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2 games is not a large sample size but damn do the Shockers look good so far.

I am still expecting some stumbles. And likely be on the road. But man these Shox have come out swinging. Small sample size, but Long Beach is a high scoring, quick and athletic team. I did not expect to beat them by almost 40.

And they don't lose any of the players that play meaningful minutes after this year. Future still looks ok post Ron and Fred

Long Beach State was rpi 84 last year. A lot of predictions on ShockerNet were for a single-digit win, so Shocker fans are a little surprised.

WSU's guard play is different than last year's, but the production and defense from the guards was better than WSU had last year. That's not to say it's going to happen every game, or even ever again, but the guard play was what WSU fans are used to seeing, if not a little bit better.

Post play is improved over last year. PF - Kelly's assertiveness on the boards might offset Wessel's ability to get loose balls. SF is the same guys as last year.

Austin Reaves, 6'5" Fr PG from a small school in Arkansas, is double nasty. He's already playing both PG and SG. It usually takes players at least a year to learn two positions in Marshall's system. He's the third option at both PG and SG. that might change by the time Valley play gets going.

Nurger's emergence as a legitimate 2nd string center is a big factor as well. Our front court is big and talented this year.

Hope for WSU's demise might be a bit premature.

LBSU is picked to win the Big West and is a pretty athletic team. WSU took them behind the woodshed. That was unexpected.

I know the britches are awful small round these parts, but it seems some folks still need to go find a belt.

Small, small, small sample size but after the first weekend:

1) WSU
2) UNI
3) MO State
4) Loyola
5) IN St
6) IL St
7) UE
8) Bradley
9) SIU
10) Drake

MSUDuo wrote:Small, small, small sample size but after the first weekend:

1) WSU
2) UNI
3) MO State
4) Loyola
5) IN St
6) IL St
7) UE
8) Bradley
9) SIU
10) Drake

Based only the games played so far, I'd move MO State to 2, UNI to 3 and then flip IL State and IN State.

MO State has been impressive, albeit against really really low level D1 teams. UNI is a wild card since their only game was against a D3 team. Loyola has looked good, but yet again, weak competition. IL State's loss is better than IN State's loss.

Stickboy46 wrote:IL State's loss is better than IN State's loss.

If I was trying to sum up the MVC right now, this wouldn't be a bad start.

I love how ISUR fans on their board are talking about how good they will be next year. Don't they realize they will have a "key" player leave the program and several player arrested in between this year and next to reset their expectations,