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The MVC Preseason Poll
- Thread starter tornado
- Start date
tornado
New member
so let's see...the guy's job is to analyze the 2009-2010 teams in the MVC and make a prediction...
but instead, he looks backwards over the past seasons and says that's what he uses when making his predictions....
no wonder he picked UNI 5th last year and missed on Drake by a mile in 2007, picking them 9th..
As I review his predictions the last couple years, I can see now exactly what he does...he simply lists the teams each year, pretty much exactly how they finished the year before!
That's why he missed so badly with SIU as well....
Hmmm.....pretty low-effort analysis if you ask me....
AZ BU Fan
New member
Hi Tornado
I might have missed it, but what is your prediction for the upcoming MVC season?
The guy said picking 3-7 this year in the MVC is pretty difficult since all the 3-7 teams all have plusses and minuses....He said if Warren and BU front line folks step up, BU finishes 3rd. Do you see it differently?
UNI returning all the starters and Creighton being co league champ last year and with a pretty good coach/program makes sense for them to rank them 1-2 or vice versa...
Seriously, we don't have a proven center, our star shooting guard has had multiple foot surgeries and hasn't played in a year, our future star forward/center has no history and is coming off a serious knee injury. We have a talented, undersized 4 who hasn't logged big minutes yet. Our returning guards, while full of promise and hopefully improved, didn't shoot the lights out last year...We have recruits we really like but have no history at D-I.
I know I am probably a half empty kid of guy, but BU is going to have to step up this year and win to prove the "outsider" prognosticators wrong this year and get the same respect in the MVC say Creighton/SIU do. Either that or there is a giant media conspiracy against BU which is why they are never picked higher, none of their returning players were recognized last year in the post season, or in the pre season picks that we know of.
I hope the coaches in the league pick BU to finish higher than the media, that would mean something...
I might have missed it, but what is your prediction for the upcoming MVC season?
The guy said picking 3-7 this year in the MVC is pretty difficult since all the 3-7 teams all have plusses and minuses....He said if Warren and BU front line folks step up, BU finishes 3rd. Do you see it differently?
UNI returning all the starters and Creighton being co league champ last year and with a pretty good coach/program makes sense for them to rank them 1-2 or vice versa...
Seriously, we don't have a proven center, our star shooting guard has had multiple foot surgeries and hasn't played in a year, our future star forward/center has no history and is coming off a serious knee injury. We have a talented, undersized 4 who hasn't logged big minutes yet. Our returning guards, while full of promise and hopefully improved, didn't shoot the lights out last year...We have recruits we really like but have no history at D-I.
I know I am probably a half empty kid of guy, but BU is going to have to step up this year and win to prove the "outsider" prognosticators wrong this year and get the same respect in the MVC say Creighton/SIU do. Either that or there is a giant media conspiracy against BU which is why they are never picked higher, none of their returning players were recognized last year in the post season, or in the pre season picks that we know of.
I hope the coaches in the league pick BU to finish higher than the media, that would mean something...
I agree...I think the guy did a good job. Wether it turns out that way is yet to be seen but he sums it up nicely.
Lots of good thing have to (and can) fall in place for BU to finish higher then they ever have (4th) in the Valley under JL's tenure.
Lots of question marks....its up to JL and the team to answer those. I think we can but I understand how some prognosticators and many BU fans have questions and understand the reality of it all.
Bottom line is its ONE mans opinion and as long as he did his homework, like THIS guy obviously did, I have no problem with it. The opinions are NOT what matter...its the results.
tornado
New member
I see people making that point...but tell me just who is Wichita's, or Creighton's, or Indiana State's, or SIU's, or even UNI's "proven center".
Those are most of the teams that they are picking higher than BU, and none has a PROVEN center.
The strongest in that group of course would be Lawson and Eglseder...
but both have been injury prone. Lawson has a 7 ppg career scoring avg, and in his 4th year at Creighton, has never averaged more than 8.5 ppg and 4.8 rpg.
Seriously...Chris Roberts gave us as good of production as that.
And Eglseder has also missed games frequently with a variety of recurring ailments, and his 10 pt/6 reb career best year in 08-09 was in the same ballpark as the numbers of Carlton Fay or Wade Knapp...not names that we are touting as "proven centers".
Almost every year in memory..the talk in the preseason has been the guard strength and how it'll translate into a solid season in the MVC...but oddly, now everyone is ignoring guard strength and talking "proven centers" in a league that has had only one center play or get drafted in the NBA since Benoit Benjamin!
So Nothing against all those guys...but I just don't see what you and they are pointing at and accepting as "evidence" for proven centers.
Personally, as I pointed out from Suellentrop's own words...
I believe they make their picks by 99% subjecting means -- more on how the teams did last year and how they'd LIKE to see them finish this year!!
...not objective....then they have to make up something to disguise their subjecting motives and point at BU's lack of a center.
How about Creighton's lack of post players? How about the fact that ISU is going to have to play a lot of minutes with guys who are completely new to D-I or the fact that ISU is lacking a real or experienced PG and so is Creighton.
One prognosticator picked Indiana State ahead of BU on the strength of their guards!
Personally, I think (in a guard oriented league) BU has FIVE guards that can start on almost any other team in the Valley! (SM, DD, CR, AW, EM)
We were inundated last year with the eyepopping stats of the UNI guards and how FOUR of them were averaging double digits!!!
But, if you would please place fantasy aside and check reality....how about this...
Here are the actual most recent scoring abverages of BU's guards vs. UNI's...
BU: .......AW 13.2, SM-12.6, DD-10.7, CR 8.7, EM 5.6
UNI: Kwadzo-11.8, Ali-9.6, Moran-8.4, Dunham 3.8
As for my thoughts...I think BU, CU, UNI will battle for the 1-2-3 spots, and it'll come down to injuries and depth that determines the champ.
I think the same four guys will be at the bottom of the Valley InSU, UE, MSU, DU. And I think ISU, SIU, and WSU will be battling to wear white jerseys in St. Louis.
DannyCooksey
New member
Who is the injured player on ISU? If you mean Bobby Hill well........he also was injured all of last season and was penciled in as a starter prior to the season. So you claiming we had "no injuries" last year is simply not true. We just don't use them as excuses if we finish lower than we hope. That's the difference.
DannyCooksey
New member
J-Rob? Austin Hill is 100%. Man.......you know more about my own team than I do. that's incredible......and very telling. As far as I know we have no significant injuries. i give up. who is the mystery player with the injury?you need to keep up better with your own team...
shockerfan13
New member
Who predicted UNI or Drake right? Or even SIU last year for that matter? LOL NO ONE!!! At least no one in the actual media anywhere in the country. And like it or not...a LOT of media people will pick according to a trend. It sucks, but it's true. That's why people will pick Indiana St in the bottom 5 for eternity until they have a break out year...regardless of the talent they are bringing in.
And really, where they pick teams to finish has alot more to do with than what's on paper. Perhaps some feel that Les just can't coach well enough to get the team in the top 3?? I PERSONALLY don't feel that way, but perhaps that is how some people feel.
Bradleyguy10
New member
Yeah I completely agree. And that's what happened to us last year. But this year I made those predictions based on no injuries to anyone on any team; which isn't realistic but I can't predict who will get hurt.
BTW, King O get's hurt this year. Book it! haha
One reason being, you see the guy with 13.2? Well he sat out the year
The other being what post play:?:
One reason being, you see the guy with 13.2? Well he sat out the year
The other being what post play:?:
Yes...I agree. I was going to take out AW but didn't want to alter the post. I assumed that was a given since we all know he didn't play.
So again...I agree...it comes down to post play and coaching. Frankly I think JL is a better coach then given credit for and not as good a recruitier, not bad but not as great as some hype him to be. I don't see us getting any better recruits then the rest of the Valley.
With injuries though JL has had to adjust on the fly AND scrap an entire offensive scheme one year.
To finish 4th with what we lost was a very good coaching job IMO.
So I think it comes down to post play....or lack of one.
I don't agree at all that Bradley has "no one who can play defence".
Bradley's defensive average last year was 66.3 points per game overall, and 63.4 ppg in the MVC, which ranked 3rd in the conference, ahead of good defensive teams like SIU, Creighton, Drake, and Wichita.
http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/tm_conf.pdf
And, we have nearly all of our best defensive players returning in DD, CR, and EM, plus AW returning, who is also a fine defensive player.
Bradley will rank among the leaders in the MVC again in 2009-2010.
I expect us to have a better D this year and much better defensive rebounding team then 2 years ago. EM, DD, CR and TB are in their 2nd year on this team and will be able to react a bunch more to situations then thinking them through. You usually see a player improve much more defensively then offensively the 2nd year. I expect us to to be able to press a bit more and pick up some easy baskets. The area that scares me a bit is the ability for our guards to keep the other teams from penetrating which creates havoc and keeping our main bigs on the floor to box out and rebound. I believe we will have enough O to go around where if WE and SS concentrate on rebounding on both sides of the ball and pick up junk points we'll be fine. I'll be satisfied with 15 ppg from the 5 but I also want 15 rpg from that position.
I was referring to this.....
Assuming they lose King O for the entire season and a starting center for all but a few games, I guess I would look forward to saying Bradley was the better team by winning more Valley games.
I know, I'm just making excuses for finishing a full game behind the mighty redbirds, but I believe that's fair given the circumstances.
Bradleyguy10
New member
I agree.