Too early order of finish

[freddycat68]

It seems like there's a consensus that the Valley in 24-25 goes something like this:

1. Bradley
2. UNI
3-12 Anyone's guess.

But there are question marks. Bradley is probably only going to be 8-9 deep and only an injury or two away from big trouble. Same for UNI. And ISUb taught us this past season that a team can be built from whole cloth from transfers and skilled newcomers. It's too early, but heck it's a speculation message board. What do we think is going to be the pecking order next season barring any big recruiting surprises?

[BigMacAttack]

Consensus of whom?

[freddycat68]

Consensus of whom?

Do you read Valley message boards (including this one)? I'm not going to do your homework for you. But anyway, the flame broiled whopper is where it's at.

[BEARZ77]

I read em all, and I haven't seen that. Bradley has generally been seen as the early favorite because of their returning roster, but hardly anyone even knows what most of the other rosters look like yet. And UNI certainly isn't a consensus after not meeting expectations last year and losing 3-4 core players. They have to find a lot of points and some quickness to be a favorite; now maybe they've done that , but lets see all the rosters first.

[FunchessonPopcorn]

I have been trying to sort through all this a little here and there myself. I do feel like the conference will be better than the general consensus that I am hearing and reading. I feel a lot of schools have put themselves into position where they have reasonable top 100 expectations, or at least goals. I’ve not really stack ranked all that yet fully, but I like what Murray and SIU did in portal for sure. I do think UNI will be solid too. ISUr adding shooting and retaining Kinziger gives them a case to bring. Valpo may still be towards the bottom, but they should be notably better even if so, given what they retained and how young they were. Need to dig in more on these 2, but on the surface some of the guys UIC and InSU brought in seem legit, especially given the situations they were in.

Original poster is right about Bradley: they made the call to fill the back end of the roster bringing back good dudes, but with limits on talent. So they are thinner than I would like, as a fan. I get why they did it, but it is risky. Too risky for my tastes, but I know why they did it. They had a bumpy ride with their portal rides last year, so they limited their exposure to a couple guys that they know darn well appreciate Bradley and what it takes in the MVC.

Hopefully it falls in line with the good work they did to retain some key parts and make a couple of adds with history of production. I get picking Bradley 1st… probably makes the most sense given the known entities. Could also easily be a press replay scenario where looking backwards they prove to be 1-2 dudes short again, especially considering how versatile Leons was.

[Chuck A]

Right now, I can see the Flames in the 5-7 range. I've mentioned before (even before joining the Valley) that talent has never been a problem for UIC. It's been the coaching. Rob Ehsan has a head coaching record of 76-57 (.571) in four years. Not the best, but even with this record, he announced that he had some short comings and failings that he says he's improved on. We shall see.

Bradley
Murray State
Belmont
Illinois State
Missouri State
Indiana State
UIC
Southern Illinois
Evansville
Drake
Valparaiso
UNI

[TylerDurden]

This could be a pretty long year in the Valley.

Bradley is going to be the preseason favorite simply because they will be the team with the most familiar players who did the best last season. That's saying something, because losing Leons and Hickman from that team is a big deal.

I think SIU is going to be one to watch, primarily because I think Scott Nagy is a damn good coach who can get his guys on the same page very quickly.

Drake is also intriguing, for obvious reasons. Basically an entirely new team and a first-time DI coach, albeit one who had massive success in DII. He has a few of his guys. If he can pull out a top-half finish this year, McCollum could be on his way to building a Drake Dynasty.

[IllinoisState]

I don't see UNI being in the bottom two.

[SalukiWorld]

I don't see UNI being in the bottom two.

Yeah it’s the opposite, UNI should be a top 3 team with Bradley and Murray State

[BCPanther]

Bradley, UNI, Murray and SIU look like the Top 4 to me right now. Valpo, Evansville and Indiana State are the bottom 3. You can put everyone else in a hat and I'd believe the order.