Other Valley teams - 2015-16

[shoxlax]

This is a easy breakdown of the league this year:

Us
Next tier: UNI, ISU Blue, Eville, ISU Red
Bottom Feeders: SIU, Drake, Bradley, Mo State
Wild Card: Loyola. The Ramblers could finish anywhere from 2nd to 7th. Seriously

[WuDrWu]

uni will be really good this year. not as good as last year (30-4) but still really good (24-7?). much like when wsu lost 5 seniors from a top-25 team but went to the final four the next year. they are loaded. washpun, morgan, jesperson, lohaus etc.- they're better than your average, say, big 12 team.

Yeah, I can't totally get on board with that. Don't get me wrong. Washspun is better than I thought, I like Jesperson (not great, solid) and Morgan is really, really good. Lohaus? It's a name. He's ok. Screams mid major. Heady but undersized, under athletic. Nothing at all proven inside. No tough guys. No inside guys to run the offense through. You have to remember that often times one guy makes many other guys better. Tuttle did that...in spades, in ADDITION to being really good himself. Maybe he passed those skills along to the next Tuttle, but I think that's stretching it a bit.


Don't misunderstand me, UNI will always be solid with Jake, but lets not overstate their successes. I've chronicled this more than once BUT in conference:

05-06 11-7
06-07 9-9
07-08 9-9
08-09 14-4
09-10 15-3
10-11 10-8
11-12 9-9
12-13 11-7
13-14 10-8
14-15 16-2

Great 3 times, pretty much average (also crazy consistent) the rest. But when they were great? Old, experienced, really really good big men. It's just a different game without post men you can count on.

[Dave Stalwart]

Yeah, I can't totally get on board with that. Don't get me wrong. Washspun is better than I thought, I like Jesperson (not great, solid) and Morgan is really, really good. Lohaus? It's a name. He's ok. Screams mid major. Heady but undersized, under athletic. Nothing at all proven inside. No tough guys. No inside guys to run the offense through. You have to remember that often times one guy makes many other guys better. Tuttle did that...in spades, in ADDITION to being really good himself. Maybe he passed those skills along to the next Tuttle, but I think that's stretching it a bit.


Don't misunderstand me, UNI will always be solid with Jake, but lets not overstate their successes. I've chronicled this more than once BUT in conference:

05-06 11-7
06-07 9-9
07-08 9-9
08-09 14-4
09-10 15-3
10-11 10-8
11-12 9-9
12-13 11-7
13-14 10-8
14-15 16-2

Great 3 times, pretty much average (also crazy consistent) the rest. But when they were great? Old, experienced, really really good big men. It's just a different game without post men you can count on.

Based on this strong statistical data, UNI is virtually a lock for a 9-9 to 11-7 season. I'll put them down for 10-8 and 3rd or 4th place next year.

[Blackmag]

Good points made by everyone, Tuttle was a big, big loss. But you still have a lot of guys coming back from the Tourney and as we know experience goes a long ways in building confidence. Their not super athletic like us but they do have shooters and they made a point to get more defensive. I look for them to battle for second behind us. If ISUr plays to their potential and Indiana State improves with their young players it could be interesting. The target will be big on the Shocks back, biggest game of every Valley teams season. We're use to it, I think our depth and guard play will be a load to handle, not just for the Valley, but for our non-con. foes too.

[Aargh]

Baker has landed awkwardly on a foot before. All it did was slow him down a little. Probably knocked his stats down enough to move him into the second round in the NBA draft.

[_kai_]

I think that the only way the MVC is strong this year is through non conference wins, because I have a feeling that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th placed teams will have cannabalized themselves by the end of the conference season. Right now I can't pinpoint a clear #2, and like it's being stated, UNI returns some good talent, just not THE talent that got them to their amazing season last year. Can they pull it off and mesh and pick up with no pieces lost? That's the big question. I just fear that Illinois St., Evansville, and UNI will split their games, and drop a couple to the bottom dwellers here and there, and they all end up with something like a 14-4 to 12-6 conference record.

[Dan]

Ill State has a strong core with Purcell, Hawkins, Lee and McIntosh. If a couple new guys like Banyard and Brewer step up and have a decent seasons, I think they can win a lot of games. IMO, they have more talent than UNI, Evansville and Loyola. Do they have the chemistry and coaching to keep themselves together?

[shocka khan]

I think Evansville has to be the clear favorite for 2nd (unless Hawkins gets out of the dog house at Ill. State). They have Mock, which will allow them to push valley teams around underneath and they have reasonably good (i.e. relative to the rest of the MVC) guards.

I'm thinking their inside/out game ought to make a real difference in a number of games.

Of course if Hawk and Muller have kissed and made up, Ill. State might be a force, but losing their center (Lynch) will hurt them a lot. I really liked his game. They will miss his size down low.

[ShockdaWorld]

I would've penciled in Ill. St. at #2 if Lynch was still there. Without, I'd have to move Evansville up into that spot, even with arguably one of the worst coaches in the MVC. I still think Ill. St. is top 3-4 along with UNI.

[shocka khan]

I would've penciled in Ill. St. at #2 if Lynch was still there. Without, I'd have to move Evansville up into that spot, even with arguably one of the worst coaches in the MVC. I still think Ill. St. is top 3-4 along with UNI.

The most amazing thing about this....my friend from Indiana says that Marty's wife was a hottie (Miss Indiana, I believe - at least a beauty queen) when she was young. Marty was Mr. Basketball for the state of Indiana. Now he's a fat slob who trolls all-you-can-eat buffets. Does anyone know if his wife is still a hottie? Inquiring minds would like to know.

[Dave Stalwart]

The most amazing thing about this....my friend from Indiana says that Marty's wife was a hottie (Miss Indiana, I believe - at least a beauty queen) when she was young. Marty was Mr. Basketball for the state of Indiana. Now he's a fat slob who trolls all-you-can-eat buffets. Does anyone know if his wife is still a hottie? Inquiring minds would like to know.

The really sad thing is do you remember how a couple years ago there were articles written about him and his team that were centered around his weight loss? And then he put it all back on. I mean, it was really fun to cheer for him when he got thin, but it was so short-lived that now it's just kinda sad. I'm a bit of a yo-yo dieter myself so I feel like I can talk. There's just something funny about trimming up and making the news for it...like it's a new chapter in Evansville basketball, and then putting it back on.

[RoyalShock]

I think Evansville has to be the clear favorite for 2nd (unless Hawkins gets out of the dog house at Ill. State). They have Mock, which will allow them to push valley teams around underneath and they have reasonably good (i.e. relative to the rest of the MVC) guards.

This would be an accurate statement if the UE players were in UNI jerseys (or just about any other MVC jersey, sans SIU). But since they're not, it means their coach is Marty Simmons. That's worth 1-2 spots in the conference standings.

[ShockdaWorld]

The most amazing thing about this....my friend from Indiana says that Marty's wife was a hottie (Miss Indiana, I believe - at least a beauty queen) when she was young. Marty was Mr. Basketball for the state of Indiana. Now he's a fat slob who trolls all-you-can-eat buffets. Does anyone know if his wife is still a hottie? Inquiring minds would like to know.

I have a friend from Evansville. She said at the end of last season that she was letting her season tickets go until Marty was gone. She probably knows if his wife is a hottie. I will ask and get back to you.

[im4wsu]

I have a friend from Evansville. She said at the end of last season that she was letting her season tickets go until Marty was gone. She probably knows if his wife is a hottie. I will ask and get back to you.

[RoyalShock]

Coaches on the hot seat

6. Barry Hinson, Southern Illinois: The once proud Southern Illinois program has had to endure Hinson’s three-year tenure. He’s thrown his own players under the bus during a postgame press conference and publicly remarked about his job security this spring. The Salukis own a 40-57 record and 19-35 mark in conference play under Hinson and he lost five transfers this offseason, three of them freshmen.