Preseason Athlon Rankings

[Panthers to the Bone]

UNI has come in 3rd in the conference and slotted to represent the MVC in the NIT (according to Athlon Magazine and their recent college hoops preview). The magazine listed SIU as the NCAA rep (winning one game in the tourney too). Wichita State is listed 2nd and UNI 3rd, with both teams going to the NIT (when will these mags remember that the MVC has sent multiple teams to the NCAA's for the past 6 years?). The rest of the order is as follows:

SMS
CU
UE
BU
DU
ISU
ISU Redbirds

Benny Jacobson has his photo in the mag, and he is mentioned heavily in the article done about the Panthers.

My personal opinion is that SIU will not be as dominant as they were last year, and Drake will be better than 8th.

[Marc Wigim]

Wichita State worries me this year, but I just don't think SIU will repeat their success of last year. I say they make the NIT, along with us.

[The Coletrain]

What's up, Fellas. I've been watching this forum for a while now and have finally decided to join. So I'm happy to finally be on board.

As for the aforementioned rankings, I think you could do a poll of the coaches, media, and even the players in the conference and would see a wide discrpency of who's going to finish where. No doubt this league is going to be very competitive next season. As for my thoughts on Athlon's picks, I wouldn't give up on Creighton just yet, and I'm pretty sure Illinois State will move up in the standings. And I think Drake should be better, too.

I don't think there are going to be very many gimmes anywhere in the schedule. It'll be interesting to see where we fall in the mix. We could be top two or even somewhere in the middle depending on how our post play progesses. We're going to need a couple of those young guys to step up in a hurry to be able to win this league. I think our perimeter play should be at the top of the MVC, but we'll have to have someone step up inside to take some of the pressure off our shooters. It should be interesting.

[Marc Wigim]

Hey, is this "The Coletrain" who played in the PMB last year and is a TBS? If so, what up!? If not, it's still cool to have you aboard!

[The Coletrain]

Probably not that guy - not sure what a TBS is to tell you the truth. But I'm happy to be on board and looking forward to a place I can rant with other Panther fans about UNI basketball!!