2017-18 MVC Basketball Preview

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Evansville writer reveals his preseason Valley ballot - picks Bradley 7th

http://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/college/evansville/2017/10/13/hickey-my-mvc-mens-basketball-preseason-ballot/752343001/

[Da Coach]

Evansville writer reveals his preseason Valley ballot - picks Bradley 7th
http://www.courierpress.com/story/sp...lot/752343001/

Interesting....Pat Hickey is the new Evansville beat writer, so he admits "I did plenty of homework so as not to completely embarrass myself but probably ended up doing so anyway".

Here are his picks for Preseason All-MVC-
1) Alize Johnson, Missouri State
2) Aundre Jackson, Loyola
3) Thik Bol, Southern Illinois
4) Phil Fayne, Illinois State
5) Tevonn Walker, Valparaiso

Surprisingly, of his top 5 players, only 1 is a guard- Tevonn Walker of Valparaiso, who averaged 11.9 ppg last year.

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Tevonn Walker shoots a pretty low pct on both 3 pointers (29%. 29-100 for all games but just 28% in Horizon League games) and overall (42%, 39% in conference) and only 23 total asst in all of league play, while leading the team by a wide margin in fouls committed - but this year, unlike last year, he will draw the opponents' best defenders and be required to defend higher level athletes than he saw in the Horizon.

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as a reminder to encourage everyone...
in 2007-08 EVERYONE had Drake either 9th or 10th!
But that year they blew everyone away, went 28-5 & 15-3 in the MVC

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ESPN's Jeff Goodman says Wichita is the best team in the American Athletic Conference

https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/919896578839797762

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Missouri State fans expect to win it this year

http://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/college/msu/2017/10/17/needs-year-expectations-high-bears-basketballd/747642001/

another preview- pretty thorough
they say this about Bradley (picked 7th)
"...contending for a title isn't an unrealistic ceiling."

https://sportsaction.io/blog/college-basketball-betting-preview-inside-the-missouri-valley/

[Da Coach]

...
another preview- pretty thorough
they say this about Bradley (picked 7th)
"...contending for a title isn't an unrealistic ceiling."
https://sportsaction.io/blog/college...ssouri-valley/

The writer seems to have done better homework than most who have previewed the MVC. But he says a couple things that puzzled me:

He spends most of his time listing the best qualities of each team, and he has little to say that is negative, except UNI. Despite spending more space discussing UNI than anyone else, it is nearly all negative.
The section on UNI criticizes all their deficiencies, such as these direct quotes:
"Someone, ANYONE has to become a consistent jump shooter"
"woeful rebounding team"
"the Valley's lowest offensive efficiency"
"the conference's lowest points per possession"
"UNI bottomed out with 0.93 ppp in MVC play, which was by far the lowest mark in the league"
"by far the worst offensive team"
"Last year was an unmitigated disaster"
"The Panthers finished below 1.00 points per possession for the first time in his career"
"the Panthers shot just 30 percent from 3 in league play"
"woeful offense"
"Jacobson's one reliable shooter graduated"
"he needs some shooters in the worst way this year"
"Bennett Koch has to reduce his foul rate and learn how to sense the double team"
"Klint Carlson has to step up"
"his offensive game was lacking"
"McCloud...has absolutely no jump shot"

Yet after that litany of criticisms and deficiencies, he picks UNI to finish 2nd, and even says, "There's a good chance UNI could end up being the best team in the Valley"!


Then in the section for Illinois State he says this about one of Muller's freshmen-
6-foot-4 freshman Elijah Clarance will be a factor on and off the ball as soon as he's back from having his knee scoped.

That is the first I've seen about Clarance "having his knee scoped".
He was reported to have a stress fracture in his foot 3 weeks ago, but there has not been any report of a knee problem-

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-state/isu-freshman-guard-clarance-to-miss---weeks-with/article_c8d88337-1452-55ac-9468-1e4eddbc0f44.html

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but ya gotta admit these gambling sites do seem to know a lot more than anyone else since their money's riding on it..

Here's another preview - very well done -- this one picks Bradley 4th!!

http://three-man-weave.com/3mw/2017/10/1/missouri-valley-preview-2017-18

[Da Coach]

but ya gotta admit these gambling sites do seem to know a lot more than anyone else since their money's riding on it..

Here's another preview - very well done -- this one picks Bradley 4th!!
http://three-man-weave.com/3mw/2017/...review-2017-18

Again, that one is pretty well done, so I don't want to get too picky. And it is nice to see someone projecting Bradley to actually improve in the standings as opposed to all the other previews showing them dropping down, despite returning virtually everyone. But there are a number of mistakes in that preview.

[Da Coach]

Here is an article with some embarrassing news for SIU-

First, SIU was the worst 3-point shooting team in the MVC last year with a 31.6% percentage on threes as a team. But in yesterday's SIU basketball media day, Barry Hinson bragged that this team would be much better, and that they had made 48% of their threes in their first 11 practices this fall!

http://thesouthern.com/sports/college/salukimania/saluki-men-should-have-more-makers-than-shooters/article_a86fd425-4ceb-5a27-8bed-5109c9dca422.html

"We will shoot the 3-point ball a lot better than we have in the past. We will probably take more 3s than we have in the past," Hinson said. "I think for the first time in a long time, we don't have just shooters, we have makers. I think there's a big difference."

One of the new players that was expected to be a good three point shooter, and help improve the team stats was Eric McGill, a juco transfer from Panola CC.
But here is what is a bit embarrassing- at the SIU Homecoming Hoops 3-point shooting contest this past Saturday, McGill was selected to represent the team to compete in a 3-point shooting contest against a random fan in the stands. But he only made 1 out of 15 three pointers (6.7%) and lost to the fan 3-1!

http://thesouthern.com/sports/college/salukimania/hefferman-mcgill-draws-short-stick-at-siu-s-homecoming-hoops/article_c50f4c65-1a34-52a2-8dc8-218cf5f69b0e.html

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about as embarrassing as the local media expert claiming your team is light years better and deeper at every position than we've been since the Mitchell Anderson/Donald Reese era...then losing to DIII Augustana and getting fired at the end of the season along with your entire Athletic Department and even the University President...

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more depth concerns for ISU...
now it is being reported that redshirt sophomore transfer from UTEP, Christian Romine is no longer with the team and Dan Muller says he
"is taking time off basketball for personal reasons with our complete support."

Zach Copeland is ineligible
Keyshawn Evans is coming off shoulder surgery
Elijah Clarance is in a walking boot due to foot fracture
Matt Chastain must sit out due to transfer from Loyola
Milik Yarbrough has had a whole lot of legal problems but I would be shocked if he gets any kind of discipline
plus one of their scholarships is sitting open due to Andre Washington leaving and Copeland ineligible for scholarship
and it would have been two scholarships sitting open had they not given one to walk-on Isaac Gassman

[Da Coach]

From Jim Benson, ISU beat writer for the Bloomington Pantagraph-

https://twitter.com/Pg_Benson/status/920796094996529152

@Redbird_MBB coach @DanMuller said Christian Romine has not been with the team or involved in team activities for over a month.


Christian Romine is a 6'9" transfer from UTEP who sat out last season, and has been called a "key newcomer" by most of the MVC previews we've seen so far. He was expected to provide a lot of minutes as a backup in the post, though he was not expected to be a significant scorer. He is originally from Mahomet-Seymour High School.

Is it a bit odd that "Christian Romine has not been with the team or involved in team activities for over a month", and nobody knew until a few minutes ago today? There have already been several men's basketball fan events as well as a video on their website of the first basketball practice 2 weeks ago, and apparently nobody noticed the absence of Romine!

This is really hurting their team depth. With this news, to go along with Isaiah Clarance out with a foot fracture, Keyshawn Evans recovering from shoulder surgery, Zach Copeland not qualifying, and all the players who left early, they may only have 9 healthy players in the early part of the season. There is only 1 returning player (Phil Fayne) who played any significant minutes for them last year or scored more than 1.8 ppg. It looks like they won't be able to afford to redshirt Taylor Bruninga.

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College Court Report mentions Koch Bar as one of the underrated players in DI

https://twitter.com/CC_Report/status/924691182877159424

https://twitter.com/CC_Report/status/924650176337256449

[Da Coach]

A couple more injuries for Illinois State-
7-footer David Ndiaye, who was projected to be the starting center for ISU is out for 6 weeks with a stress fracture in his right foot.

Also, backup point guard Matt Hein will miss 2 to 4 weeks with a bone bruise in his knee that he sustained in ISU's closed scrimmage against Saint Louis on Saturday.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-state/isu--footer-ndiaye-out-six-weeks-with-stress-fracture/article_aad123e4-2e2d-5b31-b5d7-c3485901d08c.html

That leaves ISU with a very thin roster going into the season. They already lost high-scoring juco guard due to academic insufficiencies, freshman point guard Elijah Clarance due to a stress fracture, and junior big man transfer Christian Romine who left the team to deal with a personal issue. That leaves them with just 8 scholarship players, and only 2 players taller than 6'6" (Phil Fayne & Taylor Bruninga). It means that Bruninga, who might have been a candidate for a redshirt year, will probably now see a significant amount of playing time as a freshman.