MVC preseason media day /polls

[Adunk33]

My thought is that eliminating Thursday teams helps your SOS if you are a 1 or 2 seed. Just playing crap programs hurts your at-large chances whether you win or lose.

My thought with Thursday and the most ideal situation for the league (not to derail the thread) would be to expand to 12 teams. Then you get 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, and 8v9 for a full day of college hoops on Thursday. Then Friday? Do it all over again! Who wouldn't want MORE Arch Madness. It'd boost attendance too. I'm much more likely to spend all day Friday at the arena then watching two games Thursday night with the second game being a later start. Give me a 2-day hoops marathon!

As far as the preseason polls, I think we so much newness in the league, no one knows what to expect. Mo State is surely the click to pick with Bradley and Loyola among the top three as well. Then you get into UNI and Drake in the 4/5 slots then after that I think there will be a heap of 9-9 teams fighting to stay off Thursday like last year. Tie breakers will come in to play for sure. Obviously, we don't expect much out of SIU and probably Valpo. INST has talent, especially with Neese and Williams- if Barnes can get back on track they could have success. I'm excited about the Redbirds but have no idea what to expect on the court other than more effort than last year and less head hanging. No idea if that translates to wins or not.Up until last year, even on his worst years Muller has avoided Thursday. Evansville seems to have some talent as well, will McCarty be able to corral the troupes and get UE off of Thursday? IDK.

It looks like Media Tipoff Day is today, so we should get an idea about what rest of the league thinks. I think the media goes:
Bradley
Missouri State
Loyola
UNI
Drake
ILST
UE
INST
VALPO
SIU

[E-Villan]

Recently came across this article on Indiana State freshman Jake LaRavia: https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/c ... 351369001/

I know Barnes struggled a lot last year but if he can figure out he doesn't need to score 20-plus to help his team, there's no reason the Sycs shouldn't be in the mix to avoid Thursday. A starting five of Barnes, Key, Neese, LaRavia and Kessinger sounds pretty competitive to me, and there also appears to be the makings of a decent bench, as best I can tell.

If Indiana State can't flirt with an upper-half finish this year, Lansing will certainly have earned his walking papers.

As long as Lansing remains our coach we'll flirt more with the bottom 3 than the top half, he's certainly been the crutch that has been holding ISU back these past several years. The common denominator

I agree this is probably Lansing's make or break season, but I am not sure you can say he is the crutch that is holding ISU back. The basketball budget is the lowest in the league, and it's really not even close. Several teams are spending more than double. I am not sure it is fair to say Lansing is the crutch when he is given the least amount of resources in the conference.

With or without Lansing, can ISU find more money to get on the same playing field with the rest of the conference?

[Tom Servo]

My thought is that eliminating Thursday teams helps your SOS if you are a 1 or 2 seed. Just playing crap programs hurts your at-large chances whether you win or lose.

My thought with Thursday and the most ideal situation for the league (not to derail the thread) would be to expand to 12 teams. Then you get 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, and 8v9 for a full day of college hoops on Thursday. Then Friday? Do it all over again! Who wouldn't want MORE Arch Madness. It'd boost attendance too. I'm much more likely to spend all day Friday at the arena then watching two games Thursday night with the second game being a later start. Give me a 2-day hoops marathon!

As far as the preseason polls, I think we so much newness in the league, no one knows what to expect. Mo State is surely the click to pick with Bradley and Loyola among the top three as well. Then you get into UNI and Drake in the 4/5 slots then after that I think there will be a heap of 9-9 teams fighting to stay off Thursday like last year. Tie breakers will come in to play for sure. Obviously, we don't expect much out of SIU and probably Valpo. INST has talent, especially with Neese and Williams- if Barnes can get back on track they could have success. I'm excited about the Redbirds but have no idea what to expect on the court other than more effort than last year and less head hanging. No idea if that translates to wins or not.Up until last year, even on his worst years Muller has avoided Thursday. Evansville seems to have some talent as well, will McCarty be able to corral the troupes and get UE off of Thursday? IDK.

It looks like Media Tipoff Day is today, so we should get an idea about what rest of the league thinks. I think the media goes:
Bradley
Missouri State
Loyola
UNI
Drake
ILST
UE
INST
VALPO
SIU

I think this is pretty close to what they are going to pick - I expect them to pick UE in the 7-8 range. I fully expect us to do better than that, but I understand the pick as it's based on unknowns.

Missouri State, UE, and Illinois State (maybe even Valpo) are really complete unknowns - They all three could be much better or worse than expected - hard to tell. Hearing reports and info about Evansville I expect them to be much better than what others think - but how high in the standings that goes is a complete guess at this point in time.

I think Loyola and Drake are being a little overrated right now - as they both lost a lot of talent. So I could them in that same range as the 3 I mentioned above.

UNI and Bradley looks like the favorites to me. SIU looks to be the worst - which is typical in year 1 of a new coach.

I have no idea about Indiana State - I wasn't impressed with them last year - they only show up to play about every 5th game - unfortunately those fell at the same time we played them. Every other time I saw them they were completely outclassed.

No idea on Valpo either.

Good luck to anyone who tries to predict this mess - it's impossible

[tribecalledquest]

Recently came across this article on Indiana State freshman Jake LaRavia: https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/c ... 351369001/

I know Barnes struggled a lot last year but if he can figure out he doesn't need to score 20-plus to help his team, there's no reason the Sycs shouldn't be in the mix to avoid Thursday. A starting five of Barnes, Key, Neese, LaRavia and Kessinger sounds pretty competitive to me, and there also appears to be the makings of a decent bench, as best I can tell.

If Indiana State can't flirt with an upper-half finish this year, Lansing will certainly have earned his walking papers.

As long as Lansing remains our coach we'll flirt more with the bottom 3 than the top half, he's certainly been the crutch that has been holding ISU back these past several years. The common denominator

I agree this is probably Lansing's make or break season, but I am not sure you can say he is the crutch that is holding ISU back. The basketball budget is the lowest in the league, and it's really not even close. Several teams are spending more than double. I am not sure it is fair to say Lansing is the crutch when he is given the least amount of resources in the conference.

With or without Lansing, can ISU find more money to get on the same playing field with the rest of the conference?

Indiana State has been to the NCAA Tournament four times in its history. Once when a top 10 player in the history of the sport was on campus, twice under Royce Waltman (134-164 career record) and once under Greg Lansing (148-142 career record). How, exactly is Greg Lansing holding the Indiana State basketball program back? Back from what exactly?

[mvfcfan]

I'm not on the "Fire Lansing" train like a lot of Sycamore fans are, but I think there are some pretty reasonable concerns.

1) He took ISU to the NCAA tournament his first year with Kevin McKenna's players.
2) The best years he had were while Jake Odum was on the team. Since Odum left ISU hasn't even been in the conversation for an NCAA bid.
3) The past 4 years have been awful. We've finished on Thursday twice and finished 6th twice in that time frame.
4) ISU also has been completely blown out multiple times (at least 3) during the past 5 years in St Louis.

With that said I think his contract doesn't run out until after the 20-21 season, so he will be around another 2 years in Terre Haute regardless of how ISU does. ISU does not have the money to buy him out and if he can have any kind of success at all the next couple of years there's probably a 50/50 chance they will extend him. Despite his teams' performances this past few years, I think he's a pretty like-able guy around ISU. We'll see in two more years I guess what happens.

[tribecalledquest]

I'm not on the "Fire Lansing" train like a lot of Sycamore fans are, but I think there are some pretty reasonable concerns.

1) He took ISU to the NCAA tournament his first year with Kevin McKenna's players.
2) The best years he had were while Jake Odum was on the team. Since Odum left ISU hasn't even been in the conversation for an NCAA bid.
3) The past 4 years have been awful. We've finished on Thursday twice and finished 6th twice in that time frame.
4) ISU also has been completely blown out multiple times (at least 3) during the past 5 years in St Louis.

With that said I think his contract doesn't run out until after the 20-21 season, so he will be around another 2 years in Terre Haute regardless of how ISU does. ISU does not have the money to buy him out and if he can have any kind of success at all the next couple of years there's probably a 50/50 chance they will extend him. Despite his teams' performances this past few years, I think he's a pretty like-able guy around ISU. We'll see in two more years I guess what happens.

Thanks. Seems reasonable.

I'm actually bullish on the Sycs this year. That's a really good backcourt (assuming Barnes turns it around).

[uniguy]

They need to just get rid of Thursday. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing the tournament get condensed down to 6 teams. 4 vs 5 and 3 vs 6 on Friday. 4/5 vs 1 and 3/6 vs 2 Saturday. Championship on Sunday. I think that would definitely help our chances of becoming a 2 bid league again. Besides if you can't finish in the top 6 do you really deserve to make the trip to St Louis and compete for an NCAA bid? I personally don't think so.

Ugh....no. Boo. I absolutely hate this idea. I could at least entertain going to 8 teams.....but 6? You're basically getting rid of half of Arch Madness and eliminating the full day of basketball on Friday. And how exactly does this help us get multiple bids?

Arch Madness should be a celebration of the MVC, and everyone should be a part of it.

Bad, bad, bad. Bad.

[uniguy]

My thought is that eliminating Thursday teams helps your SOS if you are a 1 or 2 seed. Just playing crap programs hurts your at-large chances whether you win or lose.

My thought with Thursday and the most ideal situation for the league (not to derail the thread) would be to expand to 12 teams. Then you get 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, and 8v9 for a full day of college hoops on Thursday. Then Friday? Do it all over again! Who wouldn't want MORE Arch Madness. It'd boost attendance too. I'm much more likely to spend all day Friday at the arena then watching two games Thursday night with the second game being a later start. Give me a 2-day hoops marathon!

Yes! Hooray for this idea!

I am usually not as high on UNI as a lot of people, I am not naturally optimistic, but I am really excited for this year. Some missing pieces are going to fall into place and we are going to be very good. I can feel it.

I think the league as a whole is going to be as good as its been in awhile, top to bottom.

[BuBrave2006]

The media is going to pick"

1. Missouri State
2. Loyola
3. Bradley
4. Northern Iowa
5. Drake
6. Indiana State
7. Illinois State
8. Evansville
9. Valpo
10. Southern

This is canon.

Realistically, I am 95% confident that the teams picked 1,4,5,8,9, and 10 are going to be picked where I have them. Could see 2/3 and 6/7 going either way in the media's eyes but I feel pretty good saying that this is who I think is going to be picked.

Also, guaranteed the media picks first team like this:

AJ Green
Darrell Brown
Tyreke Key
Tulio Da Silva
Cameron Krutwig.

[bonez]

Which team has the best chance of exceeding expectations (not just moving up a slot - I mean upsetting the apple cart altogether)?