My Preseason Predictions for MVC Honors

by **MVCfans** » October 24th, 2011, 6:01 am

I posted my predictions for the All-MVC teams and the various individual awards on The MVC Report.

link: MVCFans Preseason Predictions for MVC honors

It's just a guess and I'm going against the grain a little bit, so let me know who you think will bring home the hardware. This should be a very exciting season.

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by **shock** » October 24th, 2011, 8:41 am

Hmm... Where do i begin. Lets see. I agree with Carl Hall as NOY. I predict Toure or Garrett POY. FOY- Could be thurman if he be eligible and doesn't go prep, but tbh i don't really know any frosh outside of wichita and omaha. Toure and Garrett both First team. AY, TM, KW, DMcD, GS. If WSU only lands one in the first team, it will be TM and Greg E will be the fifth.

by **RoyalShock** » October 24th, 2011, 9:21 am

shock wrote:Hmm... Where do i begin. Lets see. I agree with Carl Hall as NOY. I predict Toure or Garrett POY. FOY- Could be thurman if he be eligible and doesn't go prep, but tbh i don't really know any frosh outside of wichita and omaha. Toure and Garrett both First team. AY, TM, KW, DMcD, GS. If WSU only lands one in the first team, it will be TM and Greg E will be the fifth.

shock, Thurman is still in high school.

by **valleychamp** » October 24th, 2011, 11:02 am

Anthony James and Toure Murry are both first team caliber players, and you do not have them on the 1st or 2nd teams.

by **sycamorestateofmind** » October 24th, 2011, 11:23 am

How will Lansing be coach of the year? The way you see the season playing out the Sycamores will finish second in the league, only one spot better than last season and they return basically everyone (but Carter and Kelly). I'm not complaining about being picked 2nd, I'm content with that. You've also gone on the record to say that WSU and Creighton will make the Big Dance, correct? With a possible play-in game for the Sycamores. Again, fair enough.

How does Lansing get coach of the year??? Why not McDermott? What makes you think that the media fascination over the younger McDermott won't carry over to the elder?? I'm of the belief that if Creighton wins the regular season, which essentially everyone has picked them to do then McDermott will be Coach of the year and the younger McDermott will be player of the year and I am fine with that. If Creighton is going to play up to expectations McD will have to play as well as everyone expects him to play.

That said, if Creighton doesn't win it and say Indiana State wins it (you know I had to spin it my direction at some point), then Lansing would probably be coach of the year. I will be damned if the Sycamores win it all and Odum isn't the biggest reason why we win it all. If that's the case and Odum is overlooked because he doesn't put up gaudy scoring numbers I will once again be beside myself. My argument will be simple, how does the best player on the better team not get honored ahead of the best player on the team that is second or third best to your team. ESPECIALLY when talking about Creighton who by all estimation has had a better team than the Sycamores the past two season. That's important because it would mean that Odum is more valuable to his teams success than McDermott and or Young who you have selected as player of the year. Fair selection in my mind, however go look at the head to head numbers last year for Young and Odum and you will see that they were almost identical across the board. Odum is a better defender than Young and Young is a better scorer than Odum.

My point is simple - so the POY award will probably go to the player on the team that wins the league? Fair guess? You've picked Creighton to win the league and Young to win POY - fine, he's a great player. Yet McD doesn't win coach of the year? Lansing proved last year that offering up a great turnaround with a Freshman PG you can win coach of the year. Expectations are different this year, what makes you think that 2nd place is good enough for COY honors?

Last observation:

Will this be the second year in a row that Jake Odum leads the MVC in steals and doesn't get recognized for the Defensive MVP? According to you that will be the case. I can assure you of one thing, he will lead the league in steals again.

by **2livewu** » October 24th, 2011, 11:48 am

Maybe he just thinks that Lansing will be deserving of COY? It's his opinion and he has previously stated that until the last minute he was going to pick the Trees in 1st place. He obviously has high expectations for ISUB. Maybe he thinks Lansing does more with less than the other coaches therefore is deserving.

Personally, I don't see how Garrett Stutz makes 1st team and WSU finishes 3rd (One, I don't share the lofty expectations for Stutz but if Garrett indeed is a top 5 player in the Valley you can bet the farm WSU is going to hoist the trophy at the end) but it's still just his opinion, not an iron clad prediction.

by **sycamorestateofmind** » October 24th, 2011, 12:50 pm

I didn't say it wasn't his opinion and I also said many times that his predictions were fine by me. I just asked a question and wanted some justification, doesn't make a lot of sense to me how that could happen. But fair point, if ISUB finishes 2nd and Creighton wins that would probably be a good rationale.

I think if Creighton wins that they will run away with it and if they run away with it then McD will probably get coach of the year. If it's close, comes down to the last game of MVC regular season at Indiana State vs. Creighton and Creighton wins then Lansing might get the nod, but the Sycamores can't finish any worse than 2nd and they can't get beat by any more than 2 games. That said, I think the Sycamores will probably be 3rd - but wouldn't want to play them in a must-win situation like St. Louis.

by **DoubleJayAlum** » October 24th, 2011, 1:14 pm

2livewu wrote:Personally, I don't see how Garrett Stutz makes 1st team and WSU finishes 3rd (One, I don't share the lofty expectations for Stutz but if Garrett indeed is a top 5 player in the Valley you can bet the farm WSU is going to hoist the trophy at the end) but it's still just his opinion, not an iron clad prediction.

There really aren't very many quality centers though. It wouldn't take too much to become first team.

by **Red** » October 24th, 2011, 2:14 pm

If every award was given to Creighton players and coaches what would you be saying then? At least Indiana State got mentioned for something, unlike my team. :Violin:

by **MVCfans** » October 24th, 2011, 3:50 pm

sycamorestateofmind wrote:How does Lansing get coach of the year??? Why not McDermott? What makes you think that the media fascination over the younger McDermott won't carry over to the elder?? I'm of the belief that if Creighton wins the regular season, which essentially everyone has picked them to do then McDermott will be Coach of the year and the younger McDermott will be player of the year and I am fine with that. If Creighton is going to play up to expectations McD will have to play as well as everyone expects him to play.

I give Martin credit for the job he did last year with MSU, but I thought Lansing should have won coach of the year in 2010-11. If he challenges for the league title, Lansing will be in the discussion this year this year and might win it. Would McDermott win if my prediction of Creighton is accurate? He'd have an excellent chance, but I don't necessarily think it's wise for any prognosticator to put of their eggs in one basket.

sycamorestateofmind wrote:Will this be the second year in a row that Jake Odum leads the MVC in steals and doesn't get recognized for the Defensive MVP? According to you that will be the case. I can assure you of one thing, he will lead the league in steals again.

Again, Odum is an excellent defensive player and will be deserving of the award if he has a year similar to last year. However, I think a presence such as Echenique in the middle may be more "impressive" to voters when the time comes.