SIU writer releases his All-Valley ballot

[tornado]

http://thesouthern.com/sports/college/dawgblog/blog-my-mvc-all-conference-ballot/article_41f1892e-7b4d-5532-81cd-217fc0450d24.html

He votes Brian Wardle 3rd in Coach of the Year but he was not able to vote for Barry Hinson - who should win the COY.



This guy makes the argument that DJ Balentine is Player of the Year (he is an internet blogger from Olney, IL)

http://www.vavel.com/en-us/ncaa/college-basketball/612780-wesner-evansville-purple-aces-superstar-dj-balentine-deserves-missouri-valley-conference-player-of-the-year.html

Pantagraph says "ISU has a decent shot to earn its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998 by capturing the MVC tourney title."

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/columnists/benson/benson-isu-has-a-chance-to-join-the-madness/article_9c95e9e6-b779-5ca7-99cc-59a5f820d221.html

[Future Walk-On]

Surprised Brenton Scott wasn't mentioned once.

[Da Coach]

http://thesouthern.com/sports/colleg...fc0450d24.html

He votes Brian Wardle 3rd in Coach of the Year but he was not able to vote for Barry Hinson - who should win the COY.

Something interesting in Todd Hefferman's column... he says "I picked Miller as the MVC newcomer of the year, although I strongly considered SIU's Leo Vincent and Mike Rodriguez".

But then later in the column, he acknowledges the fact that. "I could not vote for SIU's players for anything but the most improved team and the all-bench team".

Since he can't vote for SIU's players, then why did he consider SIU's Leo Vincent and Mike Rodriguez for the Most Improved Team?

And one other thing. He put Drake's Dominik Olejniczak on the All Freshman Team, who I was impressed with despite not emerging as a factor until late in the season. Olejniczak averaged just 5.7 ppg and 3.8 rpg. By comparison, Antoine Pittman averaged 8.0 ppg and Suggs averaged 8.3 ppg. Even Callum Barker averaged 5.2 ppg and 4.5 rpg. But he did put DLO and van Bree on his ballot, so maybe he thought 2 Braves were enough.

This guy makes the argument that DJ Balentine is Player of the Year (he is an internet blogger from Olney, IL)
http://www.vavel.com/en-us/ncaa/coll...-the-year.html

I actually think he makes a really good point. Van Vleet obviously got more consideration because he was everyone's pre-season POY, and plays for the top team. But in virtually every category, Balentine had better numbers.

Pantagraph says "ISU has a decent shot to earn its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998 by capturing the MVC tourney title."
http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/col...5f820d221.html

"....shoes for the Big Dance just might be needed."

I guess we are used to writers stating the obvious as if it is some revelation. Obviously, ISU has a chance to get an NCAA bid if they win the MVC Tournament. Every team has a chance.
But with their RPI of 107, they are a borderline NIT team at best if they don't win the tournament.

[mvcfan]

I think he is simply stating their layout to get to the final is the best it has been in years. Avoiding being the 4 or 5 seed is huge now that Creighton has moved on and nobody has filled that role consistently. Having to play InSt then probably Evansville is better then UNI and WSU in my opinion if it goes the way it is supposed to.

[tornado]

....He put Drake's Dominik Olejniczak on the All Freshman Team


...in virtually every category, Balentine had better numbers.....

Olejniczak has a lot of potential but was very inconsistent and did not always show it...
I have consistently tracked all the MVC freshmen and Olejniczak has never won the Newcomer of the Week, and barely cracks the MVC Top 10 in production & scoring despite starting and getting to play a lot late in the season.
What I think is happening is the "what have ya done for me lately-syndrome"...
that Olejniczak had a couple good games late in the season when teams were battling for playoff position and the voters might notice those performances MORE than the other 28 or 29 games where he was pretty unproductive....note that as recently as the Bradley game vs. Drake on 2/20, Olejniczak was almost invisible, and the game before that he didn't do a lot to stop Mockevicius from putting up 21 pts/13 rebounds.
Callum Barker had equally good games and even had more of them but didn't have them right at the end.
Anyway - not a single thing Olejniczak did all season helped his team's playoff position one iota - since they ended up with the 10th seed anyway - pretty strong proof that he wasn't exactly dominating.
I do agree he has a bright future & potential, and a big-time body that he may be able to translate into a good career.


as for the Balentine argument - it boils down to whether the MVC Player of the Year is all about TALENT or is it all about the VALUE of a player to his team's performance?
The most talented player or the most likely to make it in the NBA is NOT always the guy who is most valuable to his team finishing at the top or winning and advancing...
The 40 or more different voters all seem to have their own idea of what defines "Player of the Year" as evidences by the wide discrepancy in the voting every year!!

[tornado]

btw- Barry has now re-joined the club of coaches that have weird discipline...but then he kinda looked the other way with one other kid ...
one of the key SIU players/one of their top 4 scorers was caught underage in a bar and charged with
underage consumption, criminal trespass, and resisting arrest/obstructing an officer. (the same triad Warren Jones was charged with but we all know how much coverage and press that got)
He was just in court last week and was given until March 11 to pay his fine, but no mention officially of all this and he's played in every single game.
Our team has now completed an entire season without a single arrest or citation or substantial off-the-court issue whatsoever.
I applaud our guys & staff for the noticable difference from all the issues we've had the past 4 years.

[BUBrave28]

btw- Barry has now re-joined the club of coaches that have weird discipline...but then he kinda looked the other way with one other kid ...
one of the key SIU players/one of their top 4 scorers was caught underage in a bar and charged with
underage consumption, criminal trespass, and resisting arrest/obstructing an officer. (the same triad Warren Jones was charged with but we all know how much coverage and press that got)
He was just in court last week and was given until March 11 to pay his fine, but no mention officially of all this and he's played in every single game.
Our team has now completed an entire season without a single arrest or citation or substantial off-the-court issue whatsoever.
I applaud our guys & staff for the noticable difference from all the issues we've had the past 4 years.

The only difference between Smithpeters and thousands of other D1 athletes all across the country at every type of institution is that the thousands didn't get caught. Yes, that includes our guys too.

[Da Coach]

I think there is some difference. Our guys are now on a much shorter leash, and know they are playing for a coach with a no-nonsense set of rules and discipline. I am not suggesting they are complete angels, but we saw what hapened when Luuk was less than a minute late for a team bus- he was suspended for a half at Indiana State. There were lots of occasions where players were as much as 15 minutes late for practices and busses in the last 4 years, and nobody was ever disciplined. IMO, that leads to a more permissive team culture where we ended up seeing guys in the police blotter.