2021 MVC Transfers

[Drakey]

hot take- Loyola will not finish in the top 4. Combine the fact they ran their offense through Krut and the HC inexperience, I think they are in for a tough time. None of the SR that are returning can create their own offense. Defense and experience will only carry this group so far and In a loaded valley I believe that will be around the 5 spot.

Missouri St
Drake
Northern Iowa
SIU

Loyola's defense is ridiculous. I would still pick them number 1. It is my understanding that Valentine was responsible for the defense? After that I don't know.

[siudawgs]

hot take- Loyola will not finish in the top 4. Combine the fact they ran their offense through Krut and the HC inexperience, I think they are in for a tough time. None of the SR that are returning can create their own offense. Defense and experience will only carry this group so far and In a loaded valley I believe that will be around the 5 spot.

Missouri St
Drake
Northern Iowa
SIU

I think this is a very chilly take. Williamson and Uguak are elite defenders that can really clamp down on teams' go-to players, and the roster has so much experience, plus multiple quality scoring threats. Even if Valentine is not ready for prime time, I liken it to when Lowery first took over at SIU and succeeded early based on being able to ride some seasoned vets who were proven winners and didn't need a ton of coaching. It wasn't until there was much more roster turnover that his shortcomings showed up.

[siudawgs]

I'm sure there will be some additional roster movement in the coming weeks (still hoping the Salukis can add a piece or two to bring a little more athleticism to the table), but overall I agree with the consensus that it's shaping up to be a helluva year with so many veteran squads. Provided they have better health next year, I think the Salukis will be much-improved, but it will be really tough to crack the top four with what Drake, Loyola, Missouri State and UNI have coming back (health also a key factor for UNI).

The vaunted race to avoid Thursday should be cutthroat. Along those lines, a couple questions:
- What is Valpo's plan at PG?
- What does Indiana State have in the frontcourt with LaRavia and Williams transferring out?

[goramblers2011]

hot take- Loyola will not finish in the top 4. Combine the fact they ran their offense through Krut and the HC inexperience, I think they are in for a tough time. None of the SR that are returning can create their own offense. Defense and experience will only carry this group so far and In a loaded valley I believe that will be around the 5 spot.

Missouri St
Drake
Northern Iowa
SIU

I think this is a very chilly take. Williamson and Uguak are elite defenders that can really clamp down on teams' go-to players, and the roster has so much experience, plus multiple quality scoring threats. Even if Valentine is not ready for prime time, I liken it to when Lowery first took over at SIU and succeeded early based on being able to ride some seasoned vets who were proven winners and didn't need a ton of coaching. It wasn't until there was much more roster turnover that his shortcomings showed up.

Agreed--the defense might even be better this year with Williamson/Uguak another year older and stronger. Down low on defense, it'll be interesting to see how Hutson and Knight handle the post. Knight is more a rim protector that Krut was.

The offense will certainly look different, but there are quite a few legit (and veteran) offensive threats on the roster (plus a really good facilitator in Norris who is also a 40%+ 3P shooter).

[Kyle_Saluki_17]

hot take- Loyola will not finish in the top 4. Combine the fact they ran their offense through Krut and the HC inexperience, I think they are in for a tough time. None of the SR that are returning can create their own offense. Defense and experience will only carry this group so far and In a loaded valley I believe that will be around the 5 spot.

Missouri St
Drake
Northern Iowa
SIU

Bold prediction here. Could be true. I'll credit you for going against what appears to be the "obvious" among Valley fans. We will see how it plays out. I'd love for SIU to beat any of these 4 teams in the conference.

[Blers]

Valentine is gonna be a good coach, there's been some really nice spot lights on him the last few weeks with CBS sports doing a looooong article (and interviewing Porter/Brad Stevens about him). It's easy to compare him to Mullins coming from the same staff under the same tutelage, both of them ran the respective defenses in their final few years at LU. Mullins was(is) young but ready and has done a lot of learning on the way, but you can tell he's got "it." Valentine is similar but has the advantage of a stacked roster. Outside the returning seniors you add an Ivy League all conference player, another Ivy guard averaging 10+ ppg, Hutson who showed up big in the post season... plus the three touted freshman... Welch who i thought was really impressive...Kennedy... Norris... Anderson the Indiana transfer... he's got a lot of options.

The offense will be the most interesting thing; if I had to guess we'll pick up the tempo some more without having to worry about Krutwig. It obviously wasn't bad, but running the offense through Krut slowed the tempo a ton at times. Having a big in Hutson who can shoot the three can potentially really open up spacing and different options, and I trust Norris running point. I also think Kennedy was at his best with Krutwig off the floor, nothing wrong with it, they both just played their best when the ball was in their hands.

That all said, Drake shouldn't need any gel-ing. They'd be my favorite going into the season, as long as they can stay healthy they don't have to rebuild much of anything.

UNI I still really like, but I think that there is a small gap between 1-2 and 3-4. Looking at the roster MSU should finish top 4, and should contend for a top spot. That said - I feel like that could be a copy and paste post for MSU since Lusks' final year.

SIU should also be fairly strong! If I had to guess they'll be able to steal a few from the top 4 teams. Maybe Indiana State as well depending on how their post play shapes out. After that I think the bottom four is Evansville Valpo Bradley and ISUr by a pretty fair margin... but there's always one surprise team so who knows!!!

[Adunk33]

Former Redbird Abdou Ndaiye has decommitted from Cal State Fullerton. Interesting enough, Keith Fisher's recruitment did the same thing. He committed quickly to UTEP then decommitted and a few weeks later signed with Pepperdine.

Portal will likely go over 1500 today.

[Majik45]

Loyola will look very different on offense next year, but they have the horses to do it. Here's how I see it right now:

Tier 1 - Drake and Loyola
Tier 2 - UNI and MSU
Tier 3 - SIU and ISU(b)
Tier 4 - Valpo, Evansville, and Bradley
Cellar - ISU(r)

Drake and Loyola return so much from loaded teams. They are the top at this point. UNI and MSU are right behind. If AJ Green is completely healthly, then UNI probably could get bumped up to Tier 1 real easily.

With Key back, I see ISU(b) being similar to SIU. These two just have more known commodities coming back then Valpo, Evansville, and Bradley.

ISU(r) is a train wreck at this point. Let's extend Dan a few more years.

[BEARZ77]

Too early for me to make much of next years race, but UNI is curious for me. I've learned to not bet against Jake and he has a team picked as a favorite last year returning a lot. But we forget UNI struggled before losing Green last year, and other teams weathered key injuries much better as the year progressed. Also, the issue of what Green's role will be may decide alot. There's tremendous perimeter firepower, an effective post player, but a lot of similar players all vying for shots/pt. I think 3-6th is a reasonable starting place but with a high ceiling.

[municup14]

Surprised me that Yesefu didn't make the top 100 top transfers