Who will be the preseason favorite in 2011-12?

[TrueBlueJay]

I have CU in 2nd or 3rd in my way of thinking. What recruits do they have coming in?

Name Pos Ht/Wt

Austin Chatman PG 6-0/170
Avery Dingman SF 6-6/210
Geoff Groselle C 6-11/230
Nevin Johnson SG 6-5/180


Some very very nice recruits. All rivals 3 stars. Looking to add 1 more probably JC guy.

Let's not forget these players as well:

Grant Gibs - PG/SG - 6'4"/215 Gonzaga Transfer
Will Artino - F/C - 6'11"/210 Redshirt (skinny but mobile)
Ethan Wragge - F - 6'7"220 Reshirt (maybe the best pure shooter at CU since Korver)

[BEELINE]

I think the expected swoon of MSU by many will be found to be greatly exagerated. True we lost excellent, experienced players in Leonard/Mallett/Ricks and potentially Creekmore, but a couple things to note. 3 of them were just 2 year guys here, so that team wasn't the culmination of a group of guys playing together and maturing over 4 years. We return a little more experience than most perceive in that Weems and Patterson are 5th yr guys, Rhine has played quite a bit heading into his senior year, and Scheer and Pickens both played starter like minutes much of their frosh seasons.

But the biggest reason is that simply we will have a bigger, deeper, more skilled and athletic roster next year than last year, if unproven and inexperienced at some spots. Coach Lusk has been able to secure the early signing class which gives us a pair of very good 6'7 forwards, something we didn't have on the entire roster last year. Both Wilson and Kirk will play; Wilson is a more athletic Weems type,& Kirk, just a freak athlete who is quick and aggressive in the lane. We just added a 1st team juco AA in Gulley who is a bigger version of Mallett and can score, and this weekend should see us add a juco pg and at least another top level juco wing or guard for depth. The schedule is set to challenge and build the team and no doubt we will take some early hits as things develope, but I think we will be far from a playin team come conference season.

[LJay]

We just added a 1st team juco AA in Gulley who is a bigger version of Mallett and can score,

Not to split hairs because I know he's a pretty good player but Gulley was a 3rd team juco AA.
http://www.njcaa.org/sports_awards.cfm?sid=4&divid=1&slid=2

Kirk is supposed to be good but he didn't play a minute of his senior season due to transfer infractions.

Is Creekmore applying for an extra year of eligibility? That would be huge for MSU as Rhine and Patterson are okay but will need to improve a lot to fill Creekmore's shoes.

Weems is good and will keep MSU competitive but none of the other returners scares an MVC fan so a lot will have to go right with new guys for MSU to be a contender.

[BEELINE]

LJ, that would be Paris Gulley on the 3rd team not Jarmar, who is 1st team D-2 Juco AA. And I don't really worry about whether anybody is fearful of players like Pickens or Scheer; the point is they are experienced enough to be ready to assume larger roles and have the talent to do so. I'm not expecting to be picked very high and I understand that, and don't blame other fans for their perspective. Just saying it isn't going to happen that way, at least not a playin round . I believe next years team will be in better shape to go to St. Louis and win 3 games than this year, but may have to do it from the 4/5 slot depending on how quickly the team jells.

Experience is important, but other than that, I'm more concerned with how teams are made up in terms of size, athleticism, depth, and roles. Missouri State will have a better roster next year than we had this year, and I believe guys who can more than fill the roles of those we lost. But hey, who doesn't want to believe that about their team. I think pg will be a key and just as I said for WSU last year, it's hard to have the early season consistency needed to win a championship breaking in a new pg, so I suspect it'll take a while for us to jell. But when I look at us 1-10, we have fewer holes than last year as long as we get decent production and development from guys like Scheer and Gulley, and at least some decent minutes from a Kirk or Wilson, we'll be pretty salty.

[MoValley John]

Missouri State will not be picked near the top of the Valley, it just won't happen. Losing what they did and the fact that they only played seven deep last year makes them very inexperienced. They have some nice guys coming in, but replacing two starters is a load, much less three. Complicating matters is a new head coach. Even though he came fom the same coaching tree, he wasn't on the MSU bench and we don't know if he will coach as well as Martin, or with the same energy. We also don't know how he will relate to the players. With what Missouri State had last year, they didn't blow the Valley away. Sure, they only lost three games, but they won several close games and luck also played a huge factor in their success. That isn't a slam on MSU, while they did get lucky in several games and won several games in the last possessions, teams create their own luck, so luck isn't totally blind.

That said, I think Missouri State will have a lot of talent this year, probably, more overall talent than last year, but they won't replace the starting talent with better starting that they lose. As BEE LINE said, I don't think they will be a play in team, and I don't think they will be picked as such, but you just don't plug in that many new pieces and expect a lot. At least not at this level.

I picked Missouri State fifth, while I guessed the media would do their standard, lazy "what did they do last year and who do they lose," routine and pick them fourth. If everything breaks their way, they should be deep enough to make a run, there is also enough change that they finish eighth. But looking at the roster and thh roster of others, I'd guess my fifth place finish will be pretty close. Fifth place next year will be pretty decent in a Valley that I pick to be much stronger, finishing back in the top severn or eight in RPI. My guess is that the Valley has two legitamate at large teams, with a possible third if any one team surprises, Missouri State could surprise, so coulkd ISUb or E'Ville.

If I could only figure out ISUr.... Not to bring back an old tired Hinson debate, but ISUr is paying Jank plenty, it's produce or perish for him this year. My gut says if he couldn't do it in his first two years with the best talent and Osiris and Odiakosa, how can he do it without? The seat gets, very, very hot.

[xsaluki]

1. SIU - Just because they are gonna be super-awesome.

10. IllsU,Insu, WSU, Creighton, Bradley, Drake, MSU, UNI, Evansville all fighting to stay out of thursday.


Yay.

[Red]

Hard to make good picks, but I think the league breaks into three groupings.

Top 3 - CU, WSU, ISUb
Next 4 - DU, MSU, UNI, UE
Bottom 3 - ISUr, BU, SIU

[Jays26]

It will be evident early that it will be a 2 team race....Jays and Shockers and if my wish comes true, a final regular season game against the Shocks at the Qwest (or whatever it will be called).

[AndShock]

It will be evident early that it will be a 2 team race....Jays and Shockers and if my wish comes true, a final regular season game against the Shocks at the Qwest (or whatever it will be called).

I don't think the MVC would have the nerve to do that to WSU. Championship game at SWOMO's Senior Night followed by possible championship game at CU's Senior Night? There would be some pissed off Shocker fans.

[MSUDuo]

Missouri State will be fine. We will be picked anywhere from 4th-6th and that would be fine by me. I expect WSU and CU to battle it out and for ISUb to be up there as well. UNI won't stay down long either and it wouldn't surprise me if they are in the top 4 come March. The Valley should be much better this year than the last few

With what MSU has brought in, I don't think we will quite match what we lost in Ricks/Leonard/Mallet/Creekmore as starters but we are going to be a lot deeper and I think we will be able to match what they had all around. As a whole, 1-10, this team should produce more than what we had, basically, 1-6 last year

Creekmore is going to be the hardest to replace and hopefully Patterson/Rhine together can match one guy. Still holding out hope that he somehow gets his extra year

Downing should be comparable to Ricks. And if we get Trey Anderson, they should be a nice 1/2 punch. Plus Anderson can slide to the 2 position as well.

Gulley is a taller Mallet who shot a lot better in JUCO than Mallet ever did and most here would say Mallet was one of the deadlier shooters in the Valley at points.

For as much as Leonard helped us win games, he also helped us lose a bunch of games too. But shooters will keep shooting. I think this is addition by subtraction in that we have the guys who can knock down the 3, but hopefully we aren't relying on it like we did the last 2 years. There were times we had 5-7 minutes area of no scoring and part of that reason was that we were chucking up 3 balls time and time and time again.

Most importantly, we have Weems back. He may not win POY again but he will be one of the top3 players again next year. We will go as he goes more times than not.

We are going to be young, that is for sure. Not just underclassman young, but D1 experience young as well. We will be a lot better come March than we are in November and this team will be in a better position to win in STL than this past year's team was.