Official 2024-25 MVCfans.com Prediction - 7th Place

[Birdfan2018]

Didn’t get to watch the game last night (was driving down to St Louis to pick up my daughter and granddaughter at the airport). Looks like the Conference has some good teams. Looking forward to the conference games getting started. Not sure who will avoid playing Thursday in St Louis. I have not seen all of the teams in the MVC play yet, but Drake and Bradley have looked good.

[Chuck A]

At this point Drake and Bradley stand out as the top 2 programs…and by a considerable margin. The next 4 are anybody’s guess!

[BCPanther]

At this point Drake and Bradley stand out as the top 2 programs…and by a considerable margin. The next 4 are anybody’s guess!

Actually the metrics (I get they're early) have some pretty clear tiers. These are Torvik numbers but KenPom is right in the same ballpark and likes the league just a hair better.

90-120
Bradley
Drake
UNI
Murray

145-165
SIU (the injury is going to kill them however)
UIC
Illinois State

200-250
Belmont
Missouri State
Indiana State
Evansville
Valpo

[TylerDurden]

I was looking at both Torvik and KenPom and noticed a few interesting things about Drake. Some were obvious, other not as much.

1. Drake plays at a slow pace (320/364) per Ken Pom
2. Drake turns to ball over a lot. They rank 350th in turnover rate per Torvik
3. Drake forces a lot of turnover. Their defensive TO rate ranks 32nd per Torvik
4. Drake is a monster on the offensive boards. They rank 8th in offensive rebounds per Torvik at more than 40%.

I was surprised at the high turnover rate - but it is early. I've been impressed with Drake's movement on offense.

[Drakey]

Drake has had two games when the threw the ball away at an alarming rate. They have been good in the other games. I'm hoping that the average turnovers are skewed this early in the season and will get better over time.

[Bulldog4life24]

I was looking at both Torvik and KenPom and noticed a few interesting things about Drake. Some were obvious, other not as much.

1. Drake plays at a slow pace (320/364) per Ken Pom
2. Drake turns to ball over a lot. They rank 350th in turnover rate per Torvik
3. Drake forces a lot of turnover. Their defensive TO rate ranks 32nd per Torvik
4. Drake is a monster on the offensive boards. They rank 8th in offensive rebounds per Torvik at more than 40%.

I was surprised at the high turnover rate - but it is early. I've been impressed with Drake's movement on offense.

The 2 things you’ll see change as the season goes on:
1) TO rate will decrease. Mac’s teams have historically been ultra efficient. As this team continues to grow with the new pieces, that will go down.
2) eFG will increase. Again as staff figure out how best to use the pieces (specifically Banks and Cam) and Banks grows in confidence (hopefully to the point he doesn’t miss 4 point blank shots in the same game), offense will become more efficient. Just how Mac’s teams operate. Surgical.

[TylerDurden]

I was looking at both Torvik and KenPom and noticed a few interesting things about Drake. Some were obvious, other not as much.

1. Drake plays at a slow pace (320/364) per Ken Pom
2. Drake turns to ball over a lot. They rank 350th in turnover rate per Torvik
3. Drake forces a lot of turnover. Their defensive TO rate ranks 32nd per Torvik
4. Drake is a monster on the offensive boards. They rank 8th in offensive rebounds per Torvik at more than 40%.

I was surprised at the high turnover rate - but it is early. I've been impressed with Drake's movement on offense.

The 2 things you’ll see change as the season goes on:
1) TO rate will decrease. Mac’s teams have historically been ultra efficient. As this team continues to grow with the new pieces, that will go down.
2) eFG will increase. Again as staff figure out how best to use the pieces (specifically Banks and Cam) and Banks grows in confidence (hopefully to the point he doesn’t miss 4 point blank shots in the same game), offense will become more efficient. Just how Mac’s teams operate. Surgical.

I can agree with that, especially the turnover rate. They move far too well as a unit, even this early, to continue to turn the ball over as much as they do. They'll sync that up. Once it does, I expect all of the offensive metrics to look much better.

We don't know how good Miami, FAU and Vandy are, but they all have good athletes and Drake looked like the better team in every game.

The only concern I have is that they aren't playing a ton of guys - they essentially play four regulars and rotate three others. Stirtz (99.5%), Mascari (92%) and Abreu (86.8%) are playing a ton of minutes. That could catch up to them.

[Bulldog4life24]

This is aging very well