Order of finish with Murray & Valpo included

[BEARZ77]

I agree a frontline player doesn't have to be overly athletic to be good. My point is as a whole, the frontline for UNI lacks athleticism, and none of them to date have shown they are the level of the previous UNI All -League types. I like BK and he has the ability to be an all-league player, so it won't surprise me if he has a very good year. But before you get too defensive about UNI's frontline, remember it was a UNI poster asserting that it was a given that UNI had the best front line [ or 1 of 2] . I simply responded with some factual data and an opinion on why that wasn't necessarily such a given.

[UNIFanSince1983]

The valley is most certainly not a big mans league. I can only think of one team that made the tourney with a true big man in the last ten years. Tuttle and the UNI team where he was able to play point forward and the offense flowed through him. The rest of the really good teams have been guard and wing dominant.

You're right that the MVC has been a guard's league for a long time, but I'll list a few other teams that made the tourney with a legit big man:

2012 WSU with Garret Stutz
CU with Echinique

Going an extra year back to 2006
WSU with Paul Miller
Bradley with Patrick O'Bryant

All these references (including the UNI one from late 00's to early 10's) were back then. Nowadays, it's driven by really good point guards. Shamet, FVV, Lee, Washpun, etc.

This league is a point guard driven league.

Also, LOL LOL LOL to UNI finishing first. People are drunk on Jacobson. He is a great coach, but his players must be good enough to win the league, he can't play. They were rather poor last year and lost by far their best player Jeremy Morgan.

Literally just 3 years ago the best player in the league was Tuttle. Two years ago when Evansville almost went to the tournament arguably their best player was Mock. If you have a great big man they will take you a long way in this league even now. The problem was there wasn't one in the league this past year. Although you could argue Alize Johnson and Teddy Hawkins were both great big men.

[Khan4Cats]

Literally just 3 years ago the best player in the league was Tuttle. Two years ago when Evansville almost went to the tournament arguably their best player was Mock. If you have a great big man they will take you a long way in this league even now. The problem was there wasn't one in the league this past year. Although you could argue Alize Johnson and Teddy Hawkins were both great big men.[/quote]

Except you could look at WSU last year and see their three-headed monster in the post made life a lot easier for their guards as well.

[Stickboy46]

You're right that the MVC has been a guard's league for a long time, but I'll list a few other teams that made the tourney with a legit big man:

2012 WSU with Garret Stutz
CU with Echinique

Going an extra year back to 2006
WSU with Paul Miller
Bradley with Patrick O'Bryant

All these references (including the UNI one from late 00's to early 10's) were back then. Nowadays, it's driven by really good point guards. Shamet, FVV, Lee, Washpun, etc.

This league is a point guard driven league.

Also, LOL LOL LOL to UNI finishing first. People are drunk on Jacobson. He is a great coach, but his players must be good enough to win the league, he can't play. They were rather poor last year and lost by far their best player Jeremy Morgan.

Literally just 3 years ago the best player in the league was Tuttle. Two years ago when Evansville almost went to the tournament arguably their best player was Mock. If you have a great big man they will take you a long way in this league even now. The problem was there wasn't one in the league this past year. Although you could argue Alize Johnson and Teddy Hawkins were both great big men.

Tuttle was a great player, but he wasn't the best in the league no matter what the media voted. Baker should have won that year as he was the best player. He got hurt in votes because Van Vleet who was arguably better than Tuttle also was playing alongside him.

[uniftw]

Tuttle was a great player, but he wasn't the best in the league no matter what the media voted. Baker should have won that year as he was the best player. He got hurt in votes because Van Vleet who was arguably better than Tuttle also was playing alongside him.

Dear god, the butt hurt still exists over that?

I'm sorry the votes were put in the wrong hat.

Maybe call McDermott and get him to use is "friend hat" line on Jake again to get Seth to turn the award over to Baker.

[BirdsEyeView]

Without solid guard play, specifically at point guard, no team is going to win the conference.

Tuttle had good guards to feed him the ball, value possession and run the team.

WSU last year got really good when they moved Shamet to pg and he ran the show. Up until then, they had been beatable (and did lose to ISUr by 14 points).

Point guards are the Quarterbacks of college basketball. My alma mater, University of Illinois has been in the crapper because John Groce could never find himself what he had at Ohio with DJ Cooper...a stud point guard. They sucked during his tenure there before being fired because he had no point guard.

[BEARZ77]

I agree, I think it's a guard and coach dominated game in college, especially at our level. You can negate a quality big man, especially if he doesn't have good guard play around him. Doesn't mean it doesn't make things a lot easier if you have one, but it's hard to win in a league where a lot of games are played close if you don't have good guard play and decision making down the stretch. As good as Alize Johnson was at times last year, many Bears fans thought Rousseau was our best player heading into the year and a huge loss when he left the team. Any strong belief we have about overcoming the Lusk factor this year, starts with having Rousseau with the ball in his hands late in games.

[Make MVC Great Again]

Give me a basketball reason why Loyola is top three in the league. This is a team that lost to Drake last year and Southern Illinois three times.

Loyola would have been third last year had we won at SIU on the last day of the season (two point loss). We lose Doyle, but bring in arguably the best recruiting class in the league.

The MVC is a big man's league. And UNI and ISUr have the best front-lines of anyone in the conference.

...which is why the conference player of the year is almost always a big man. Oh wait.

I would say that I await your response, but I'll be blocking you. Enjoy bashing Loyola.

You're recruiting class that that has a kid who missed a whole year of high school basketball. You are putting a lot of pressure on freshman. Don't see that working.

[Make MVC Great Again]

Give me a basketball reason why Loyola is top three in the league. This is a team that lost to Drake last year and Southern Illinois three times.

Loyola would have been third last year had we won at SIU on the last day of the season (two point loss). We lose Doyle, but bring in arguably the best recruiting class in the league.

The MVC is a big man's league. And UNI and ISUr have the best front-lines of anyone in the conference.

...which is why the conference player of the year is almost always a big man. Oh wait.

I would say that I await your response, but I'll be blocking you. Enjoy bashing Loyola.

You Rambler fans love saying "we won 18 games last year."

Stop lying to yourself. You won 16, two were against NAIA or D3 schools or whatever they were.

Your best win was against an overrated San Diego State team. Your non-conference schedule was an absolute joke, and you finished sub 500 in the league.

How is that a successful year?

[goramblers2011]

Give me a basketball reason why Loyola is top three in the league. This is a team that lost to Drake last year and Southern Illinois three times.

Loyola would have been third last year had we won at SIU on the last day of the season (two point loss). We lose Doyle, but bring in arguably the best recruiting class in the league.

The MVC is a big man's league. And UNI and ISUr have the best front-lines of anyone in the conference.

...which is why the conference player of the year is almost always a big man. Oh wait.

I would say that I await your response, but I'll be blocking you. Enjoy bashing Loyola.

You Rambler fans love saying "we won 18 games last year."

Stop lying to yourself. You won 16, two were against NAIA or D3 schools or whatever they were.

Your best win was against an overrated San Diego State team. Your non-conference schedule was an absolute joke, and you finished sub 500 in the league.

How is that a successful year?

Neither my response nor ahunte's mentioned anyting about winning 18 games. We both noted that we finished in the top half of the conference (narrowly missing out on 3rd) and the general consensus among Rambler and MVC followers is that next year's team should be better overall. So, explain to me how we will finish 9th. Your last explanation (LU gave up a lot of points) was already proven false by me. So, what else do you have?