Valley Preseason Poll

[Dave Stalwart]

@CarsonTigges: Turns out Illinois St. coach Dan Muller cast the rogue first-place vote for the Redbirds. Kept Wichita St. from being unanimous. Bold move.
10/28/2014

TOOLBAG. I take back all the nice things I said.

[Play Angry]

just lol

[WuDrWu]

Coach Muler must enjoy ass beatings.

[1972Shocker]

@CarsonTigges: Turns out Illinois St. coach Dan Muller cast the rogue first-place vote for the Redbirds. Kept Wichita St. from being unanimous. Bold move.
10/28/2014

That really doesn't bother me that much. After all 3G apparently voted the Shockers 1st. I hope Illinois State does prove to be very good this year. A stronger league is obviously beneficial to the better teams in the league. Hopefully, the Valley as a whole will improve its RPI significantly this year.

Now whether or not it is smart for Coach Muller to poke a stick in a tigers face remains to be seen.

[MadaboutWu]

Thanks for the bulletin board material.

[capnkirk]

@CarsonTigges: Turns out Illinois St. coach Dan Muller cast the rogue first-place vote for the Redbirds. Kept Wichita St. from being unanimous. Bold move.
10/28/2014

That's a lot like your own mom voting you the best looking kid in your class.

[Play Angry]

That's a lot like your own mom voting you the best looking kid in your class.

especially if you're a redhead

[Cdizzle]

Fun fact: If you add up all of Muller's conference wins as a coach, he still would've finished behind WSU last year. I guess confidence is a good thing? Not sure if you can call something based on 0-5 by 12.4ppg "confidence", but there you have it.

[Aargh]

I had a post all typed up this morning speculating it was Muller, but it didn't survive a "read more, post less" evaluation.

Didn't Royce Walton at Indy State always vote them first when he was there? As I recall Indy State would be voted somewhere in Thursday night territory, but always had one 1st place vote.

[RoyalShock]

If Muller is the stand-up guy some say he is, then this could simply be a way to tell his own team he believes that strongly in them. I would think he's smart enough not to cost his team 10 points out of the gate on his own floor by poking the hungry tiger with a stick.

[wu_shizzle]

Coach Muler must enjoy ass beatings.

The only hope the Valley has is that we phone it in some night and our shot's not falling.

Maybe he did us a favor.

[Shock Top]

@CarsonTigges: Turns out Illinois St. coach Dan Muller cast the rogue first-place vote for the Redbirds. Kept Wichita St. from being unanimous. Bold move.
10/28/2014

He'll probably vote Teddy Hawkins POY too...

[WSUwatcher]

@CarsonTigges: Turns out Illinois St. coach Dan Muller cast the rogue first-place vote for the Redbirds. Kept Wichita St. from being unanimous. Bold move.
10/28/2014

Well, you take your chances with something like this. From his point of view, he can now try to use it as a tool to motivate his team, as in, Look, I picked you to be #1 and finish ahead of Wichita State -- so get out there and act like you deserve it. I have faith in you; back me up! On the other hand, he also knows perfectly well he's given WSU bulletin board material when they play the Redbirds, which given what the Shocks put on the floor and what they've done with it the past couple of years doesn't necessarily bode well for his chances in those games.

My guess is that he's hoping the benefit of showing confidence in his team and giving him a tool to push them in the other 16 games will outweigh the cost of giving the Shocks more ammo in the two head to head -- and that's maybe not a bad calculation if your goal is to finish second but you don't want to just come out and say it publicly.

Personally, I'd like to see another Valley team (or two!) step up and be good enough to have a realistic chance at getting into the NCAA instead of hoping to be on the right side of the NIT cut line. Somebody has to do it, and IllState is the one, that's okay with me. After all, even if the Shocks kick their butts twice, it's not like losing to a top ten team, even on your own floor, is a bad loss. Plus, it's good to see someone else in the league do a little swaggering. Now he just has to hope his players come through and he doesn't look like an idiot for trying.

[WuShock Reaper]

[SHOXAAC]

Thanks for the bulletin board material.

Do we need bulletin board material for these red headed step children.