Official 2024-25 MVCfans.com Prediction - 3rd Place

[MVCfans]

Every couple of days we will open a poll for users to predict the end of season finish for the MVC men's 2024-25 basketball season. We will work in reverse order, concluding with the predicted MVC champion chosen by our users between the last two teams remaining.

Murray State was recently selected as the likely 4th place finisher.

Who will finish in 3rd place during the 2024-25 MVC men's basketball season?
-You are choosing the team that you believe will finish in 3rd place for this regular season.


Official MVCfans.com - Predictions:
12th Place - Missouri State
11th Place - Valparaiso
10th Place - Indiana State
9th Place - UIC
8th Place - Evansville
7th Place - Drake
6th Place - Belmont
5th Place - Illinois State
4th Place - Murray State
3rd Place - .....

[siudawgs]

Quite a disparity between where Southern was picked in the official preseason poll (7th) and where they'll be picked here (3rd).

It's evident the league is about as wide-open as it gets this year, and generally down, so I could see Southern rising up to the top three, but through two regular season games, the defense has not yet been as good as advertised, the 3-point shooting remains a question and the bigs rotation has not looked great.

On the positive side, Elijah Elliott has looked the part (at least offensively) as a lead guard, Kennard Davis is showing signs of that big offseason leap and it is a pretty talented roster overall. I also think this coaching staff will find ways to improve over the course of the season.

Having already absorbed a loss to Charleston and with two of the next three against power conference foes (at Oklahoma State and at Florida), some patience might be required, but I do think the Salukis will be pretty fun to watch this year and could end up being a scary bunch in St. Louis.

[SalukiWorld]

I don’t get the SIU ranking. I’m high on them but not higher than Murray