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Just checked them both out - on the newsstands...
Sporting News
This one is the best & most thorough.
hey classify the Missouri Valley as a POWER CONFERENCE thus they spend a whole lot more covering the Valley.
There's a total of SIX full pages - more than 3 times what any of those other preview issues have.
Here's how they pick the MVC - in order...
#1 Wichita, UNI, Evansville, ISU, Loyola, InSU, Drake, SIU, Missouri State, #10 Bradley.
Top 10 players - in order with #1 the POY: #1 Ron Baker, Fred Van Vleet, DJ Ballentine, Egidijus Mockevicius, Devaughn Akoon-Purcell, Wes Washpun, Milton Doyle, Anthony Beane, Devontae Brown (InSU), #10 Paul Jesperson (UNI)
Top 5 new players: Wichita's Anton Grady, Evansville's Willie Wiley, InSU's Matt van Scyoc, Wichita's Conner Frankamp, Missouri State's Dequon Miller
Top 3 coaches: Marshall, Jacobson, Muller
Then in the text about Bradley they seem to have very little grasp on true facts...
Calling last year (2014-15) ..."The worst season in Bradley's storied history."
..which of course it was NOT...it was a really bad year but we won 9 games compared to the 7 we won in 2011-12.
They also say Alex Foster finished up just his freshman year at Texas Tech and is now at BU (nope, he spent 2 yrs there), and as expected they still have Warren Jones as our top returnee.
All in all if you are going to buy any issue for the MVC coverage, then this one has the best and the most - but it still isn't very good......
Now we come to Lindy's....with the MVC section written by Steve Pivovar.
I guess that's all fine except for one thing - he is not one of the regular beat writers for any of the MVC teams...he's the local beat writer for CREIGHTON who are now three years into playing in a different conference.
So this is the WORST MVC section I have ever seen.
First it's 3 pages with only 1/6 of one page devoted to the teams at the bottom of the MVC - roughly 3 sentences each...
So of course they say almost NOTHING about Bradley but what they say is wrong.
He starts by claiming we have 5 players returning and that our top returnee is Ka'Darryl Bell. The fact- we have just 3 returning BUT one of those he was counting was Warren Jones who definitely produced more than Bell.
He counts Alex Foster as an eligible player for this season, lists Jackson Kane as "a KEY RESERVE" (he's a walk-on who plays extremely little and has NEVER scored a point), and more things I'd disagree with.
He makes absolutely no mention of any other player Bradley has and it reads as if he wrote this before Wardle was hired last March, as do the sections on the other teams.
He has FVV as POY, then Baker, Balentine Akoon-Purcell, Mockevicius on 1st Team
and Beane, Brown, Doyle, Washpun, Grady as 2nd Team
Best Shooter- Brenton Scott
Best Rebounder- Mockevicius
Best Playmaker- FVV
Best Defender- Paris Lee
Most Versatile- FVV
Best NBA Prospect- Ron Baker
Sporting News
This one is the best & most thorough.
hey classify the Missouri Valley as a POWER CONFERENCE thus they spend a whole lot more covering the Valley.
There's a total of SIX full pages - more than 3 times what any of those other preview issues have.
Here's how they pick the MVC - in order...
#1 Wichita, UNI, Evansville, ISU, Loyola, InSU, Drake, SIU, Missouri State, #10 Bradley.
Top 10 players - in order with #1 the POY: #1 Ron Baker, Fred Van Vleet, DJ Ballentine, Egidijus Mockevicius, Devaughn Akoon-Purcell, Wes Washpun, Milton Doyle, Anthony Beane, Devontae Brown (InSU), #10 Paul Jesperson (UNI)
Top 5 new players: Wichita's Anton Grady, Evansville's Willie Wiley, InSU's Matt van Scyoc, Wichita's Conner Frankamp, Missouri State's Dequon Miller
Top 3 coaches: Marshall, Jacobson, Muller
Then in the text about Bradley they seem to have very little grasp on true facts...
Calling last year (2014-15) ..."The worst season in Bradley's storied history."
..which of course it was NOT...it was a really bad year but we won 9 games compared to the 7 we won in 2011-12.
They also say Alex Foster finished up just his freshman year at Texas Tech and is now at BU (nope, he spent 2 yrs there), and as expected they still have Warren Jones as our top returnee.
All in all if you are going to buy any issue for the MVC coverage, then this one has the best and the most - but it still isn't very good......
Now we come to Lindy's....with the MVC section written by Steve Pivovar.
I guess that's all fine except for one thing - he is not one of the regular beat writers for any of the MVC teams...he's the local beat writer for CREIGHTON who are now three years into playing in a different conference.
So this is the WORST MVC section I have ever seen.
First it's 3 pages with only 1/6 of one page devoted to the teams at the bottom of the MVC - roughly 3 sentences each...
So of course they say almost NOTHING about Bradley but what they say is wrong.
He starts by claiming we have 5 players returning and that our top returnee is Ka'Darryl Bell. The fact- we have just 3 returning BUT one of those he was counting was Warren Jones who definitely produced more than Bell.
He counts Alex Foster as an eligible player for this season, lists Jackson Kane as "a KEY RESERVE" (he's a walk-on who plays extremely little and has NEVER scored a point), and more things I'd disagree with.
He makes absolutely no mention of any other player Bradley has and it reads as if he wrote this before Wardle was hired last March, as do the sections on the other teams.
He has FVV as POY, then Baker, Balentine Akoon-Purcell, Mockevicius on 1st Team
and Beane, Brown, Doyle, Washpun, Grady as 2nd Team
Best Shooter- Brenton Scott
Best Rebounder- Mockevicius
Best Playmaker- FVV
Best Defender- Paris Lee
Most Versatile- FVV
Best NBA Prospect- Ron Baker