MVCfans.com

Each week we will open a poll for users to predict the end of season finish for the MVC 2017-18 basketball season. We will work in reverse order, concluding with the predicted MVC champion chosen by our users between the last two teams remaining in week 9.

Southern Illinois was recently selected as the likely 4th place finisher (results: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4799 )

Week 8 - Who will finish in 3rd place during the 2017-18 MVC mens basketball season?
-You are choosing the team that you believe will finish in 3rd place for this regular season. Poll open until Thursday, October 19.


Official MVCfans.com - Predictions:
10th Place - Evansville
9th Place - Drake
8th Place - Indiana State
7th Place - Bradley
6th Place - Valparaiso
5th Place - Illinois State
4th Place - Southern Illinois
3rd Place - .....

Of the 3 remaining:

#1 Mo. St.

#2 Loyola

#3 Northern Iowa

In my humble opinion. It's the way I will vote.

Missouri State. 100% due to coaching.

AndShock wrote:Missouri State. 100% due to coaching.

Northern Iowa. 100% due to the players who play on the court.


(They got this far because apparently Ben Jacobson is God and can control how good the players play on the court while sitting on the bench).

I picked UNI 6th and then 5th and then 4th and then 3rd.

AndShock wrote:Missouri State. 100% due to coaching.

The voting is definitely favoring talent over coaching. We'll see if the season plays out that way. I think my bears easily have the best player and best overall talent but I'm just not convinced Lusk can lead a team to a championship.

glm38 wrote:

AndShock wrote:Missouri State. 100% due to coaching.

The voting is definitely favoring talent over coaching.

Not true for 1/3rd of the teams left.

BirdsEyeView wrote:

AndShock wrote:Missouri State. 100% due to coaching.

Northern Iowa. 100% due to the players who play on the court.


(They got this far because apparently Ben Jacobson is God and can control how good the players play on the court while sitting on the bench).

I picked UNI 6th and then 5th and then 4th and then 3rd.

If you don't think coaching matters you're a fool.

Every single year we hear about how atrocious UNI's players are. Yet no one in the MVC currently is even close to them in accomplishment since Jake took over.

Must be coaching if it isn't players.

uniftw wrote:

BirdsEyeView wrote:

AndShock wrote:Missouri State. 100% due to coaching.

Northern Iowa. 100% due to the players who play on the court.


(They got this far because apparently Ben Jacobson is God and can control how good the players play on the court while sitting on the bench).

I picked UNI 6th and then 5th and then 4th and then 3rd.

If you don't think coaching matters you're a fool.

Every single year we hear about how atrocious UNI's players are. Yet no one in the MVC currently is even close to them in accomplishment since Jake took over.

Must be coaching if it isn't players.

I never said coaching didn't matter. Coaching only takes you so far. Ben typically develops his recruits and is good every 2-3 years. However, in this instance unlike say 2013-2014, you don't have returning players of pedigree except Koch (you lost your best player). Predictable you would get defensive though.

In general, I want, and the conference wants UNI to be good. It helps us overcome the loss of WSU, but your roster does not scream that this year. I will GLADLY eat crow if you are very good as it's good for the MVC.

What I may be overlooking though is how bad the rest of the MVC might be this year. If we are a Horizon league level conference in 2017-2018, does that mean finishing 3rd is an accomplishment? Doubt it, but that could happen for UNI (or better) if the rest of the conference is incompetent.

BirdsEyeView wrote:

AndShock wrote:Missouri State. 100% due to coaching.

Northern Iowa. 100% due to the players who play on the court.


(They got this far because apparently Ben Jacobson is God and can control how good the players play on the court while sitting on the bench).

I picked UNI 6th and then 5th and then 4th and then 3rd.

I wonder about this polling method. Essentially it eliminates your vote if you are in the minority. I wonder how the results would vary if everybody had to pick the order of finish 1-10 all at once and then the results were tabulated. I'm guessing there would be a significant difference.