It's get real time - where will your team finish?

[jayball]

At this time of year doesn't everyone have dreams of finishing in the top half? We all have potential at this point.

I will be disappointed if CU doesn't win the league or tourney. I expect a slightly slower start than the hype would lead us to believe, but we play a lot of road games in noncon. SDSU, Tulsa, UAB, St Joes won't grab headlines but I can see losses at one or more of those b/c they are on the road. Hope I'm wrong. Big key for CU will be improving defense and wing play.

WSU seems poised with a solid backcourt.....Murry (with a quick recovery), Kyles (with a bit more consistency), and Ragland (with some academic work)...should be a great backcourt. I see Ben Smith as having a really good year and maybe pushing Kyles for the starting spot. Big question is Stutz, Hall, and the new posts. Durley, Blair, and Ellis were so solid last year. Garret has talent and has improved immensely over the years, but he has never had to carry the load inside. He will this year until Hall and White(?) get some experience. If he gets in foul trouble the Shocks will have to hide lack of experience inside. I would say the Shocks slightly underachieved in conference last year. They finished strong with the NIT so I think that success and Marshall's fire push them to #2 as Hall is acclimated to D1 by the valley games.

Indiana State, I have to be honest I wasn't paying that close of attention to them last year. So I'm not as familiar with their personnel. Let me know if I am way off. Odum obviously emerged as a star PG. Seems like a tough smart player...he is much taller and more athletic but seems to have combination of Emmenecker's 2008 court sense and Bryan Mullins defensive intensity. I remember Lathan and Richard as big physical wings that rebound and get to the line. Printy seems to be about the only major 3pt threat according to the stats. Walker is a solid, but slighlty undersized at 6'8" 250lb center. Frontcourt seems to lack experience or great size but the big guards help make up for that. Trees will need another outside threat to knock down the shots Carter made last year and will need someone to emerge to help out inside. Is it going to be similar to Mo St last with 4 guys averaging 30mins/gm?

[Ali]

I think we''ll avoid Thursday, but I wouldn't be the mortgage on it.

[BirdmanBB]

Personally I think UNI will finish top 6 but I am not sure where exactly. If we are slow in developing with all of our young players, talented but young, we will finish more in that 6 spot. If we are quick to develop and figure it out in our non-conference I could easily see a top 3 finish for this team. There are a few things that have to happen. We need to get back to playing UNI-Ben Jacobson defense, last year when O'Rear went down we could score but seem to stop playing team defense. We have to rebound, we will not be the best rebounding team in the Valley, but we can not get dominated on the boards. If Pehl wants to contribute then he has to rebound and box out well. Finally we have to have some inside scoring presence. We have good outside scoring with ANTHONY JAMES and crew, but we have to get some scoring in the paint. I think Jake Koch can be a low post scorer, but I really think that Seth Tuttle is really going to have to grow up.

If those things happen for us then the sky is the limit for this team.

You said UNI will finish top 6 and then gave a bunch of reasons why they should finish in the bottom half and a lot of ifs.

The redbirds will finish 5th or 6th because they have a low post presence that not many teams in the valley can compete with (Jackie Carmichael, Jordan Threloff, John Wilkins and Jon Ekey) in terms of both size and experience. We will have improved point play with an additional year of experience under anthony cousin and the addition of runner up Indiana Mr. Basketball, Nic Moore. Improved point play will lead us to less turnovers which absolutely killed us last year. We have picked up a Juco guard in Tyler Brown who should be able to at the very least replace what we lost from last year (couldn't get much worse...right?). We have also added another guard in Johnny Hill who is claimed to be our best Chicagoland recruit since Osiris. While some teams in the valley will have strong senior leadership starting on the court, I think we have a better bench than many teams in our league with some good experience from last year.

[2livewu]

I've never wavered from CU winning and I've seen nothing to change my mind. They have the best offensive talent, by FAR, in the league and should be adequate on defense. Excellent home court advantage, good coach and plenty of experience and the BlueJays will roll all season. An inexplicable loss to Evansville on Saturday (Colt Ryan scores 71 of the 80 Aces points on 23-25 3 point shooting-he misses a length of the court shot before halftime and the scorer counts his throw into the air in celebration at the buzzer as a shot as well or he would have been perfect- and 2 for 2 from the line on a McDermott technical) costs the Jays a 1 seed. However, the 2 seed proves perfect motivation for the team that spends most of the year in the top 5 and Creighton advances all the way to the Final Four.

Indiana State with (eventual) 4 time defensive POY and 3 time POY Jake Odum, combined with the returning talent and stellar incoming group and what will be the toughest ticket in Indiana, Hulman Center home games, will challenge for the top but I think they come up just short in second. Miles Walker will miss both ends of a 2 shot charity toss with no time on the clock at Arch Madness, but due to a perfect non conference record (the Trees destroy eventual SEC Champion Vanderbilt by 25 which looks even better when their center returns in January) ISUB gets a 4 seed and advances to the ELITE 8 before dropping a last second heartbreaker to Kentucky (Odum gets ejected right before halftime after the official thinks Jake threw something at him when replay will later show it was actually President Obama's Security staff that was responsible after watching Odum get constantly assaulted by the Wildcats without a call) and a 17 point Tree lead evaporates as time expires) which ruins a nationally anticipated rematch against the hated Jays. President Obama can be seen wearing a light blue Jake Odum #13 along with a set of Oval Office "3 Goggles" anytime he is in public for the remaining 12+ years of his Presidency. A Congressional Inquiry will later discover a paper trail a mile long that proves Coach Cal paid off the referees. John can be heard mumbling as he's taken to Federal Prison, "It was the only way we could stop him....I had to do it." The downside is Blue Nation offers Greg Lansing a record $14 million per year to replace the now incarcerated Calipari and he departs for Lexington.

Missouri State has the best incoming class (including redshirts and those returning from injury) along with the (2nd) best player in the league. The new coach gets off to a fast start and Weems carries the day, most days. Bears in 3rd. An undefeated non-conference schedule allows the Bears the at-large they have deserved for most of the last decade. A return to the Sweet 16 for the Bears. Afterwards, JQH pledges $475 million to the athletic department and Missouri State joins what will then be called The Big 16 and changes the school's name to Missouri+. The Bears celebrate in style by playing (and winning) in the Fiesta Bowl, reversing this year's game against Oregon, and defeat the Ducks, 56-7. Corso wears Bear headgear.

Evansville pick and rolls their way to 4th on the strength of what will be an honorable mention AA in Colt Ryan who will lead the league in scoring. Their freshman bigs will have no trouble defending older, more experienced post men over an 18 game schedule. Riding wins over Indiana and Butler, and a last second loss to UNC (Ryan gets fouled but no call at the Dean Dome) Evansville sneaks into the First Four and advances to play in round 2.

UNI and the best bench coach in the country will suffer more injuries, just like last year, but still Jake will manage to take a team with a 6'4" average height and tie Evansville for 4th. The Panthers however will hold everyone under 40 points in St. Louis and become the 5th Valley team to make it into the big dance. Another Sweet 16 for the team that becomes known as the James Gang in honor of 1st Team All America Anthony James.

Bradley and Illinois State show promise towards what will in all likelihood be a rapid return to the top of the league. Both teams score a lot, but struggle to defend. Wichita State plays decent defense, but cannot score, and all the luck winning close games the last 2 years come back to haunt them. 3G leads the league in Technicals (27 overall) ejections (4) and cancelled interviews (18). The Shocks shoot 38% from the floor (22% from 3 and a miserable 59% from the line, when they get there) and finish next to last in rebounding (just ahead of Drake) and dead last in turnovers. All 3 teams tie for 6th, with ISU the 6th seed, BU 7th and WSU 8th. The Shocks lose to Drake (Rice drops 50 on WSU) on Thursday and Marshall returns to Winthrop on Friday, freely admitting he can't cut it "at this level".

Injuries and questionable coaching, combined with 5 NCAA caliber teams mean Drake and SIU are too decimated to seriously challenge any of the other clubs. They tie for 9th at 1-17 (each team wins on the others home court).

Final Standings

CU 18-0
ISUB 16-2
MSU 14-4
UE 12-6
UNI 10-8
ISUR 6-12
BU 6-12
WSU 6-12
DU 1-17
SIU 1-17

[MoBraves]

You said UNI will finish top 6 and then gave a bunch of reasons why they should finish in the bottom half and a lot of ifs. .

I didn't see it that way - he was just pointing out that maybe they will have a hard time breaking into the Top 5 as most people expect.
Aside from the Shox and Jays, I would be MOST surprised if UNI doesn't finish in the Top 5 due to their recent success and their strong guard play - with the most accurate long-range bombers in the league.

[Kyle]

I predict UNI will finish 5th. This team is a year away from being a realistic title contender.

[BirdmanBB]

Should be a dogfight in the middle this year. Aside from 1-3 (CU, WSU, Indiana St.) and the bottom 9-10 (SIU, BU), the rest will be duking it out for 4-8.

Non-con season is almost here. I will be cheering for all valley teams. Lets get those at-large bids!!

[OutsideShot]

1.WSU
2.Cu
3.InSU
4.MoSt
5.ISU
6.UE
7.UNI
8.BU
9.DU
10.SIU

[Jays26]

I am thinking (and hope that I am wrong) but CU will probably not have a really impressive non-conf record. We have some rather tough road games and we have not been a good road team in the past. If we do pull out some big non-conf road games, the sky is the limit for this team. But I suspect that we will lose some close ones but once MVC play starts they will be playing well and will win the league title in a close race with WSU.

1. CU
2. WSU

[LMS]

If Creighton doesn't make the NCAA tournament I will be disappointed.