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MVC 2026-2027 predictions

M

mrswiss21

New member
Even though teams are still being constructed, what are everyones thoughts so far? Heres who I have based on players returning. Still alot that can happen from now....

1. Murray State
2. UIC
3. Valpo
4. Illinois State
5. Bradley
6. Belmont
7. Drake
8. SIU
9. UNI
10. Evansville
11. Indiana State
 
Top 5 I agree with tho the order may slightly differ.
Picking BU 4th, but of course, that's a safer pick, thinking we might be more talented and mature. Nobody really knows for BU until we seen them in action...Murray has a lot of new faces too - UIC is my pick right now
 
mrswiss21 said:
Even though teams are still being constructed, what are everyones thoughts so far? Heres who I have based on players returning. Still alot that can happen from now....

1. Murray State
2. UIC
3. Valpo
4. Illinois State
5. Bradley
6. Belmont
7. Drake
8. SIU
9. UNI
10. Evansville
11. Indiana State
Click to expand...

You are right that it is hard to judge where teams will rank next year when nearly all of them still have a lot of work to do to refill their rosters.
Murray still looks like they could be strong with the return of Roman Doman and signing Brigham Rogers and Shon Tupuola. But they lost 7 of their top 8 scorers from this past year, including Fred King, JJ Traynor, and leading scorer Javon Jackson (graduation) and the transfer of both their point guards (Tenner and Layne). IMO, you still need great guards to win in the MVC, and right now Murray doesn't have that.
UIC (Crawford, Henderson) and Belmont (Scharnowski, Orme, Rogers, Mille) also lost too much of their core to count on them just yet.
Valpo returns JT Pettigrew, Rakim Chaney, and Justice McNair, but they lost virtually everyone else. And does getting Kai Yu and Bruno Alocen from the portal really move the needle much?
Illinois State is lacking outside shooters, and that hurt them this season. Plus they lost Coleman, Skunberg, Pence, and Wolf who were their best perimeter shooters. So I am not sold on them, despite the return of Kinziger and Walker.
And I don't see that the lower 5 (Drake, SIU, UNI, UE, or InSU) have done enough to strengthen themselves yet.
So I would have to pick Bradley #1 at this point. That could all change with one impact signing somewhere. But Bradley appears to have the most complete, deepest team.
 
Da Coach said:
You are right that it is hard to judge where teams will rank next year when nearly all of them still have a lot of work to do to refill their rosters.
Murray still looks like they could be strong with the return of Roman Doman and signing Brigham Rogers and Shon Tupuola. But they lost 7 of their top 8 scorers from this past year, including Fred King, JJ Traynor, and leading scorer Javon Jackson (graduation) and the transfer of both their point guards (Tenner and Layne). IMO, you still need great guards to win in the MVC, and right now Murray doesn't have that.
UIC (Crawford, Henderson) and Belmont (Scharnowski, Orme, Rogers, Mille) also lost too much of their core to count on them just yet.
Valpo returns JT Pettigrew, Rakim Chaney, and Justice McNair, but they lost virtually everyone else. And does getting Kai Yu and Bruno Alocen from the portal really move the needle much?
Illinois State is lacking outside shooters, and that hurt them this season. Plus they lost Coleman, Skunberg, Pence, and Wolf who were their best perimeter shooters. So I am not sold on them, despite the return of Kinziger and Walker.
And I don't see that the lower 5 (Drake, SIU, UNI, UE, or InSU) have done enough to strengthen themselves yet.
So I would have to pick Bradley #1 at this point. That could all change with one impact signing somewhere. But Bradley appears to have the most complete, deepest team.
Click to expand...
Shhh DC, I'd rather we be picked in the middle to bottom. Coach Wardle does well when he has a chip on that shoulder.
 
egib52 said:
Shhh DC, I'd rather we be picked in the middle to bottom. Coach Wardle does well when he has a chip on that shoulder.
Click to expand...
I was reluctant to post that. :) Didn't want to jinx them.
I wish we knew more about what we can expect from the two redshirt players. From things I have heard, I believe we will get some solid minutes from Gustavo in the post, but his upside is what I am excited for. And I have also heard that Jackson Seastrunk has been one of the most consistent shooters in practices. He's 6'5", fairly athletic, and a good defender. So he will help out, too, and IMO we won't miss the guards who transferred quite so much.

Btw, I was thinking that a team made up of just the Bradley transfers (Jaquan, Demarion, Montana, Zobrist, Kai Yu, and Handy), might have a chance to finish above a couple of the MVC teams next year. :geek:
 
Da Coach said:
I was reluctant to post that. :) Didn't want to jinx them.
I wish we knew more about what we can expect from the two redshirt players. From things I have heard, I believe we will get some solid minutes from Gustavo in the post, but his upside is what I am excited for. And I have also heard that Jackson Seastrunk has been one of the most consistent shooters in practices. He's 6'5", fairly athletic, and a good defender. So he will help out, too, and IMO we won't miss the guards who transferred quite so much.

Btw, I was thinking that a team made up of just the Bradley transfers (Jaquan, Demarion, Montana, Zobrist, Kai Yu, and Handy), might have a chance to finish above a couple of the MVC teams next year. :geek:
Click to expand...
Today's college basketball is all about adapting and adjusting. There was a clear shift by the Illini a few years ago after getting knocked out of the tourney to get better positional size and shooting, and it seems to be paying off, even though they have arguably sacrificed athleticism.
 
Those 5 lowest ranked teams in the initial post in this thread (Drake, SIU, UNI, InSU, and UE) look like they might be the teams with the least NIL money to spend.
Drake, for example, has a ton of holes to fill and they have only signed ONE portal transfer so far, Dre Kindell, a sub-6-foot junior reserve point guard who averaged 5.9 ppg, and was a below-average shooter who made only 12 threes in 35 games this year at Wichita State.
UNI, lost their top 6 scorers and have a lot of holes to fill, yet they have signed just TWO portal transfers, Tate McCubbin, a sophomore guard who averaged 9.7 ppg at Austin Peay, and Carson Vis, a 6'3" freshman guard from Western Michigan who averaged 5.8 ppg and shot 30.6% from three.
SIU, Indiana State, and Evansville all lost key pieces from this year's team and need a lot more talent to be competitive next year, yet they also appear to be shopping the bargain bin in the portal.
SIU has only signed ONE portal transfer- Jaxon Fugate who is an undersized forward (6'6") who averaged 7 ppg at NAIA Indiana Tech.
Indiana State has signed TWO portal transfers- Maguire Mitchell, a 6'5" guard from IU-Indianapolis and Jackson Cooper, a 6'7 forward from NAIA Oregon Tech.
And Evansville, who finished dead last and needs lots more talent than they have returning, hasn't signed anyone yet.

It appears that the NIL-poorer teams are waiting until everyone else is done picking over the portal and the agents' asking price for those still left drops, then they can try to find players among what is left over.
 
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