the remaining four will be ISU, SIU, UNI, and Wichita
...so they will have Bradley picked in the 8-10 range


#144 Fordham
#143 Arizona State
#142 Alabama State
#141 Holy Cross
#140 NC-Central
#139 Coastal Carolina
#138 Bryant
#137 Chattanooga
#136 Long Beach State
#135 Stony Brook
#134 UCF
#133 Radford
#132 Fresno State
#131 Evansville - LINK
#130 St. Mary's
#129 Drexel
#128 Southern Miss
#127 St. Joseph's
#126 Princeton
#125 Wofford
#124 Akron
#123 Sam Houston
#122 Weber State
#121 Siena
#120 FGCU
#119 Clemson
#118 Texas Tech
#117 South Dakota
#116 Ole Miss
#115 Boise State
#114 San Diego
#113 Old Dominion
#112 Yale
#111 Belmont
#110 Indiana State - LINK
#109 Western Michigan
#108 Delaware
#107 Iona
#106 UC-Irvine
#105 Purdue
#104 Mizzou
#103 LaSalle
#102 USC
#101 American
#100 High Point
#99 Western Ky
#98 St. John's
#97 Stephen F. Austin
#96 Murray State
#95 Wyoming
#94 Wake Forest
#93 Northeastern
#92 South Carolina
#91 Missouri State - LINK
#90 UC-Santa Barbara
#89 Portland
#88 Columbia



Sporting News...
they rank Wichita State #10 to start the season

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BuxSpkGIUAIJ8qn.jpg:large

Athlon & Lindy's are expected out in early September with their predictions...


Here's a summary of USA Today's countdown thus far (predicting the 68 NCAA Tourney qualifiers - thus at least one from each conference)

#68 Texas Southern
#67 Robert Morris
#66 Stony Brook
#65 Weber State
#64 Northeastern
#63 FGCU
#62 Denver
#61 Wofford

[tornado]

CSM...
#85 Creighton - they are picking a big dropoff - #7 in Big East and NIT

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9645

then they have SIU #82 - pegged at 4th in MVC and NIT
"They could absolutely dominate on the glass"

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9660

[tornado]

Future BU opponent Kansas State comes in at #79 in the CSM Countdown

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9678

another future opponent UC-Irvine comes in at #58 in USA Today's Countdown

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/08/18/college-basketball-countdown-no-58-uc-irvine/14106627/

[tornado]

as noted elsewhere Illinois State is picked at #74 and picked to finish 3rd in the MVC and get an NIT bid

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9701

...so now we know they will have UNI picked 2nd in the MVC with Wichita 1st and Bradley in the 8-10 range.


also USA Today has possible future BU opponent Green Bay at #52

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/08/26/college-basketball-countdown-no-52-green-bay/14585035/

[tornado]

USA Today's countdown has...
Northern Iowa at #46 - I think this is about right....they're going to be picked by most as 2nd in the MVC

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/09/03/college-basketball-countdown-no-46-northern-iowa/14994697/

head coach Ben Jacobson does a good job talking up the Valley -
saying we have 4 or 5 teams capable of garnering an NCAA bid

He also says ...
"There are six or so teams with everyone back."
... I am not sure who he's counting -- as Loyola, Drake, Bradley, Indiana State, Missouri State, SIU, and Illinois State
all lost at least TWO starters or lost their top player or two...
Even Wichita lost their best player plus their most productive low post guy, so only Evansville comes close to fitting that description

Even Jacobson says he returns all five starters - but it depends on who he's defining as starters,
because Chip Rank, who is gone, started about half their games.

[mvcfan]

Only losing a couple kids via transfer or for whatever other reason is having "Everyone back" it seems anymore.

[tornado]

CollegeSportsMadness is down to #58 Indiana but they have IU pegged as #10 in the Big Ten....
so they're saying only 48 non-Big Ten teams in the nation are as good as the 10th best team in the Big Ten - and I don't buy it.
Indiana lost twice to summer exhibition opponents and were relying on a mid-major transfer who wasn't even a starter at ISU (Zeisloft)!
IU lost NBA calber players from their 7-1 squad of 2013-14 - and not one of their new players is expected to much have impact except Blackmon who might start by default for lack of anyone better - and these CSM guys have Hanner Perea pegged as a starter, which is surprising as he's never shown a hint of that level of ability yet.
Lots of people have or want Crean on the Hot Seat but his current buyout is in the $20 mil range - so I'd think that is unlikely.

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9756

USA Today is down to #41 - ILLINOIS - but this rankings was probably made before knowing that starting PG and top returnee Tracy Abrams is out for the year - even though they have added that info in their preview...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/09/12/college-basketball-countdown-no-41-illinois/15330387/

This injury to Abrams will put more pressure on Rice....but I can't see Rice doing much more than he already does...
He already takes way, way more shots than anyone else..almost 50% more shot attempts than the next closest guy who was Abrams, and twice or more the shots of anyone else.
His shooting percentages are not impressive...43% overall, 29% from the arc...so it's obvious he gets his points from the sheer bulk of shots he takes, many of which are ill advised and forced...and if he's asked to pick up even more of the scoring load, it'll only get worse.
No other returning player averaged more than 6.9 (Egwu - who has never been much of a scorer) - so they are really counting plenty of new and untested players....

[tornado]

CSM has Illinois at #53 - 9th in Big Ten - NIT

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9778

[tornado]

Athlon thinks Illinois will finish 6th in the Big Ten and go to the NCAA Tourney

http://www.news-gazette.com/blogs/other-mj/2014-09/athlon-illini-ncaa-tournament-team.html

[tornado]

Future Bradley opponent MEMPHIS comes in at #33 on USA Today Countdown

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/09/22/college-basketball-countdown-no-33-memphis/16048671/

CSM has West Virginia at #47, but they were a .500 ball club last year who have lost three of their top scorers ...
but what will hurt them the most is that their returning starting big man, Kevin Noreen, only averages 2.0 ppg & 2.7 rpg....
Even their point guard grabbed more than twice that many rebounds!

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9792