Official 2012-13 MVCfans.com prediction - 3rd Place

[MVCfans]

Each week we will open a poll for users to predict the end of season finish for the MVC 2012-13 basketball season. We will work in reverse order, concluding with the predicted MVC champion chosen by our users between the last two teams remaining in week 9.

Wichita State was selected as the 4th place finisher - link to results

Week 8 - Who will finish in 3rd place during the 2012-13 MVC mens basketball season?
-You are choosing the team that you believe will finish in 3rd place for this regular season. Poll open until Monday, October 8.


Official MVCfans.com - Predictions:
10th Place - Southern Illinois
9th Place - Bradley
8th Place - Missouri State
7th Place - Indiana State
6th Place - Drake
5th Place - Evansville
4th Place - Wichita State
3rd Place - ....

[shockalot]

I feel UNI gets the nod here based on IlS stronger showing at the end of last year. Both lost only one significant player. True, the Redbirds changed coaches and that can be a significant factor, but in this case my judgement is they have a better coach now, and the experience that they bring back will allow for a smooth transition. I think their overall athleticism is better than UNI and they seem to me to be deeper than UNI. Both should be very good, as is the top half of the Valley this year.

[glm38]

I think Ill state having a new coach is a big minus. Especially when compared to Jake. So Ill state for me.

[Ali]

With uncertainty at PG, I'm taking the Redbirds.

[PantherSigEp]

I'm not sure the Redbirds are deeper than UNI. I obviously have a more biased opinion but I think UNI could have 13 players (barring injuries of course) see the floor for each game and we don't feel that we will lose much from one rotation to the next. I'd say the Panthers end the year with about 10 players with an average of double digit minutes.

I'd say the starting 5 probably goes in the Redbirds favor because of Carmichael and Brown but Rank and Morrison have proven themselves as capable and effective players these past few seasons coming off the bench, and I think Nate Buss and Matt Bohannon will provide us with two more very strong bench players with Olivier another possible big role player if he starts piecing things together. Martino and Singleton saw action last year and Martino is a great defender so it will be interesting to see how he has progressed overall this offseason. Marvin Singleton could probably be used for the football team as he is absolutely built. He's put on about 10-15 pounds of muscle this off season and is very athletic. A raw player who was not ready for the speed of the game last year and while I still wish he had been red shirted last year he should provide some quality minutes with his size. He's only 6-6 but that wasn't an issue for O'Rear and hasn't been for Rank (and I think he's more athletic overall than both of them).

All speculation, I could see it going either way with these two teams but I think the loss of Nic Moore will be more significant for the Redbirds than the loss of Johnny Moran to the Panthers. I'm undecided on the coaching change though, I don't see it being a huge factor for a team with almost no turnover overall.

[achrist70]

I feel UNI gets the nod here based on IlS stronger showing at the end of last year. Both lost only one significant player. True, the Redbirds changed coaches and that can be a significant factor, but in this case my judgement is they have a better coach now, and the experience that they bring back will allow for a smooth transition. I think their overall athleticism is better than UNI and they seem to me to be deeper than UNI. Both should be very good, as is the top half of the Valley this year.

How many times has this been said in the last 5 years?

[Wufan]

I feel UNI gets the nod here based on IlS stronger showing at the end of last year. Both lost only one significant player. True, the Redbirds changed coaches and that can be a significant factor, but in this case my judgement is they have a better coach now, and the experience that they bring back will allow for a smooth transition. I think their overall athleticism is better than UNI and they seem to me to be deeper than UNI. Both should be very good, as is the top half of the Valley this year.

How many times has this been said in the last 5 years?

Here's a fun read about a team that "finished well" the prior season: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1381

Thank you Redbird fans! You are good people!

[ilstu2013]

Supermen alums Dan Muller and Dana Ford are to the rescue in their return to ISU with their supercapes to right all previous wrongs and bring ISU back to the promised land. Dan Muller is really amazing and is going to lead the ISU men's basketball program to the promised land and bring the program up to new heights that have not been seen in 15 years.

Let's rewind 15 years. Dan Muller’s game-winning layup propelled the Redbirds to an 82-81 overtime victory against Tennessee on March 12, 1998 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. He won two league titles at ISU and made it to the NCAA tournament in both 1997 and 1998 and is responsible for the last NCAA tournament victory for the Redbirds.

So he knows what it takes to win in this environment and is ready to carry that into this with these kids and reinstill a winning tradition that has been missing for a number of years. He brings a lot of experience to the table as a 12-year assistant coach at Vanderbilt and has jumped into the ideal situation to be a first-time head coach and have success at his alma mater. Dan Muller is amazing and is going to lead ISU back to the NCAA tournament where the Redbirds belong.

[2livewu]

I don't know about supermen, but I think you hit it....how well the coaching adapts to what ISU has this season will determine the ultimate "winner". I guessed ISU as 3rd, going with the known vs the unknown for now.

If I was coaching out of the box, I'd rather have ISU's team vs UNI's. There's some pressure on the UNI program this season, imho. They are .500 in the Valley the last 2 seasons (if you count 0-2 in St. Louis) and will lose some KEY 4 and 5 year guys after this season. Koch, James & Sonnen were all integral members of the great 09-10 team and have been starters for the most part (Sonnen not so much but he's a key player without question). This is the last chance for those guys to impart their wisdom and experiences of success on the rest of the team. If they can't win this season (and I am not saying they can't) then the mountain really gets steep when this class graduates. Also, I know Pehl isn't all that good, and probably won't be a big factor, but he's the only real size and UNI gets awfully small when he and Koch leave. Again, it's not impossible to win small, but it's sure a lot more difficult.

[valleychamp]

I don't know about supermen, but I think you hit it....how well the coaching adapts to what ISU has this season will determine the ultimate "winner". I guessed ISU as 3rd, going with the known vs the unknown for now.

If I was coaching out of the box, I'd rather have ISU's team vs UNI's. There's some pressure on the UNI program this season, imho. They are .500 in the Valley the last 2 seasons (if you count 0-2 in St. Louis) and will lose some KEY 4 and 5 year guys after this season. Koch, James & Sonnen were all integral members of the great 09-10 team and have been starters for the most part (Sonnen not so much but he's a key player without question). This is the last chance for those guys to impart their wisdom and experiences of success on the rest of the team. If they can't win this season (and I am not saying they can't) then the mountain really gets steep when this class graduates. Also, I know Pehl isn't all that good, and probably won't be a big factor, but he's the only real size and UNI gets awfully small when he and Koch leave. Again, it's not impossible to win small, but it's sure a lot more difficult.

I would agree with you completely that this is a big and important year for UNI. It is certainly a "win now" team for UNI this year, and I would be really disappointed if they did not achieve big things this year.

But I would disagree that UNI will be hurting after this year. We will lose some very key guys that have been a part of the program for a long time, but at the same time there is still a lot of good young talent there. Most notably, PG Deon Mitchell and F Seth Tuttle are only Sophomores this year, and they may already be our two best players. Chip Rank is only a Jr, Nate Buss is only a Soph, Matt Bohannon is only a Fr, Chris Olivier is only a Fr, we have a transfer guard from Tennessee that will be eligible next year, plus, what I believe is a solid class of freshman coming in next year. I don't think the size problem is as big of an issue as you would think either. We could always be bigger, sure, and no, we don't have another Eglseder. But Buss is 6-9, Tuttle is 6-8, Olivier is 6-9, plus there are multiple bigs coming in as freshman next year (and yes, one of them is ANOTHER Koch brother ).

I would also argue that UNI being just a tad over .500 the last two years is actually a pretty good achievement when you consider the circumstances. Two years ago, UNI has a game out of first place before O'Rear went down for the season, and they simply could not recover from that. Plus, when you factor in losing Doug McDermott when we did, things could have been a lot different (better) for UNI, and they still found a way to have decent years.

I certainly would not say that "the mountain will be steep" as you say. I like what UNI has coming back next year, and beyond that. The key for UNI is to keep Coach Jake as long as possible, because I feel like as long as he is our coach, UNI is going to have good basketball teams in this league.