MVCfans.com

Every couple of days we will open a poll for users to predict the end of season finish for the MVC 2023-24 basketball season. We will work in reverse order, concluding with the predicted MVC champion chosen by our users between the last two teams remaining.

Belmont was recently selected as the likely 5th place finisher (results: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6081 )

Poll 9 - Who will finish in 4th place during the 2023-24 MVC men's basketball season?
-You are choosing the team that you believe will finish in 4th place for this regular season.


Official MVCfans.com - Predictions:
12th Place - Valparaiso
11th Place - Evansville
10th Place - UIC
9th Place - SIU
8th Place - Illinois St
7th Place - Murray State
6h Place - Missouri State
5th Place - Belmont
4th Place .......

I'm enjoying the irrational Indiana State love.

UNI finished 8th last year and they return largely the same starters. They add Hutson from Loyola and Heise is back and they jump to 2nd place in the pre-season polls and get a bunch of first place votes.

What am I missing UNI fans?

Not a UNI fan, but I would say UNI has more proven quality MVC players than just about anyone in the league (obviously Born and Anderson in particular), and I think it's reasonable to expect some of the underclassmen who flashed last year to continue to make strides this year. Plus, adding Hutson, getting Heise back and a well-regarded recruiting class ... I get the Panther buzz.

bradley_townie wrote:UNI finished 8th last year and they return largely the same starters. They add Hutson from Loyola and Heise is back and they jump to 2nd place in the pre-season polls and get a bunch of first place votes.

What am I missing UNI fans?

You mentioned Heise and Hutson but also three freshmen that got all league recognition that are a year older and the best recruiting class in the league.

We'll actually be able to defend and rebound this year and that was an issue pretty much all year last year.

As a non panther fan, it seems like Jake’s best teams have been ones that could score efficiently, and control pace through defense and boards. Hutson should help them on the last one, and they now have a stable of wings who can all guard off and on ball. We know they can score, and it could be that Heise’s entrance makes borne and Anderson more efficient. If UNI can make everyone else play their game, they’re going to be real good.

bradley_townie wrote:UNI finished 8th last year and they return largely the same starters. They add Hutson from Loyola and Heise is back and they jump to 2nd place in the pre-season polls and get a bunch of first place votes.

What am I missing UNI fans?

#1 - Jacob Hutson. I think Hutson will have a much bigger impact for UNI than he might have on any of the other top-mid tier MVC teams. UNI simply had no big man and it showed. Tytan did great, but he isn't a 5. Betz and Cole actually did pretty well, but Cole is going to be competing with freshman Wes Rubin for the 10 minutes a game Hutson sits out.
(that's the big one)
#2 - Bowen without injured leg. Gave him a hard time all year. He played 33min/gm.
#3 - Experience. Duax (30min) and Campbell (31min) were true freshmen last year. Tytan (32min) had played 8 min/gm in 22. That's almost half our total minutes played by guys who played zero or few minutes the year before. Coach Jake's teams always play better with experience.
#4 - Freshmen - This is a really good class. Hard to predict this one, so I might later think this should be #2 or #3.

I would ask how Drake has zero votes. Penn and Sturtz were both all-time Drake greats. They both have some significant all-time records. The transfers look good, but it's hard for me to believe they won't be a downgrade for those 60 min/gm.

Coach DD has been super impressive in his ability to bring in guys and meld them into a great team. Maybe that's it.

(This is so difficult with the transfer - so many new players every year!)

sivert wrote:I would ask how Drake has zero votes. Penn and Sturtz were both all-time Drake greats. They both have some significant all-time records. The transfers look good, but it's hard for me to believe they won't be a downgrade for those 60 min/gm.

Coach DD has been super impressive in his ability to bring in guys and meld them into a great team. Maybe that's it.

(This is so difficult with the transfer - so many new players every year!)

If Brodie consistently is in beast mode like he was at Arch Madness and against Miami, to go with DeVries and the newcomers, Drake is going to win a lot of ballgames.

sivert wrote:I would ask how Drake has zero votes. Penn and Sturtz were both all-time Drake greats. They both have some significant all-time records. The transfers look good, but it's hard for me to believe they won't be a downgrade for those 60 min/gm.

Coach DD has been super impressive in his ability to bring in guys and meld them into a great team. Maybe that's it.

(This is so difficult with the transfer - so many new players every year!)

Fair question. D Rock’s on record as saying that Brodie’s slimmed down a bit more and “now has the ability to take over games.” I’m not sure if we’ll see the consistent production at the level of arch madness, but even 80-85% is a huge plus. We also have Tucker and he has supposedly taken another step forward with his body and skill level.

No one is replacing Penn in terms of his assist and game control ability. Coach is looking for Tucker to provide some of that steadiness and take on a larger facilitator role. Think Gibson will surprise some folks with his pure pg abilities too. He’s a real good facilitator. Think Enright will also need to take a step and has that potential.

DD has said this team is probably one of the best shooting teams he has had. The thing that will dictate our season is the ability to gel as a unit and how we account for the loss of defensive tenacity from Wilkins and Sturtz. If this group can find that, we’ll win a lot. If not, we’ll still win quite a bit, but probably slide to 3-5 range.