MVC men's basketball media day today (Wed. 9/21/22)

[Da Coach]

The Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Media Day is today (Wed. 9/21/22). After 2 years of it being held virtually because of the pandemic, today's media day will be held in St. Louis, as it was before the pandemic. It will be held at the Missouri Athletic Club, and unlike recent years, will not include the Women's Basketball Media Day, which was held separately back on September 14 at the Tax Slayer Center in Moline, Illinois.

In the past, the preseason coaches & media poll and preseason All-MVC picks were usually announced at the media day, but because it is being held earlier than in the past, the poll is not due to be announced today. At the Women's Media Day last week, it was announced that the the 2022-23 MVC Women's Basketball Preseason Poll would be announced on Tuesday, October 18, so likely the Men's poll and picks will be announced then, too.

A couple of MVC articles-
From Indiana State beat writer (reviews all MVC teams)-
https://www.tribstar.com/sports/loca...f12540fea.html

From Evansville beat writer (mainly about Evansville)-
https://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/college/evansville/2022/09/21/mvc-basketball-coaches-think-david-ragland-will-succeed-at-evansville/69508668007/

From independent bloggers (posted previously)-
https://staringatthefloorboards.word...eason-preview/

Women's basketball- https://www.thenexthoops.com/ncaaw/t...ey-conference/

The women's MVC schedule was going to be released last Thursday, but still has not been released, and there has been no reason given for the delay. Hopefully, it is coming soon.

[Da Coach]

Good interview with Brian Wardle at Media Day-
https://twitter.com/FatherHarry1/sta...02265294503939

There is a bit of a volume problem. I don't think Brian's mic is working well.
At about the 6:40 mark of the video, Coach Wardle confirms that Drew Adams has left the Bradley coaching staff and is headed to Cincinnati. "We'll have no problem filling his shoes".

Some other bits of news-
Ja'Shon Henry is "completely healthy, but he's got to quit dunking on people in practice"
Coach Wardle is very high on point guards Duke Deen (vocal leader with swagger) and Pop Weathers ("he's kind of a killer", "he's got some dog in him"). But he also praised all his returning players, including walkons.
Connor Hickman "has had a huge off season" and Wardle is "excited for him".
Rienk & Malevy are improved and ready to play right now.

[Da Coach]

Scroll through Harry Schroeder's (ValleyHoopsInsider.com) Twitter feed for really good coverage
and lots of interviews from the MVC Men's Basketball Media Day-

https://twitter.com/FatherHarry1

[Nashville Cat]

Great interview with Coach Wardle. Sounds like he's confident that replacing Coach Adams will be expeditious.

[KillerB]

That was a really good interview

[Dub]

One comment was a bit confusing. JHen was described as completely healthy, but later described as a player whose minutes would need to be carefully managed “like Ari Boya” so that we can keep him in the lineup. Hmmmm

also- replacing Drew Adams would not be difficult, but it will not be easy to “fill his shoes”

[Da Coach]

One comment was a bit confusing. JHen was described as completely healthy, but later described as a player whose minutes would need to be carefully managed “like Ari Boya” so that we can keep him in the lineup. Hmmmm

also- replacing Drew Adams would not be difficult, but it will not be easy to “fill his shoes”

The comment about Ja'Shon is not unusual. Athletes can be completely recovered from a concussion and be 100% healthy, but they may retain an increased susceptibility to getting another concussion easier. Unfortunately, nobody can predict what will happen. There are innumerable cases of athletes returning to full participation in sports like football, hockey, and basketball and never getting another concussion. But as we saw last year with Ja'Shon, there are cases where it does recur. Limiting minutes might reduce that risk a little, but the only way to eliminate the risk would be for him to retire from competitive sports. I think Ja'Shon could be quite effective playing minutes against other teams' 2nd stringers, but who knows how much, if at all, that will reduce his risk. Sometimes backups are just as likely to get beat on defense and take a swipe from behind and hit a player's head.