MVC Standings Predictions thread

[GoShockers89]

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[wufan]

In regards to SIU, you guys do realize that they really only have one post player in Drinkard? Word is his knees are bad enough that he won't be able to log the 25+ minutes they would otherwise need from him.

If SIU finishes anywhere but last this year I'll be shocked. I can't find an updated roster on the Aces right now, but they seem a little thin to me as well. I like a couple of their guys but not sure they have enough in them, even with Marty as coach.

Personally, I'm considering moving Bradley ahead of UNI as well on my predictions. I just went through all the rosters and I think Ford has a pretty good group. Only Loyola and UE weren't up to date.

This! SIU is going to redefine small ball. Drake has some so-so players. I'll st will have talent to compete, but I doubt Mueller can get the new faces to buy in. All told, ISUr returns two years of D-I experience, which is one more than the coach. Loyola wasn't good last year and I expect that trend to continue. The rest of the league sucking is what will push UE and MSU from crappy in the non-con to mediocre in the MVC. I like Mitchell and Tuttle better than Lemon and Pickett, but...

Odum and Arop are as good/better than Baker and Early. ISUb also has some nice role players at several positions. They will finish second barring injury.

[Rlh04d]

Loyola wasn't good last year and I expect that trend to continue

I'll give Loyola this:

They were better than Missouri State in the nonconference schedule. Significantly better.

They finished the season 2-8 after losing two starters and a key contributor to injuries. Prior to that they were 13-8. Obviously they didn't have the depth to compete once the injuries started up, but when healthy they were not nearly as bad as their record looks.

They're pretty young. Only graduated two seniors, and they had a lot of underclassmen on the team.

Their freshman PG Jeff White came on pretty strong at the end of the season after the starting PG was injured.

Still don't think they're going to be good ... but I think there's a chance they aren't a Thursday night team. I think it depends on how big of a train wreck IlSt ends up being.

[SubGod22]

If you want to see the rosters together, they're listed here and as up to date as possible. As I said earlier, I couldn't find updated rosters for Evansville or Loyola. Couldn't find one for us either, but I could plug in what I knew.

As to Loyola, I'm not completely sure what to expect. They weren't very good last season, but they were also one of the youngest teams in the country and they do add Milton Doyle who could potentially be a difference maker for them. Don't know how much talent they have around him. I do believe that even though their record was pretty poor last year, they were fairly competitive and a number of their losses were close. Young teams have to learn how to win those. Yes, I'm trying to be optimistic with them, but there's potential that they may not be as horrid as some think.

[The Mad Hatter]

Odum and Arop are as good/better than Baker and Early. ISUb also has some nice role players at several positions. They will finish second barring injury.

Just based on my own curiosity, I crunched the stats on Odum/Arop and Baker/Early. All the stats are on a per 40 minute basis to account for the fact that Odum/Arop averaged 61.5 minutes per game to Baker/Early's 51.2 minutes per game:

	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Turnovers	Blocks	Steals	FG%	3FG%
Odum/Arop	33.3	12.5	7.3	6.5	0.7	2.9	44.9%	31.1%
Baker/Early	35.3	13.4	4.1	4.5	1.9	2.3	44.3%	33.2%

[tropicalshox]

Thanks for the rosters Sub. I was surprised to see Marus Fillyaw from Cloud Co. CC is at SIU. He must of been a qualifier. I had him down in my file as a 2014 from Topeka with a Shocker look.

[wufan]

Just based on my own curiosity, I crunched the stats on Odum/Arop and Baker/Early. All the stats are on a per 40 minute basis to account for the fact that Odum/Arop averaged 61.5 minutes per game to Baker/Early's 51.2 minutes per game:

	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Turnovers	Blocks	Steals	FG%	3FG%
Odum/Arop	33.3	12.5	7.3	6.5	0.7	2.9	44.9%	31.1%
Baker/Early	35.3	13.4	4.1	4.5	1.9	2.3	44.3%	33.2%

Very interesting. Their stats are quite comparable.

[wufan]

If you want to see the rosters together, they're listed here and as up to date as possible. As I said earlier, I couldn't find updated rosters for Evansville or Loyola. Couldn't find one for us either, but I could plug in what I knew.

As to Loyola, I'm not completely sure what to expect. They weren't very good last season, but they were also one of the youngest teams in the country and they do add Milton Doyle who could potentially be a difference maker for them. Don't know how much talent they have around him. I do believe that even though their record was pretty poor last year, they were fairly competitive and a number of their losses were close. Young teams have to learn how to win those. Yes, I'm trying to be optimistic with them, but there's potential that they may not be as horrid as some think.

Thanks for the roster info. I believe Mike Shaw at BU has to sit out this year. If he were playing, I would predict them for third. Also, Gant at ISUb should start at one of the front courtositions.

[SubGod22]

I went back and forth on Gant, Samuels and Kitchell and which two would start. I admit that I don't recall enough about any of them to be 100% certain.

[Rlh04d]

If you want to see the rosters together, they're listed here and as up to date as possible. As I said earlier, I couldn't find updated rosters for Evansville or Loyola. Couldn't find one for us either, but I could plug in what I knew.

As to Loyola, I'm not completely sure what to expect. They weren't very good last season, but they were also one of the youngest teams in the country and they do add Milton Doyle who could potentially be a difference maker for them. Don't know how much talent they have around him. I do believe that even though their record was pretty poor last year, they were fairly competitive and a number of their losses were close. Young teams have to learn how to win those. Yes, I'm trying to be optimistic with them, but there's potential that they may not be as horrid as some think.

Aha! I knew there was one more point I liked about Loyola that I was forgetting. They were very bad in close games.

It has to be incredibly frustrating to see your team go 2-7 in one possession games.

16 losses ... 6 by double digits, 7 by one possession, 3 in between. And I think four of those one possession losses were during the streak where they were missing so many players.

I think they should have been an 18/19 win Horizon team last year if healthy. Remains to be seen if they can handle losing their leading scorer from last year, but adding Doyle definitely helps.

[SirShoxAlot]

I think they went on a 20 win streak or something like that that year but it included non-con games. Probably what you were thinking of?

Yep. That's it. That, and they won both conference titles, outright and tournament.

[ShockTalk]

If you want to see the rosters together, they're listed here and as up to date as possible. As I said earlier, I couldn't find updated rosters for Evansville or Loyola. Couldn't find one for us either, but I could plug in what I knew.

As to Loyola, I'm not completely sure what to expect. They weren't very good last season, but they were also one of the youngest teams in the country and they do add Milton Doyle who could potentially be a difference maker for them. Don't know how much talent they have around him. I do believe that even though their record was pretty poor last year, they were fairly competitive and a number of their losses were close. Young teams have to learn how to win those. Yes, I'm trying to be optimistic with them, but there's potential that they may not be as horrid as some think.

As for Evansville, Mockevicius (started 33 games last year) will definitely start ahead of Cesnulevicius (played in only 5). Leazer was a walk-on and saw action in only 2 games. I'm guessing newbie Christian Benzon will start or Moore, maybe Howard. Here's a link to the Aces ESPN page on 2013 recruits.

[SubGod22]

As for Evansville, Mockevicius (started 33 games last year) will definitely start ahead of Cesnulevicius (played in only 5). Leazer was a walk-on and saw action in only 2 games. I'm guessing newbie Christian Benzon will start. Here's a link to the Aces ESPN page on 2013 recruits.

Thanks. I probably got the two names confused since I can't pronounce either. UE lost more than just Ryan and without knowing who they added it was hard to place as they weren't that deep.

[SubGod22]

I just went back and looked and Leazer was the only guard left on the roster. Explains why he got the nod from me. :)

[ShockTalk]

Ramblers have updated their roster.