The Athlon 2014-15 Preseason Basketball issue

[tornado]

Here's what they say about the MVC -- they dedicate less than 3 pages of 220 page issue to the Missouri Valley - oh well.....

Their picks for the Valley finish
1 Wichita
2 UNI
3 Evansville
4 Missouri State
5 ISU
6 SIU
7 Indiana State
8 Bradley
9 Loyola
10 Drake

Their 1st Team All Conference
Van Vleet, Cotton, & Baker from Wichita, Tuttle, Ballentine

Their 2nd Team All Conference - one surprise...
SIU's Anthony Beane, Missouri State's Marcus Marshall, Loyola's Milton Doyle,
Evansville's Egidijus Mockevicius, then BRADLEY'S MIKE SHAW...


then the only other thing of note mentioned is their Newcomer of the Year...
Even though Mike Shaw is the only newcomer they name on either the 1st or 2nd Team All-MVC,
they totally throw a curveball and name Indiana State's Tre Bennett as Newcomer of the Year.
This will probably even come as a surprise to many fans, as Charles "Tre" Bennett has gotten extremely little publicity...
He's a 5-10 pg from juco who averaged 8.8 ppg & 2.4 apg as a freshman in junior college but averaged 20 ppg as a sophomore...
but he's obviously a bit of a shoot-first PG in that he took nearly 500 shots on the season and over 200 3-pointers.
I think Tramique's numbers are every bit as good - but by default Bennett is gonna get a good chance to play
with the void at point guard that Indiana State has.

[Da Coach]

With Bradley losing more offense and minutes than any team, and losing our top 2 scorers and top rebounder, I think we'll see all the preseason magazines and websites picking Bradley in the 7th-8th positions.
They have a chance to surprise a lot of people, but everyone has to stay healthy and contribute.

[bu fan 9]

It's hard to win with a bad coach.

[tornado]

I guess you are entitled to feel that way - but I have to disagree a little-- I don't think bad coaching has been the problem - or at least not the whole problem - I think it goes a little deeper --

the events of the past few years have created an atmosphere that makes it very hard to recruit to and an atmosphere where the personnel are not highly motivated....
We've seen very good players underperform, play out of position as well as gobs of "chemistry" and "selfishness" issues - even quite a bit of staff & player turnover (lots of players coming and leaving within a year or so, assistant coaches as well - and not just in basketball) and morale issues........

and without the key elements of success (point guard, shooters, big men) then we have performed pretty much exactly how I'd have expected us to perform even though as you can see from how they're playing in the pros - we've had really good talent the last three seasons (Taylor Brown, Dyricus, Walt, Tyshon)...

We need some stability - then good players playing in their natural positions, then winning...
We have the coach that some "experts" told us is the right guy and the best there is - so I am willing to wait and see....but not wait forever....

[bu fan 9]

Thats the coaches job to get team chemistry. If there is a selfish player that's his job to put him on the bench.

[bu fan 9]

It can't be lack of talent we had the best recruiting class in years just read the paper.

[tornado]

BU fan...you can't rely on the assessments of others....
indeed last year's recruiting class (most of which is already gone)
was called "stellar" and was favorably compared right up there with the best two recruiting classes that we've had here since the Hersey Hawkins era...

http://blogs.pjstar.com/pressrow/2013/05/15/will-history-repeat-itself-with-stellar-bu-recruiting-class/

[tornado]

just saw another of the national preview issues on the newsstands...

as per the others, Bradley was again picked 8th with ISU just ahead - multiple new guys being noted as reason for pessimism..
..funny how little coverage the MVC gets in any of these issues....this one devoted only about 2 pages to the Valley.....
I put it back on the shelf and wouldn't have wasted my time for any issue that thinks the entire MVC deserves less space than what they give to the 7th or 8th place team in the Big Ten...
That's why I am intentionally not even mentioning their name - wouldn't want to give them any publicity..

[tornado]

another national and well respected preview issue just hit the newsstands...

The USA Today College Basketball Preview...it's a nice semi-glossy issue with (who else) John Calipari on the cover - (he probably needs a little publicity to get his recruiting kick-started)

Anyway - the MVC section has the predicted order a lot like everyone else has it with Bradley at #8..
but they do pick JOSH CUNNINGHAM as NEWCOMER of the YEAR (hope all this doesn't "doom him to failure" by "putting too much pressure" on him)

[wizard1]

The Athlon Preseason....

t... Good post! While I agree partially with you that bad coaching has not been the total problem, we also must understand that the Head Basketball Coach is really the CEO of the entire program and, as such, is responsible for results, good & bad. This is true in almost every successful B Ball program...Duke, Kentucky, Wichita, N. Iowa, Creighton, Mich. St., et al.)
Unfortunately at BU, we have a situation where a very dominant, intrusive, and super micro managing top administration refuse to recognize this and do not really allow the coach to function as a CEO.
Wiz