Some preseason rankings

[Da Coach]

For what it's worth, here are a couple preseason team rankings of all 357 Division I teams-

Ken Pomeroy- https://kenpom.com/
Bradley is the 3rd highest team in the MVC- Loyola 46, UNI 77, Bradley 127, InSU 134, Valpo 147, Drake 157, Mo State 172, SIU 185, ILSU 194, UE 269

Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com- https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...020-21-season/

MVC teams- UNI 46, Loyola 81, Bradley 126, INSU 130, Drake 131, Mo State 148, Valpo 161, ILSU 170, SIU 184, UE 241


And here is a ranking of all 357 D1 head coaches- https://bustingbrackets.com/2020/10/...020-21-season/

To save everyone the annoyance of clicking through the entire article, Coach Wardle was ranked #157-

https://bustingbrackets.com/2020/10/12/ncaa-basketball-ranking-all-357-d-i-head-coaches-for-2020-21-season/12/

[Tommy]

Ah, finally some real basketball news to soak in!

Loyola at 46 and BU at 127 seems like a pretty large discrepancy, though in fairness, they did beat us both times we played them last year, which was very disappointing. I think they are going to be very surprised this year.

[Da Coach]

Here is another ranking that uses different analytics than KenPom-

https://barttorvik.com/

I suspect most Bradley fans will not quite agree with this one-
UNI is 41
Loyola 42
Indiana State 94
Missouri State 95
Bradley 113
Drake 141
Illinois State 151
Valpo 162
SIU 205
Evansville 260

[Da Coach]

BustingBrackets.com has a review of the 2021-22 Drake Bulldogs written by Harry Schroeder-

https://bustingbrackets.com/2021/10/14/drake-basketball-2021-22-season-preview-and-outlook-for-the-bulldogs/

For the record, I hate these "slide show" types of articles designed solely to increase page views and clicks. But this article is well done otherwise.

[Da Coach]

Here is another site with a different type of analytics to evaluate all Division I teams-

https://haslametrics.com/ratings.php

I'm not sure how they can project 2021-22 numbers when the games don't start for another 4 weeks. Most of the metrics have to be based on previous year's team's and players' performances. And obviously, these will change a lot once this year's games are played.
The top MVC team is Loyola at #14. The Haslametrics projection is that they should win 89.1% of their games against "average opponents" (farthest right column).
MVC team ranking-
40- Loyola
53- Drake
85- Mo. State
113- UNI
149- SIU
202- IN State
206- Bradley
214- Evansville
246- Valpo
281- ILL State

Bradley is way down at #206, a pretty awful projection. That translates to being favored to win only 42.6% of games against average opponents (right column).
I suspect this low projection is mostly because Bradley has fewer returning players than most schools and the new incoming players' contributions are not easy or possible for their metrics to measure.

[Da Coach]

Ken Pomeroy's has released his 2021-22 rankings-

https://kenpom.com/

His is one of the more complex analytic systems that measures offensive and defensive efficiency. The NCAA now uses data similar to his in calculating NET rank. But as with all preseason rankings and analytics, there is such insufficient data with roster turnover, new coaching systems, etc., for this to be as reliable as it will become as the season progresses. Even Ken Pomeroy admits this.

MVC teams-
#32- Loyola
#66- Missouri State
#74- Drake
#110- Northern Iowa
#134- Southern ILL
#171- Evansville
#174- Bradley
#187- Indiana State
#202- Illinois State
#236- Valparaiso