Norlander's Rankings for MVC Teams

[jackwagon]

Yeah there is no recent evidence to suggest Bradley would ever finish that low!! Oh wait..

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Bradley has to prove themselves first. Sure, they have the same guys but that means nothing. They showed very little last year. This is the same team that didn't score their first basket (non free throw) versus ISUr until 15 minutes into the game. They should be improved and better than ninth but there is definitely a debatable argument to put them at ninth. Bradley could end up anywhere from 1-10. They are a complete wildcard/unknown.

[Old School MVC]

Returning players and returning talent are two different things!!

[underdawg]

As you all probably know, Norlander from CBS Sports does an annual preseason ranking of all 351 D-1 college basketball teams. While prognosticating such a wide swath of teams who will never play each other is probably incredibly inaccurate, rarely do many people even try to attempt something like this... and I think it's fun. At the top he has Duke, at the bottom he has Alabama A&M. Here's how he ranked MVC teams:

58. Missouri State Bears - Mentions no tourney bid since 1999, shout out to Alize Johnson.
Ranked right after: Marquette and Arizona State
Ranked right before: Georgia Tech and Davidson

74. Loyola-Chicago Ramblers - Says if MO State doesn't win MVC, the Ramblers will. Says "...unquestionably a top-100 team."
Ranked right after: Bucknell and Yale
Ranked right before: Indiana and Mississippi State

109. Illinois State Redbirds - Mentions that ISUr should have received an at-large bid last season, calls them a "dark horse."
Ranked right after: Tulsa and SLU
Ranked right before: UNC-Asheville and Towson

122. UNI Panthers - Says this will be a bounceback season for the Panthers, but can't see them in the top 2 in the Valley.
Ranked right after: Georgetown and San Diego
Ranked right before: Winthrop and UC-Irvine

155. Southern Illinois Salukis - Thinks they'll be fighting with Valpo for top half of MVC, also thinks non-con will be up and down.
Ranked right after: Pittsburgh and Murray State
Ranked right before: Ohio and Lehigh Mountain

160. Valparaiso Crusaders - Says that the Valley made the best possible replacement after losing Wichita State, in spite of the fact that Murray State is ranked six spots higher.
Ranked right after: Wright State and UNC-Wilmington
Ranked right before: Eastern Michigan and Montana

172. Indiana State Sycamores - Points out that ISUb lost a lot of close ones last season, and thinks they'll be luckier this season, with a shout out to Brenton Scott.
Ranked right after: Kent State and Utah State
Ranked right before: UMBC and Detroit

226. Evansville Aces - "Three senior starters gone from a 16-17 team. Probably will decelerate to 13 or 14 wins."
Ranked right after: St. Peter's and Abilene Christian
ranked right before: Youngstown and High Point

231. Bradley Braves - Says the Braves are young and need to work on fluidity on offense.
Ranked right after: South Florida and Tennessee Tech
Ranked right before: Columbia and Sacred Heart

287. Drake Bulldogs - Is confident that Drake will be the worst team in the MVC again, but likes Niko Medved as the new coach. Noted that he won at Furman in spite of no history there.
Ranked right after: Miami (Ohio) and Southeast Missouri State
Ranked right before: Santa Barbara and Oral Roberts

The full list is HERE

Does this guy know SIu was 6-3 against MSU, Loyola, UNI and ISu Red?????

[BradleyFan71]

Returning players and returning talent are two different things!!

Well...Bradley did finish tied with the Bears and just two games out of 3rd place.

[Sir Sci]

Like this better. More insight from someone who regularly watches mid major hoops than a computer model based exclusively on last year’s statistics.

I went to Norlander's recent columns going back to the start of September. Not a single one concerning mid major teams. I don't see the connect that he watches mid major teams. Care to enlighten me?

No way he knows the intricacies of every team in college basketball to rank them properly. I would take a computer model over human error with that big of a sample size all day every day.

These are click bait to get readers to read and talk about it. Nothing further. Job well done Norlander.

Like I said in the OP, I just think it's fun - I don't actually think this has the accuracy that something like KenPom does.

I dunno about it being click bait, though. It's not like the headline is "YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HE SAID ABOUT THIS TEAM!"

[Mikovio]

Bradley could end up anywhere from 1-10.

Can't argue with that!

I understand people are picking Bradley low until they prove themselves, but it seems lazy for a team returning 100% of its scoring from a 6th place finish to be picked worse based on the foibles of Geno and Les. But also, it's nothing to get worked up about. If anything this is probably motivation for our guys.

[Mikovio]

ESPN Insider ranks. Mentions in the article how Bradley's the only team in the nation returning 100% of its scoring.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... ball-1-351

101. Missouri State Bears | RPM% 84
104. Illinois State Redbirds | RPM% 27
106. Loyola (IL) Ramblers | RPM% 69
125. Valparaiso Crusaders | RPM% 45
138. Bradley Braves | RPM% 100
146. Northern Iowa Panthers | RPM% 68
158. Southern Illinois Salukis | RPM% 51
176. Evansville Purple Aces | RPM% 42
210. Indiana State Sycamores | RPM% 46
219. Drake Bulldogs | RPM% 86

"What does "%RPMs" mean?
This is the percentage of possession-minutes that a roster returns from last season. For example, Bradley is bringing back every player that averaged at least four minutes a game last season, so the Braves' figure there is 100 percent. At the other extreme, not surprisingly, is Kentucky, which returns just 7 percent of last season's possession-minutes. This is a statistical way of saying simply, "Wenyen Gabriel is back, and everyone else is gone.""