Other Valley teams - 2015-16

[SHOCKvalue]

[_kai_]

You guys really going to go for the over weight jokes and bring a wife into it? Come on now, there are plenty of other things to poke fun of Evansville for that are much higher hanging on the tree.

How about back to basketball talk?

[shocka khan]

You guys really going to go for the over weight jokes and bring a wife into it? Come on now, there are plenty of other things to poke fun of Evansville for that are much higher hanging on the tree.

I resemble that remark. On the eve of my 18th birthday, I was 5'6" and weighed 120 pounds. It worked out pretty well for me in my 20's....I grew to 5'11" and was pretty chiseled for awhile. Same for my 30's, when I started running 30-40 miles a week. By my late 40's I was up to 220.....but I rode my bicycle 5000 miles one year (I was captain of our corporate MS-150 team).

Now I just look like Marty. Except I'm a little older than he is ;)

By the way, my friend was right, she's a very attractive lady and aging has done her well (unlike me).

[WSUwatcher]

... 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.

Easy with your standings math there, kai.

Let's even assume WSU disappoints us and loses a couple. If those other three go 14-4, 13-5, and 12-6, that makes four teams a combined 55-17 in conference play, which in turn requires the rest of the league to go 35-73 combined. That's an average of a bit worse than 6-12 for the other six teams, two of whom are Loyola and IndSt. Just how bad do you expect Drake, MoST, SIU, and Bradley to be, especially if they pick off a few against your 2nd-4th group? It's just hard for the numbers actually to work that way.

[wufan]

I would expect the second place team to be 12-6 in conference, but one of them might break away and finish as high as 14-4. I believe last year the records were 17-1, 16-2, 11-7, 11-7. 9-9. BU, SIU, MSU will be very bad! Drake will be somewhere south of 8-10.

[_kai_]

Easy with your standings math there, kai.

Let's even assume WSU disappoints us and loses a couple. If those other three go 14-4, 13-5, and 12-6, that makes four teams a combined 55-17 in conference play, which in turn requires the rest of the league to go 35-73 combined. That's an average of a bit worse than 6-12 for the other six teams, two of whom are Loyola and IndSt. Just how bad do you expect Drake, MoST, SIU, and Bradley to be, especially if they pick off a few against your 2nd-4th group? It's just hard for the numbers actually to work that way.

Maybe you think more highly of Drake, MSU, SIU & Bradley's talents than me? I think there is a huge disparity in talent in the 2-4 range and the 6-10 teams.

[WUpigsooie]

I don't think anyone has given this opinion yet so here it is. I've got Loyola finishing 2nd. They quietly finished pretty strong last year without Milton Doyle at 100%. ISUr is athletic but lost their two most important players in my opinion with Lynch and Knight. UNI could be fine, but they will go cold from 3 on a few nights on the road and lose 2-3 ugly ones, without Tuttle to carry the load and create shots. Finally I can't see Evansville finishing any better than 10-8 in conference play. They went 9-9 last year and I can find a single way to argue that they could have gotten better. Unless Balentine all of a sudden plays D and turns into a great passer he is the same player he's been the last 2 years, Mockevicius could be much better but in Marty's offense you'll never know it because he won't get enough touches. I see same old middle of the pack Evansville, DJ gets hot one night and they beat a top half team, they play awful another night and lose to Drake by double figures.

Wild Card: Indiana State they were very young last year and didn't look outclassed against the top half of the valley, some of those underclassmen could make a leap and surprise us.

[WuDrWu]

I can't disagree about ISUb at all. More than any other team, their upside makes me take notice.

ISUr has DAP, who is a hell of a player. Hawkins and McIntosh have size and a world of upside. The transfer from New Mexico gives them more than their fair share of size and Lee is a good point guard. ISUr is good.

UNI announced Jesperson hurt his foot and is out 3-6 weeks I think. That's going to potentially hinder them in their big early non-con games against SFA, UNC and some other solid team that escapes me at the moment.

I think Loyola played above themselves (much like the Allies in 'Victory' early in the 2nd half) last year. I can't see a big step forward, but that's just my opinion.

[Dave Stalwart]

It seemed like Evansville had some kind of a transfer guy becoming available this year. For some reason I had it in my head that they were adding something that was supposed to be fairly decent to balance out the offense. That's a team that can greatly benefit from one other strong player. To me they are just really close to having all the pieces and if something happens to put them over the top in that regard they could be pretty good. But yes I do agree that if it's just another year of mock and Ballentine doing the same old thing with Marty Simmons and no supporting cast then they probably are no better than a middle of the pack team as usual.

[ShockdaWorld]

It seemed like Evansville had some kind of a transfer guy becoming available this year. For some reason I had it in my head that they were adding something that was supposed to be fairly decent to balance out the offense. That's a team that can greatly benefit from one other strong player. To me they are just really close to having all the pieces and if something happens to put them over the top in that regard they could be pretty good. But yes I do agree that if it's just another year of mock and Ballentine doing the same old thing with Marty Simmons and no supporting cast then they probably are no better than a middle of the pack team as usual.

Harris Brown is expected to be a pretty decent point guard, but he's a freshman. The only transfer I saw was the 7'1" kid that transferred in from Nebraska, where he scored 4 points in 16 minutes as a freshman in 2013-14.

[Dave Stalwart]

Harris Brown is expected to be a pretty decent point guard, but he's a freshman. The only transfer I saw was the 7'1" kid that transferred in from Nebraska, where he scored 4 points in 16 minutes as a freshman in 2013-14.

Check out Willy Wiley

[Ricardo del Rio]

Check out Willy Wiley

For some reason, Coyote comes to mind.

[wufan]

Check out Willy Wiley

Wiley Coyote has a chance to be a stud. Marty has to use him though. Remember that last year was Balentine and Mock as juniors. Everyone else was a sophomore. Those guys could make a leap forward and they aren't chopped liver. They also added a 7 foot transfer from Nebraska so they will be able to go big for 40 minutes if they choose. The Aces roster is stacked with skilled players.

[wufan]

I don't think anyone has given this opinion yet so here it is. I've got Loyola finishing 2nd. They quietly finished pretty strong last year without Milton Doyle at 100%. ISUr is athletic but lost their two most important players in my opinion with Lynch and Knight. UNI could be fine, but they will go cold from 3 on a few nights on the road and lose 2-3 ugly ones, without Tuttle to carry the load and create shots. Finally I can't see Evansville finishing any better than 10-8 in conference play. They went 9-9 last year and I can find a single way to argue that they could have gotten better. Unless Balentine all of a sudden plays D and turns into a great passer he is the same player he's been the last 2 years, Mockevicius could be much better but in Marty's offense you'll never know it because he won't get enough touches. I see same old middle of the pack Evansville, DJ gets hot one night and they beat a top half team, they play awful another night and lose to Drake by double figures.

Wild Card: Indiana State they were very young last year and didn't look outclassed against the top half of the valley, some of those underclassmen could make a leap and surprise us.

While I can see the standings playing out this way, I'm betting against it and side with @WuDrWu:. Also, ISUb is just like UNI this year. They have a good Valley backcourt but need two bigs to step up. The injury to TJ Bell (their version of Shaq Morris) was huge.

[kcshocker11]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/drake-hoping-turn-corner-2015-16-231151199--ncaab.html