Who Wins the MVC in 2017-18?

[DUBulldog]

@ Play Angry:

Factual - who suspended Christensen and Pitching Coach Kemnitz? Not WSU the MVC did - WSU didn't own their assault on Molina. And Christensen still thought it was still part of the game months later.

What is sad is your twisted mind tries to justify it because 1) it was a WSU player who committed this act and 2) you seem to think it is justified since Molina later in life committed a horrible crime (that no UE fan tries to defend and nor should we)

http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxvii ... ialik.html

Only in a sports world gone mad could Ben Christensen be allowed to continue playing the game of baseball.

On Fri., Apr. 23, Christensen, Wichita State's star junior pitcher, fired a ball at Evansville second baseman Anthony Molina. The ball struck Molina in the eye, causing damage which could possibly ruin his vision for life.

Baseball can be dangerous. Other players' careers have ended on errant pitches or batted balls. But Molina was standing 30 feet from the batter's box at the time, and Christensen was warming up before the game. The ball he threw at Molina was a bullet, timed by an anonymous scout at 91 miles per hour.

Christensen claims that Molina was edging too close to Christensen and timing his pitches. The fair response, as taught to Christensen by his pitching coach Brent Kemnitz, was to throw at Molina to deter him from trying the same tactic again—much like a soldier would shoot at an enemy to deter him from trying to steal signals.

This analogy made sense to Kemnitz and Christensen, which is what is so troubling about the incident. Their sport had become like a war to them, and they were willing to engage in war-like methods to ensure victory.

The Missouri Valley Conference, of which Wichita State and Evansville are members, suspended Kemnitz and Christensen for the remainder of the season. Problem solved: two wayward sportsmen, taught a lesson and set back on the right track. Surely this incident did not reflect on mainstream baseball.

The right track for Christensen ended up taking him to the Chicago Cubs, who picked him in the first round of the amateur draft in July. He reflected on the Molina incident after being drafted, "It's not right what I did. But it's also part of the game. The people around baseball understand that, and it's sad the people not around baseball don't." I don't think Anthony Molina understands it.

When I was first reading this, I thought it was an actual fight or something, not something that happens many times throughout the course of a baseball season.

What that article incredibly failed to mention is that the player who was hit by the pitch was in the on-deck circle, not at the plate.

[Dean Wormer]

@ Play Angry:

Factual - who suspended Christensen and Pitching Coach Kemnitz? Not WSU the MVC did - WSU didn't own their assault on Molina. And Christensen still thought it was still part of the game months later.

What is sad is your twisted mind tries to justify it because 1) it was a WSU player who committed this act and 2) you seem to think it is justified since Molina later in life committed a horrible crime (that no UE fan tries to defend and nor should we)

http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxvii ... ialik.html

Only in a sports world gone mad could Ben Christensen be allowed to continue playing the game of baseball.

On Fri., Apr. 23, Christensen, Wichita State's star junior pitcher, fired a ball at Evansville second baseman Anthony Molina. The ball struck Molina in the eye, causing damage which could possibly ruin his vision for life.

Baseball can be dangerous. Other players' careers have ended on errant pitches or batted balls. But Molina was standing 30 feet from the batter's box at the time, and Christensen was warming up before the game. The ball he threw at Molina was a bullet, timed by an anonymous scout at 91 miles per hour.

Christensen claims that Molina was edging too close to Christensen and timing his pitches. The fair response, as taught to Christensen by his pitching coach Brent Kemnitz, was to throw at Molina to deter him from trying the same tactic again—much like a soldier would shoot at an enemy to deter him from trying to steal signals.

This analogy made sense to Kemnitz and Christensen, which is what is so troubling about the incident. Their sport had become like a war to them, and they were willing to engage in war-like methods to ensure victory.

The Missouri Valley Conference, of which Wichita State and Evansville are members, suspended Kemnitz and Christensen for the remainder of the season. Problem solved: two wayward sportsmen, taught a lesson and set back on the right track. Surely this incident did not reflect on mainstream baseball.

The right track for Christensen ended up taking him to the Chicago Cubs, who picked him in the first round of the amateur draft in July. He reflected on the Molina incident after being drafted, "It's not right what I did. But it's also part of the game. The people around baseball understand that, and it's sad the people not around baseball don't." I don't think Anthony Molina understands it.

When I was first reading this, I thought it was an actual fight or something, not something that happens many times throughout the course of a baseball season.

Really? I have followed baseball for over 40 years, and have never heard of anything like this happening once, let alone "many times" throughout a baseball season. Fights happen many times over the course of a season, 90+ MPH fastballs to the eye to a player more than 20' from home plate do not.

The fact WSU never owned this still tarnishes them.

[Horn28Clem30]

@ Play Angry:

Factual - who suspended Christensen and Pitching Coach Kemnitz? Not WSU the MVC did - WSU didn't own their assault on Molina. And Christensen still thought it was still part of the game months later.

What is sad is your twisted mind tries to justify it because 1) it was a WSU player who committed this act and 2) you seem to think it is justified since Molina later in life committed a horrible crime (that no UE fan tries to defend and nor should we)

http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxvii ... ialik.html

Only in a sports world gone mad could Ben Christensen be allowed to continue playing the game of baseball.

On Fri., Apr. 23, Christensen, Wichita State's star junior pitcher, fired a ball at Evansville second baseman Anthony Molina. The ball struck Molina in the eye, causing damage which could possibly ruin his vision for life.

Baseball can be dangerous. Other players' careers have ended on errant pitches or batted balls. But Molina was standing 30 feet from the batter's box at the time, and Christensen was warming up before the game. The ball he threw at Molina was a bullet, timed by an anonymous scout at 91 miles per hour.

Christensen claims that Molina was edging too close to Christensen and timing his pitches. The fair response, as taught to Christensen by his pitching coach Brent Kemnitz, was to throw at Molina to deter him from trying the same tactic again—much like a soldier would shoot at an enemy to deter him from trying to steal signals.

This analogy made sense to Kemnitz and Christensen, which is what is so troubling about the incident. Their sport had become like a war to them, and they were willing to engage in war-like methods to ensure victory.

The Missouri Valley Conference, of which Wichita State and Evansville are members, suspended Kemnitz and Christensen for the remainder of the season. Problem solved: two wayward sportsmen, taught a lesson and set back on the right track. Surely this incident did not reflect on mainstream baseball.

The right track for Christensen ended up taking him to the Chicago Cubs, who picked him in the first round of the amateur draft in July. He reflected on the Molina incident after being drafted, "It's not right what I did. But it's also part of the game. The people around baseball understand that, and it's sad the people not around baseball don't." I don't think Anthony Molina understands it.

When I was first reading this, I thought it was an actual fight or something, not something that happens many times throughout the course of a baseball season.

What that article incredibly failed to mention is that the player who was hit by the pitch was in the on-deck circle, not at the plate.

Uh yeah...the way the article reads to me is that he was batting. Throwing at someone while they're batting happens all the time.

[Blers]

Illinois State, UNI, Loyola, Missouri State could all be in the mix; Bradley could surprise, southern will remain a solid middle pack team, though I really think losing O'Brien will hurt them more than losing Beane did.

I don't see Evansville or ISUb doing much to improve, and while i like the hire at Drake i'm sure it'll take time. If i had to guess i'd go:

ISUr
UNI
LUC
MSU
SIU
Bradley
Evansville
Drake
ISUb


LUC still has two spots to fill and I'll feel much more confident in us if we land Adarius Avery (the third leading scorer in JUCO who recently visited) as well as a JUCO big like Akiean Frederick. If we can nab those two i'd be feeling really good. We lost Milton but gain four really nice pieces and potentially two more.

MSU should be number one but Lusk is such a weird case coaching wise. Not saying Porter doesn't have questions, but it seems like Lusk will actively do the exact wrong thing at the exact wrong time.

[UEACES80]

I have read over a dozen articles about it and the distance that Molina was from the plate varies from 12 feet to 25 feet. Also this was prior to the beginning of the game.

I have spoken to Wes Carroll (UE's current baseball coach) who was on the team and he was still saddened by the fact it happened. The act was simply out of any spectrum of normalcy at any level of baseball.

[Snaggletooth]

What that article incredibly failed to mention is that the player who was hit by the pitch was in the on-deck circle, not at the plate.

Well that not true. He was not in the on-deck circle or even close to it. He was standing on the shocker dugout side, on the edge of the dirt/artificial turf surrounding home plate. Think of drawing a line 45 degree from home plate to where the turn starts and that is approximately where he was standing.

[Play Angry]

@ Play Angry:

Factual - who suspended Christensen and Pitching Coach Kemnitz? Not WSU the MVC did - WSU didn't own their assault on Molina. And Christensen still thought it was still part of the game months later.

What is sad is your twisted mind tries to justify it because 1) it was a WSU player who committed this act and 2) you seem to think it is justified since Molina later in life committed a horrible crime (that no UE fan tries to defend and nor should we)

http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxvii ... ialik.html

Only in a sports world gone mad could Ben Christensen be allowed to continue playing the game of baseball.

On Fri., Apr. 23, Christensen, Wichita State's star junior pitcher, fired a ball at Evansville second baseman Anthony Molina. The ball struck Molina in the eye, causing damage which could possibly ruin his vision for life.

Baseball can be dangerous. Other players' careers have ended on errant pitches or batted balls. But Molina was standing 30 feet from the batter's box at the time, and Christensen was warming up before the game. The ball he threw at Molina was a bullet, timed by an anonymous scout at 91 miles per hour.

Christensen claims that Molina was edging too close to Christensen and timing his pitches. The fair response, as taught to Christensen by his pitching coach Brent Kemnitz, was to throw at Molina to deter him from trying the same tactic again—much like a soldier would shoot at an enemy to deter him from trying to steal signals.

This analogy made sense to Kemnitz and Christensen, which is what is so troubling about the incident. Their sport had become like a war to them, and they were willing to engage in war-like methods to ensure victory.

The Missouri Valley Conference, of which Wichita State and Evansville are members, suspended Kemnitz and Christensen for the remainder of the season. Problem solved: two wayward sportsmen, taught a lesson and set back on the right track. Surely this incident did not reflect on mainstream baseball.

The right track for Christensen ended up taking him to the Chicago Cubs, who picked him in the first round of the amateur draft in July. He reflected on the Molina incident after being drafted, "It's not right what I did. But it's also part of the game. The people around baseball understand that, and it's sad the people not around baseball don't." I don't think Anthony Molina understands it.

Re-posting articles from 20 years ago is fine and all, but does nothing to contradict anything in my post. You are simply a liar when you claim I justified the action. This was my quote:

I do not understand how a mature adult views the above scenario with pride, as you claim to, from any angle. It is both unfortunate and sad.

The truly bizarre behavior is on display here:

What you see as disrespect - I see as pride that a savage assault occurred to a UE athlete and the other University was basically cold hearted and not ashamed.

Pride is such an odd feeling to experience when discussing a tragedy on the field and that individual's subsequent spiral culminating in a lengthy prison sentence for child rape. Even more odd, raising the issue in three unrelated topics in the course of a few days for purposes of trying to get one last jab in at WSU on the way out the door - certainly, this is an appropriate topic to exploit for your individual internet jollies.

Here is what Evansville has coming back next season from what I can see:

Ryan Taylor (14.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg)
Duane Gibson (7.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg)
Dru Smith (5.3 ppg, 2.9 apg)

...

Jaivon Eaves (3.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg)

...

Is Blake coming back? He won't add much of anything, but at least it would be a body to roll out there.

Last season's Aces finished with an RPI of 192, and this looks like a unit that is headed deeper into strugg city to me. Evansville has its work to cut for it in order stay on the good side of a 200 RPI. Hopeless might not be the best phrase to use here but it is the one that comes to mind.

The more I look at Bradley, the more I like them next year. I really think Wardle is righting the ship and this year will see a big step - I will be surprised if they win less than 10 games (or 9 if a 16 game slate is used) in the MVC next year. I am pulling for him.

I also like what UNI will roll out next season, but there are just so many question marks. Wyatt will help but I cannot get over Klint Carlson's regression last season - maybe this is the year he puts it together as it seemed like most of his issues were between the ears. If he wakes up and Koch can give 25+ minutes/game, look out.

ISUr has to be the most uncertain favorite I can remember, but they are still probably the favorite. Lots riding on McIntosh staying healthy (understatement for sure).

The Valley race will be fun this year.

[uniftw]

Wyatt adding depth and Carlson getting out of his own head will win UNI this conference (if it happens).

Going back to Klint stepping foot on campus guys like Seth Tuttle and Paul Jesperson have said they told him non-stop if he would believe in himself he would be unstoppable because his skill set is unique. Seth has been very public about Clint, actually.

The end of his sophomore year you could see it "click" in his head. We thought that was going to be the Klint we saw moving forward. Look at Clint early in the season - when UNI was winning:
Arizona State - 19 points, 8-10 from the floor, 2-4 from 3.
Oklahoma 22 points 7-13 from the floor, 4-8 from deep. He won that game. He was dominant.
Xavier 1 - He struggled and Xavier made a point to key on him. He got frsutrated and couldn't get out of his own way. 3-10 shooting in 38 min.
Xavier 2 - a bit better. 4-8 from the floor but just 24 mints with 3 fouls.

He started to get into his own head. He started to force things, rather than let the game come to him. He went through a stretch of 3-9 type shooting games. He picked up a tech in a game due to frustration. Jake sent him a message and pulled him from the starting line up. It was his second tech in two games.

He never really recovered. He had a decent stretch from 1/8 through 2/12 where he was double figures in 8 of those 11 games, but he never had that "take over" moment. He also had 3 games where he went 4, 4, 2 for points and went a combined 4-24 from the floor. Even in a game he scored 11 he was 1-9 from the field and 0-4 from deep.

When his head is right he is as good of a swing 4 as there is in this league. Match up nightmare. He can shoot 40% from deep (can). So he gets people to bite on his pump fake and then blows by them. A smaller guy gets put on him and at 6'7 230 he has post moves. That is all assuming his head is right.

Bennett needs to stay on the floor. When he's on the floor he takes the game over. The problem is, he fouls at about the same rate that Reggie Lynch does. he could only average 20 MPG last year - and averaged a foul every 6 minutes. His per 40 numbers?
12-20 from the floor (57%)
10-13 from the FT line (76%)
22 Points
12 Rebounds
2 Assists
2 Blocks

There are very, very, few players in the conference with per 40 numbers like that across the board. He needs to stay the hell out of foul trouble.


I'm also hopeful that a wing guard we are recruiting to add to this years class will come in and add depth there, where we really need it. A rather athletic kid that can light it up, but was over shadowed by his high school teammate - Brad Davidson (a top 50 recruit that signed with Wisconsin). Landing him would be a big boost simply for depth this year. Super athletic.

Isaiah Brown is a year older. He struggled at times last year and REALLY should have redshirted. The issue is he is from Texas. You aren't UNI and signing kids from Texas to have them come here and sit through an Iowa winter and not play. It doesn't happen. Same situation happened with Deon Mitchell. He needed a redshirt, but being from the Austin, TX area with schools like Arizona, Texas and Marquette recruitng him we wouldn't have landed him if he told him to redshirt in Cedar Falls, IA.

Maybe I'm blindfully biased. Probably. I think UNI next year is a lock for top 3, if not top 2.....assuming Clint has his head on.

[mvfcfan]

Well one thing is for sure. It won't be Wichita State. So I really don't know why their fans are still trolling us with their "We're so much better than everyone" comments.

[UEACES80]

Well one thing is for sure. It won't be Wichita State. So I really don't know why their fans are still trolling us with their "We're so much better than everyone" comments.

I will be glad when the locks on the door to the MVCFANS are changed and WSU fans don't get a set of keys.