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BEARZ77 wrote:I think your skepticism about MSU is reasonable given Lusk's history of underachieving; he is the big question mark for most MSU fans when looking at this team. I'm not a Lusk fan, so I have my own concerns about what this team will do. But if I was making a case for MSU and took the stance that Lusk will be a neutral factor, then this is what I'd base my case on their winning on. First they were a young team last year with the majority of their top players having either none or 1 year of D-1 experience. Second they were 11-4, 2-0 MVC with a road win at UNI when they lost pg Ronnie Rousseau for the season. Some will tell you he was the most talented player we had [ was averaging 11.6 pts, 48% fg, 39% 3pt, 80% ft] . Despite that when you look at how we played against this years projected other top teams, we split with LOC, beat UNI 2 of 3, and lost both to ISUr, one in OT on the road and the other by 1 pt , all but the first game against UNI w/o Rousseau. So clearly we were very competitive and on paper have as much or more back than any of those teams. That includes Johnson, jrs Dixon[8.6 pts] Church,[ 64% fg , league leader in block shots] and wings 6'4 Kreklow and 6"6 Rhodes who both averaged about 7 pts and shot 42% and 39% respectively from the trey line.

Recruiting on the surface appears ok with the additions of 2 freshman , 6'0 pg Lawrence [ who was offered by Clemson before going to a year of prep school] and 6'11 Scott, and 2 jucos , 6'7 Fofana [ a Church clone with limited offense but eye popping athleticism] and 6'8 Scurry [ a double/double guy in juco ] . But here's where I think we really add some talent. You have to add 6'5 rs frosh Greg "Boogie" Williams who was a top 150 recruit , and both Rousseau [ who will return] and graduate transfer 6'4 JT Miller from Howard who averaged right at 15 ppg last year including a couple 30 pt games [ one against Georgetown]. While many teams are adding some solid recruits who no doubt will help, Rousseau and Miller represent 2 proven D-1 double digit scorers added to the mix for the Bears.

So that's the case for the Bears, a pretty loaded roster with a highly questionable Head Coach. I think a case can be made either way and have some justification for anywhere from 1st to 6th.

BEARZ77 wrote:Glad you found your way back uniguy. It's nice to get some previous posters back in the mix. I have never understood the need by some posters [ and a few WSU posters were notorious for this] to immediately jump any positive post by another fan base about what they think their team will do. I understand if someone slams your University/Team, the tendency we all have is to fire back. But to me if another Universities fan base has info and reasons for being positive about their teams chances, I want to hear about it and why. It's no threat for them to be optimistic or even a little delusional in their representation; the need some have to immediately slam any positive representation just leads to people not wanting to share info, and who has better inside info on each team than their own fan base. So what if they are overly optimistic, as long as they aren't slamming another team , what's it hurt to hear their reasons for optimism. I really hope the board can evolve to more of those open discussions and sharing of info, and yeah once the season starts we will all be hyper competitive, but still it doesn't have to be where to have anther fan base post something positive has to have an immediate attack.

Make MVC Great Again wrote:

Lusuperfan1 wrote:

Make MVC Great Again wrote:Seems like a consensus from a few CBB Bloggers I've seen that Missouri State and Loyola will be preseason 1 or 2 next season. I've also seen IL St as high as #3 in a projection, I know they've have some graduations and transfers, but consensus is they'll still be a strong team. I've also seen people say they expect growth from Bradley's young team. UNI had a down year last year but they're a strong Program with a good coach.

Here are a few projections I've see on twitter:

https://twitter.com/Catch_N_Shoot/statu ... 8202219520

) Missouri State
2) Loyola
3) Illinois State
4)Valpo
5) Bradley
6) Northern Iowa.

https://twitter.com/d2mart/status/862506833071796224

1. Loyola Chicago 22.4 (14)
2. Missouri State 18.9 (12)
3. Bradley 13.0 (13)
4. Illinois State 12.1 (12)
5. Valparaiso 11.9 (14)
6. Southern Illinois 11.2 (11)
7. Evansville 11.1 (11)
8. Northern Iowa 10.4 (13)
9. Drake 9.2 (12)
10. Indiana State 8.9 (12)

https://twitter.com/CBB_Central/status/ ... 6147871746

1. MO St
2. Loyola
3. IL St
4. Bradley
5. Valpo
6. UNI
7. Murray
8. SIU
9. IND St
10. Drake
11. EVAN
12. UWM

These are absolute jokes.

Let me guess why...

How can a team that win 2-9 against the top six teams last year be considered a top two team. That is a joke.

I don't care who you bring back. You still have Moser who is debatably the worst coach in the league.

Make MVC Great Again wrote:1. Northern Iowa- One heck of a front line with Carlson, Koch and McDonnell. Also really solid back-court with McCloud, Lohaus and Haldeman. Like Isaiah Brown to be switch-gadget knife type of role player. Jake rebounds after a down season last year.

2. Illinois State- People are really forgetting incoming transfer Milik Yarbrough and Christian Romine, both had high major offer in high school. And always, Coach Muller has really good JuCo talent coming in, would always take an impact JuCo player rather than a freshman that needs to have their hands held.

3. Missouri State- Hard to trust Lusk even with the amount of talent he has. Would've been one if Kendrix would've stayed and continued to develop. He was an All-MVC type talent but happened to be coached by Lusk, go figure.

4. Southern Illinois- Solid core with Lloyd, Bol and Fletcher. The addition of Marcus Bartley from St. Louis should help account for the loss of Mike Rodriguez.

5. Murray State- Will win games solely on the fact they want to prove they belong in the conference.

6. Bradley- Wardle is a top three coach in the league. Still a year away but definitely going in a positive direction.

7. Evansville- Dru Smith is a future all-conference player. Ryan Taylor should be more comfortable in the offense, and Gibson should improve as well.

8. Valpo- Going to be a tough transition for the Crusaders. No Peters really hurts them in the MVC.

9. Loyola- Yes they score points, but they also give-up points. Everyone says they lost close games last year, well the rule of thumb is under 10 points, it is a sign of coaching. Moser is still there and has never had an above conference record since Little-Rock, and costs his team more games than winning them.

10. Drake- Another basement season for the Bulldogs.

11. Indiana State- Larry Legend is coming around any time soon.

Lusuperfan1 wrote:

Make MVC Great Again wrote:1. Northern Iowa- One heck of a front line with Carlson, Koch and McDonnell. Also really solid back-court with McCloud, Lohaus and Haldeman. Like Isaiah Brown to be switch-gadget knife type of role player. Jake rebounds after a down season last year.

2. Illinois State- People are really forgetting incoming transfer Milik Yarbrough and Christian Romine, both had high major offer in high school. And always, Coach Muller has really good JuCo talent coming in, would always take an impact JuCo player rather than a freshman that needs to have their hands held.

3. Missouri State- Hard to trust Lusk even with the amount of talent he has. Would've been one if Kendrix would've stayed and continued to develop. He was an All-MVC type talent but happened to be coached by Lusk, go figure.

4. Southern Illinois- Solid core with Lloyd, Bol and Fletcher. The addition of Marcus Bartley from St. Louis should help account for the loss of Mike Rodriguez.

5. Murray State- Will win games solely on the fact they want to prove they belong in the conference.

6. Bradley- Wardle is a top three coach in the league. Still a year away but definitely going in a positive direction.

7. Evansville- Dru Smith is a future all-conference player. Ryan Taylor should be more comfortable in the offense, and Gibson should improve as well.

8. Valpo- Going to be a tough transition for the Crusaders. No Peters really hurts them in the MVC.

9. Loyola- Yes they score points, but they also give-up points. Everyone says they lost close games last year, well the rule of thumb is under 10 points, it is a sign of coaching. Moser is still there and has never had an above conference record since Little-Rock, and costs his team more games than winning them.

10. Drake- Another basement season for the Bulldogs.

11. Indiana State- Larry Legend is coming around any time soon.

This might be the most illuminating basketball prognostication and analysis since Dr. Naismith invented the game

GoSIU88 wrote:I've seen the defense that Loyola threw at SIU last night....it's the same defensive intensity the Salukis use to throw at opponents when Bryan Mullins played for the Salukis. That wasn't Moser's defense, it was Bryan Mullins'.