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2025-26 Rankings

Great stuff BUBraves2006! I loved it.
Keep up the great work. Looks like you spent a lot of time working on it, and I appreciate the dedication.
Go BU!
 
BUBraves2006 said:
Hot off the presses ...

My preview (and 1) of the Drake Bulldogs:

https://bubraves2006.substack.com/p/team-preview-and-1-drake-bulldogs
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Haha... loved the Darnell Brody reference. :) Good work, again!
I'm not sure Drake can finish better than most are predicting. They do not have quite the level of talent they had last season and they struggled for much of the game against a relatively weak Northern Arizona team that has not had a winning season in the Big Sky for 11 years and was picked dead last in the Big Sky preseason poll this year. But they will play everyone tough, looked to be well coached and could contend for a coveted top 5 seed in the MVC Tournament
I was most impressed with Wilguens Jr. Exacte (that's not a typo). He's a Canadian kid who was at Utah for 2 seasons (played one and redshirted one), then was at Bowling Green last year, and now at his 3rd school at Drake. He had 14 points and 12 rebounds in 25 minutes Monday. And as you said, he's going to cause some problems for Valley teams. He is listed at 6'6", 230 lbs, but is probably a little heavier, and built like an NFL defensive lineman. He attacked rebounds like he was at an upscale buffet that was running out of ribeyes.
1762369548604.png
 
Just got done reading the synopsis on Belmont from BUBraves2006-
bubraves2006.substack.com

Team Preview: Belmont Bruins

Bringing back some key players help Belmont reload for another run
bubraves2006.substack.com bubraves2006.substack.com

Good stuff! I was there last year and you are right about the Belmont fans. They are always really nice people.
 
Da Coach said:
Haha... loved the Darnell Brody reference. :) Good work, again!
I'm not sure Drake can finish better than most are predicting. They do not have quite the level of talent they had last season and they struggled for much of the game against a relatively weak Northern Arizona team that has not had a winning season in the Big Sky for 11 years and was picked dead last in the Big Sky preseason poll this year. But they will play everyone tough, looked to be well coached and could contend for a coveted top 5 seed in the MVC Tournament
I was most impressed with Wilguens Jr. Exacte (that's not a typo). He's a Canadian kid who was at Utah for 2 seasons (played one and redshirted one), then was at Bowling Green last year, and now at his 3rd school at Drake. He had 14 points and 12 rebounds in 25 minutes Monday. And as you said, he's going to cause some problems for Valley teams. He is listed at 6'6", 230 lbs, but is probably a little heavier, and built like an NFL defensive lineman. He attacked rebounds like he was at an upscale buffet that was running out of ribeyes.
View attachment 529221
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That is about the most appropriate picture I've seen of a guy this year. He's really a beast!

Thanks for posting up my Belmont preview. I enjoyed that one. I'll definitely be planning on being at Belmont and Murray State, so I look forward to seeing many people there.

Indiana State is coming here shortly ...
 
BUBraves2006 said:
That is about the most appropriate picture I've seen of a guy this year. He's really a beast!

Thanks for posting up my Belmont preview. I enjoyed that one. I'll definitely be planning on being at Belmont and Murray State, so I look forward to seeing many people there.

Indiana State is coming here shortly ...
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Made the Murray Belmont Swing last year, was fun, plan on doing it again this year as well.
 
BUBraves2006 said:
....
Indiana State is coming here shortly ...
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Good job again with Indiana State. I agree with you on their big man, Marcus Harding, the Central Michigan transfer who is in his 2nd season at Indiana State. He seems to be a real enigma. He's 6'10", 250 lbs and very solidly built and appears to have nice post skills. Last season, he looked like he could have been utilized a lot more by Graves, but despite starting every game, he only averaged 18 minutes per game, 6 ppg, and 4 rpg. while the offense seemed to revolve around their guards chucking 3-pointers and playing 1 of 1 a lot. And it wasn't foul troubles that limited his playing time. He only averaged barely 1 personal foul per game. Then in their opening game this season against Charlotte, he started and had 9 points in only 10 minutes of playing time, but didn't get a single rebound despite his size. Charlotte ended up outrebounding Indiana State 45-24, and they were the worst rebounding team in the MVC last season. There must be other issues that limit his playing time and lack of being included in their offensive schemes.
 
They got an easy win last night - hard to really put a lot of stock into a game where they put up 100 on a DIII school and had 12 guys play more than 9 minutes. I only watched for a little bit - IIT definitely played hard but the talent gap was obvious. Even their upcoming game against SIUE will be a lot more telling about the rotation and where they actually are.

Evansville preview hot off the presses ... the situation with Turnbull is really worth monitoring. The rumor mill is swirling in Aces land (although I've avoided getting into that) about whether he's actually hurt or not. We'll know soon as they have an early game today.

https://bubraves2006.substack.com/p/team-preview-evansville-purple-aces
 
Da Coach said:
Good job again with Indiana State. I agree with you on their big man, Marcus Harding, the Central Michigan transfer who is in his 2nd season at Indiana State. He seems to be a real enigma. He's 6'10", 250 lbs and very solidly built and appears to have nice post skills. Last season, he looked like he could have been utilized a lot more by Graves, but despite starting every game, he only averaged 18 minutes per game, 6 ppg, and 4 rpg. while the offense seemed to revolve around their guards chucking 3-pointers and playing 1 of 1 a lot. And it wasn't foul troubles that limited his playing time. He only averaged barely 1 personal foul per game. Then in their opening game this season against Charlotte, he started and had 9 points in only 10 minutes of playing time, but didn't get a single rebound despite his size. Charlotte ended up outrebounding Indiana State 45-24, and they were the worst rebounding team in the MVC last season. There must be other issues that limit his playing time and lack of being included in their offensive schemes.
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The other thing to keep in mind they are down 2 players with Injury. Harding's little brother (who's 7'1) and then they have an international PG in Buggenhout.
 
BUBraves2006 said:
Turnbull did get back on the court today, so that's a positive for the Purple Aces.

Evansville was playing a glorified scrimmage today against Calumet College. It was also an education day, so tons of schools were there for early tipoff.
If any of you have kids, you knew this was coming:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986862403863314862
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We can only hope that ridiculous "67" fad dies out quickly. 🙄
In that lopsided Evansville win, one-time Bradley recruit Alex Hemenway, who committed to Clemson over Bradley, was 5-5 from three and had a career-high 21 points.
He spent 5 injury-filled years at Clemson, mostly as a reserve, and averaged 5 ppg for his career there. But he is a terrific shooter when healthy. The NCAA granted him a 6th year, and now with Evansville, he can be an important player for them.
Career stats- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/4433001/alex-hemenway
 
Both teams (UIC and Valpo) have almost completely new rosters. But there is talent on both teams, and they will win games that they weren't expected to. Remember that Bradley was the #1 pick in the 2024 Preseason Poll, and UIC with a similar all-new roster and new coach last year was picked 12th. But they came into Peoria and embarrassed Bradley 93-71, the Braves worst home loss since 2016. And the Flames also should have won the game in Chicago, but thanks to Duke Deen's and Zek Montgomery's heroics, the Braves overcame a 13 point 2nd half deficit and scored the last 4 baskets of the game, including a three pointer by Zek and two threes by Duke in the final seconds to pull out a miraculous win.
And Valpo, which was picked 10th in the 2024 Preseason Poll, came into Carver Arena and took Bradley to double-overtime, before the Braves finally pulled out a win.
I think we'll see some similar surprises and upsets from these teams picked in the bottom half. Since the MVC only released the top 5 teams in the preseason poll, we don't know exactly where UIC or Valpo were picked, but it wasn't the top 5. In the preseason Kenpom rankings, UIC was 8th and Valpo was 11th (last).
 
Da Coach said:
Blogger Rocco Miller updates his Top 60 non-power rankings following our first complete week in College Basketball.
Not that I disagree strongly, but I would like to know what criteria was used to rank UNI and Belmont higher than Murray State and Bradley
https://twitter.com/x/status/1987895018141741113
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Well at least he didn't just use NET which somehow has Drake as the top Valley team even after a bad home loss. If that isn't proof the NET is a bad measuring stick two games in, I don't know what is. :)
 
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