MVC Season 40 Preview East Division
I put Creighton/SIU in the NT again, but I think that is it. Evansville is PT possible.
CreightonOverall 108.7
PG Mather105.7
SG Bellomy109.4
SF Bailey118.6
PF Wright114.7
C Tylor95.1
6th man SF Searles116.6
7th man PG Rogers100.9
Creighton returns its backcourt and both its key SFs last year’s team.John Bailey is a dynamic scorer who was able to hit double figures last year, and this year will be a leading scorer in the MVC.Robert Wright is probably the key to the season as the only really talented low post scorer, but Creighton should be an NT team and be in the mix for the conference championship.Bellomy is only a sophomore, but is already one of the top 3 SGs in the MVC.
Southern IllinoisOverall 105.0
PG Houston 114.8
SG Rick92.9
SF Hollis116.2
PF Anderson111.3
C Kovar97.3
6th man PG Goodlett108.1
7th man C Woodyard94.2
SIU returns 3 of 5 starters from a 22-7 conference championship team, but the lost of Merchant and Hunt hurts.Much of the Saluki’s success relies on RS freshman SG Jay Rick to hit enough outside shots to keep the double teams off Hollis and Hunt, the 2nd best forward combo in the east.In the end, I think Creighton is a little bit better at every position except PG, and 4 of 5 is enough for me to pick SIU second.With strong non-conference play, SIU should be a double digit NT seed this year.
EvansvilleOverall 98.3
PG Chambliss 110.4
SG Kinchleoe92.3
SF McCampbell97.0
PF Gray95.3
C Boyter101.4
6th man SF Johnson94.4
7th man PG Hagans97.5
Evansville returns the entire roster from a 14-14 team last season.Chambliss is the best player, and there is a lot of depth for the fastbreak offense, but there isn’t one stellar scoring option, so if the Purple Aces have to play in the halfcourt, they seem a bit lost.Joshua Boyter is probably their best option inside, but he only has a 77 rebounding, so there are some holes in the team, which is going to cause them to struggle to make the PT at around 15-11 or so is my prediction.Another small factor to mention is that Evansville is probably the worst FT shooting team in the MVC, which won’t help them win any close ones.
DrakeOverall 91.1
PG James 101.7
SG Hodges86.6
SF Pesce88.1
PF Oglesby83
C Stachowksi90.4
6th man PG Forsyth102.7
7th man C Wolverton85.1
Drake returns 5 of its top 7, and is considerably better than last year.James and Forsyth are actually pretty good at PG, and with some lucky 3 point shooting Drake could steal a game a home from a human team, but still, they aren’t good enough inside to beat any real teams.
Bradley87.1 overall
PG Freeman100.2
SG Sanders83.0
SF Thompson85.2
PF Bowman75.3
C Brooks89.6
6th man C Tate83.3
7th man PG Belser 92.7
Rome was not built in a day, and neither will Bradley.Teamrc had to be dreading this season when he took the job, but I expect Bradley will improve quickly.Jim Freeman is the best player by far, and he will try to lead the Braves to a double digit win total, but it might be tough to hold onto the D+ prestige this year.No one graduates, so I expect a much stronger team next year as rc brought in a lot of high potential players.
Indiana StateOverall 87.0
PG Patenaud82.7
SG Dequezman96.7
SF Fiqueroa95.2
PF Smith79.3
C Scott94.9
6th man C Dufour83.1
7th man SG Jones76.9
Only 2 returning starters off a 6-21 team last year yields the worst team in the MVC this year.ISU will struggle mightily until a human comes to rescue them.Probably in the best place to recruit from out of the sim teams in the MVC.