MVC Preview picks Josh Cunningham as Preseason MVC Freshman of the Year

[tornado]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2198815-predicting-the-2014-15-freshman-of-the-year-in-every-ncaa-basketball-conference/page/20

Freshman of the Year
Missouri Valley: Josh Cunningham, Bradley

The Bradley Braves haven??™t had many reasons to be happy about hiring head
coach Geno Ford, who has yet to post a winning record in conference play.
By landing Josh Cunningham, though, Ford has given himself a player worth
building around.

A scrappy 6??™7??? rebounding machine, Cunningham picked the Braves over the
likes of Indiana and Oklahoma. As the focal point of a weak roster, he??™ll
stand out in a way that none of Wichita State??™s array of freshman forwards
will get the chance to do.

[Da Coach]

Here is another fairly in-depth MVC preview by a guy who does a pretty good job researching the teams, and he throws in a bunch of other interesting and esoteric college basketball statistics-

http://basketball.realgm.com/article/234896/College-Basketball-Preview-14-15-Missouri-Valley-Conference

His favorite, no surprise is Wichita State. Here are his rankings and a few clips about each team, but it's worth reading the full article (link above)-
#1- After going 16-2 in the MVC three years ago, and 18-0 last year, Gregg Marshall??™s squad seems to be headed for a similar pattern.
#2 is Northern Iowa- "Northern Iowa returns 88% of their roster from last year." In fact, his stats show that the MVC overall returns more player-minutes than any other of the Top 12 conferences!
#3- Illinois State- "Illinois St. is becoming JUCO University....And Dan Muller is adding four JUCO recruits again."
#4- Evansville- The Purple Aces return 96% of their minutes from last year....adds two Top 100 JUCO recruits....has one of the most under-rated big men in the country in Egidijus Mockevicius. DJ Balentine is a quality guard....have zero freshmen on the roster...but is still light years away from being able to compete with a team like Wichita St.
#5 Indiana State- But they don??™t add enough instant impact players to replace the three key seniors they lost, and they will take a step back.
#6- Southern Illinois- Entering year three Hinson now has his players. But the need to build a better team defense around Leek, and the need to build an offense that shares the ball more, means Hinson still has a lot of work to do.
#7- Missouri State- the loss of Jarmar Gulley will hurt....But two factors should help off-set that....Marcus Marshall should be back....and the further development of super-three point gunner Austin Rudder.
#8- Bradley- Bradley is the only team in the league that is returning less than half its minutes.....Geno Ford...added four JUCO prospects and Illinois transfer Mike Shaw
Unfortunately, summer injuries have kept key players from practicing and senior forward Auston Barnes was arrested in August...Josh Cunningham a 4-star prospect and Omari Grier is a quality scorer. But this hasn??™t been an easy summer.
#9- Loyola- I never understood why the MVC replaced Creighton with a middling team from the Horizon League....Loyola still has the worst recruiting in the conference. They only have one player ranked above 2 stars on their roster
#10- Drake- Drake has some nice pieces, but with lots of roster turnover, and no transfers debuting, Drake could be in for a long year.

[tornado]

Another preseason preview picks Josh Cunningham as Preseason Freshman of the Year.

CSM - LINK

Here are their picks

Coach of the Year: Gregg Marshall
Player of the Year: Fred Van Vleet
Freshman of the Year: Josh Cunningham

1st Team All Conference: DJ Balentine, Fred Van Vleet, Ron Baker, Seth Tuttle, Egidijus Mockevicius
2nd Team: Anthony Beane, Tekele Cotton, Deon Mitchell, Christian Thomas, Nate Buss
3rd Team: Bobby Hunter, Milton Doyle, Daishon Knight, Khristian Smith, Mike Shaw
4th Team: Marcus Marshall, Gary Ricks, Austin Ruder, Sean O'Brien, Justin Gant

[Chico]

4 teams picked and the Freshman of the Year isn't picked on any of them? Not too many freshmen in the league this season?

[wufan]

4 teams picked and the Freshman of the Year isn't picked on any of them? Not too many freshmen in the league this season?

I think there are some pretty good freshman in the league this year. Cunningham, however is the obvious choice as he was ranked very high and is playing for a team with little returning talent. I expect him to play quite a bit and be quite successful.

[tornado]

Cunningham just had surgery (arthroscopic) on his left knee less than two months ago to repair a torn meniscus cartilage..
They said they won't "rush him back" but were hopeful he'd be ready by the beginning of practice.
It is possible this still may slow down his development a bit and so I wouldn't project him as a starter just yet.

[amckillip]

Cunningham just had surgery (arthroscopic) on his left knee less than two months ago to repair a torn meniscus cartilage..
They said they won't "rush him back" but were hopeful he'd be ready by the beginning of practice.
It is possible this still may slow down his development a bit and so I wouldn't project him as a starter just yet.

I would normally agree with this, but with the state of our team... I don't know how he wouldn't be in our top 5...

[tornado]

Maybe but risking the kid's 4-year career if we rush him onto the court before he's fully ready would be tragic...

Do you remember ISU's Bobby Hill & Jeremy Robinson? - Both ended their careers at ISU after knee problems....but both tried to come back, and possibly too soon.

Bobby Hill injured his knee May 27, 2008 and underwent ACL repair...
he tried to return too early and reinjured the same knee in Feb. 2009 and for all intents, his career was over and he never recovered.

But Jeremy Robinson's injury was much more similar...
In Sept. of 2009, he had what was said to be a fairly minor cartilage injury that was repaired with arthroscopic surgery on Sept. 19, 2009...and then,
it was said he'd be ready by the start of the season - pretty much the exact same injury, same timing, same surgery and same claims of recovery as Josh -
But - Robinson didn't progress, and regardless of what some reports said - he simply wasn't ready to play when the season started and pushing him set him back...
the effort to get him ready for the season ended up hurting him and although he may have had issues with Jank, he never played again for ISU,
finishing up a decent career at Chicago State.