Pre-season Valley picks

[06panther10]

Hard to believe but, practice starts soon. How do you all see the MVC this year?

1. WSU- easy choice, IMO. Most talent, depth, and experience returning. It should be their year.
2. MSU- Good talent returning, and some really good athleticism, with an up and coming coach.
3. UNI- Plenty of talent and depth returning. Defense will continue to be really good.
4. Bradley- Good athleticism, a lot of experience, and a great senior leader in Maniscalco.
5. Creighton- Great big men with Lawson and the Rutgers transfer, but lack guard play, and they also now have to overcome the coaching of McDermott...
6. Drake- Saw some flashes of a good team last year, and they have some decent young talent. Probably will beat some good teams and lose to some bad teams.
7. In St- Jake Kelly returns to what should be a decent ISU team, but they are breaking in a new coach as well.
8. Ill St- Lost a bunch of talent. Good player in Carmicheal returning, but they do not have enough experience.
9. SIU- too many JUCOs, too much player turnover, and a terrible coach.
10. Evansville- duh



IMO, I see us having a season somewhere in the 18-23 wins range. I don't expect us to be a tournament team this year, but its definitely something that we are capable of. I just don't think that we will probably be an NCAA at-large caliber team this year.

I do think having a great experienced PG in Kwadzo coming back will be very beneficial for us. I think we may struggle at time to find guys to score consistently though. I think we will really miss the man in the middle. Replacing guys like Koch, Ali, and Jordan will be tough.

I think our best hope is that we hang around the top half of the MVC standings this year, and we can hope to make another run at the MVC tournament title in St Louis and sneak back into the tournament.

[bobsboy84]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Hard to believe but, practice starts soon. How do you all see the MVC this year?

1. WSU- easy choice, IMO. Most talent, depth, and experience returning. It should be their year.
2. MSU- Good talent returning, and some really good athleticism, with an up and coming coach.
3. UNI- Plenty of talent and depth returning. Defense will continue to be really good.
4. Bradley- Good athleticism, a lot of experience, and a great senior leader in Maniscalco.
5. Creighton- Great big men with Lawson and the Rutgers transfer, but lack guard play, and they also now have to overcome the coaching of McDermott...
6. Drake- Saw some flashes of a good team last year, and they have some decent young talent. Probably will beat some good teams and lose to some bad teams.
7. In St- Jake Kelly returns to what should be a decent ISU team, but they are breaking in a new coach as well.
8. Ill St- Lost a bunch of talent. Good player in Carmicheal returning, but they do not have enough experience.
9. SIU- too many JUCOs, too much player turnover, and a terrible coach.
10. Evansville- duh



IMO, I see us having a season somewhere in the 18-23 wins range. I don't expect us to be a tournament team this year, but its definitely something that we are capable of. I just don't think that we will probably be an NCAA at-large caliber team this year.

I do think having a great experienced PG in Kwadzo coming back will be very beneficial for us. I think we may struggle at time to find guys to score consistently though. I think we will really miss the man in the middle. Replacing guys like Koch, Ali, and Jordan will be tough.

I think our best hope is that we hang around the top half of the MVC standings this year, and we can hope to make another run at the MVC tournament title in St Louis and sneak back into the tournament.

Dunham will be a scorer.....bang!

[Panther-Sheik]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Jordan is the only "unreplaceable" player from last year, IMO. With that said, I would pick us 3rd and hope for better if they put the pieces together and get some big road wins.

[TravelingPanther]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Bradely will be much lower. Why Les is still there is beyond me.

[snoopj]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Personally, you put WSU on top and I think 2 through 6 can just about go anyway. Going to be a very even year outside of whoever can break away between WSU and MSU (personally, I see WSU doing it).

[bobsboy84]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Pass the purple kool aid, please. UNI on top with MSU, WSU, Bradley, CU, ISUblue,SIU,Drake,ISUred,Evansville to follow in no particular order.

[achrist70]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Personally I am not ready to hand over the Valley to the shockers, let us not forget they did lose their best player, replacing Hannah could be tougher than expected for them.

Our key will be getting more scoring out of Johnny and Kerwin, and getting some quality minutes out of Pehl we do that and we will be fine. I really look for break out seasons from Koch and Sonnen, and with Kwadzo's experience at point, we could be very good.

[Cannic88]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Pretty legit predictition. I dont see dunham to be the consistent scorer we need and look for sonnen and kwadjo to have to take over that role. On another note:

Is this the year that will decide if we are truely going to be the next Butler and Gonzaga or just another decent mid-major team. (yes we play in a tougher conference) We have some excellent recruiting classes coming in the next couple of years and I am thinking that this year will either prove to the nation who we are and not just a fluke (yes I know that we have been to the tourney 5 of the last 7 years but the nation doesnt realize that) or if we are going to be a team that is going to be on the fringe of a Butler or Gonzaga. What is everyone else's thoughts.

I think we will finish about 3rd or 4th in conference and will have to hope for another conference tourney championship.

[CyCarp]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Pretty legit predictition. I dont see dunham to be the consistent scorer we need and look for sonnen and kwadjo to have to take over that role. On another note:

Is this the year that will decide if we are truely going to be the next Butler and Gonzaga or just another decent mid-major team. (yes we play in a tougher conference) We have some excellent recruiting classes coming in the next couple of years and I am thinking that this year will either prove to the nation who we are and not just a fluke (yes I know that we have been to the tourney 5 of the last 7 years but the nation doesnt realize that) or if we are going to be a team that is going to be on the fringe of a Butler or Gonzaga. What is everyone else's thoughts.

I think we will finish about 3rd or 4th in conference and will have to hope for another conference tourney championship.

I agree with this. This will be a huge year for UNI from a national view. If we struggle, people will say, "They're just another George Mason who had one good year." If we get to the dance again, a lot of people may take note and put us along with Gonzaga and Butler. This year is definitely key, we're going to have a lot of younger guys getting action, which could really set this program up for a good run.

As for predictions, I honestly think UNI will still compete for the conference after losing Jordan, Adam, and Ali. I do expect WSU to win it, but I wouldn't be surprised if we gave them a run. Everybody is talking about how the offense is going to struggle, but this is a team that rarely gave up 60 points last year, and I expect the same this year. When you do that, it puts you in a good position to win a lot of games. I'm most excited to see James, Sonnen, and Jake Koch this year. Those three youngsters showed a ton of potential last year and with increased playing time, I think they'll definitely pitch in to the offense a lot more. As for Kerwin, the jury is still out on him. He's a guy who can look great one game, then subpar the next. But either way, predictions are just predictions - just look at the 08-09 season.

[Hail Our Panthers]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Personally I am not ready to hand over the Valley to the shockers, let us not forget they did lose their best player, replacing Hannah could be tougher than expected for them.

Our key will be getting more scoring out of Johnny and Kerwin, and getting some quality minutes out of Pehl we do that and we will be fine. I really look for break out seasons from Koch and Sonnen, and with Kwadzo's experience at point, we could be very good.

I tend to agree. I would pick WSU as the pre-season favorite but my heart is really not in it. We the 18 game valley schedule by 3 games..that is significant. And we won every game in the tournament by 15 points. It may take our young team a while to get going but I expect to go to St. Louis in March truly feeling like we can win it.

[UNI83]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

Personally I am not ready to hand over the Valley to the shockers, let us not forget they did lose their best player, replacing Hannah could be tougher than expected for them.

Our key will be getting more scoring out of Johnny and Kerwin, and getting some quality minutes out of Pehl we do that and we will be fine. I really look for break out seasons from Koch and Sonnen, and with Kwadzo's experience at point, we could be very good.

He is also the only player that they lost.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

http://www.pantagraph.com/app/blogs/main/?p=5508

[06panther10]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

http://www.pantagraph.com/app/blogs/main/?p=5508

I don't really understand the love fest for Creighton. But as I continued to read, I realized that he thinks Ahelegbe plays for crieghton, so if thats the case, then yeah I think creighton is good too!

[UNIAlum95]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

I don't really understand the love fest for Creighton. But as I continued to read, I realized that he thinks Ahelegbe plays for crieghton, so if thats the case, then yeah I think creighton is good too!

LOL...


jeepers criminy

[snoopj]

Re: Pre-season Valley picks

I do agree that this would be the year to really start proving that UNI can stay up there in the tops of those with the mid-major label attached to them. There aren't many out there picking up on what's returning and I'm getting that vibe that many thing last year was a flash in the pants and back into middle MVC obscurity. While I think they are rightfully picked to be in the upper part of the league, I could see them winning a couple of games that on paper they shouldn't and losing a couple of head scratchers.

Who knows? The automatic bid is all based on Arch Madness anyway and weirder things have happened. I think they have a shot (along with 5 other teams) to steal away Arch Madness.