119 wins over the last five years, six consecutive 20 win seasons, in many expert’s opinion they have the league’s best coach, and seven straight post-season appearances, with the five in the middle being NCAA appearances. Creighton, needless to say, has set the standard in the Valley when looking at the last seven years. On paper, this looks to be the weakest team the Blue Jays have had in some time, but yet it is difficult to pick them any lower than fourth heading into the season. That says alot about the consistency of this program, and how well it is respected around the Valley.
Author: Valley Voice
Drake won 12 games last year following years of 11, 12, 14, and 10 wins. They went 7-11 in the league last year and tied for sixth place. So what is causing all the excitement about Drake basketball around Des Moines, Iowa? Two words: Tom Davis. Dr. Tom returned to the sidelines last year, and led a very young team picked ninth in the pre-season polls to that sixth place finish. He brought his full-court press defense, and Drake finished second in the nation in steals at 11.5 spg, and with all five starters, and nearly every key reserve back, Drake is looking forward to getting another step closer to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1971. The fans are jumping on for the ride as well, as attendance was almost 6,000 per game, the highest at Drake since the 92-93 season.
The scoreboard read Georgia Tech 65 Northern Iowa 60. After the initial taste of a loss was gone, the Panther program had to feel good in remembering where it came from, and that now they had given the eventual Nat’l Champion runner-ups all they wanted in the NCAA tournament. No longer was Northern Iowa the team that Valley opponents looked at on the schedule and assumed a couple of wins. After a 12-6 league slate gave them a tie for second place, Northern beat Southwest Missouri State 79-74 in 2OT’s in the Valley final and went dancing for the first time since 1990. The question now is, can it be sustained?
When coach Steve Merfeld was at Hampton University, his first team went 14-12, his second team went 8-18, went 17-12 in year three, and in year four, as a #15 seed, they knocked off #2 seed Iowa State in the NCAA tournament. At Evansville, he has gone 12-16, then 7-22 last year. A pattern is developing. The Aces may not make the jump all the way to 17 “W’s” in the tough Valley, but the foundation is there, and the Aces are headed in the right direction.
In March 2001, Indiana State defeated Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA before losing to Gonzaga in the second round. Since then, the Sycamores have gone 22-64 overall and 11-43 in the Missouri Valley Conference, with 5 of those wins against one team, Evansville. Looking at this team, it may win more than the 4 “W’s” it has averaged in conference play the last 3 years, but it won’t be easy.
Forgive Bradley if they spend the pre-conference part of their schedule with “Hello, my name is…” stickers as part of their uniforms. Seven newcomers join a roster that has only one senior and two juniors. The transition of playing together with all the new teammates will be eased a bit by the fact the Braves were able to play five games in four days on a Canadian trip in mid-October. The result: five wins, and more of a comfort level with unknown teammates. On the flip side, Bradley lost nearly 50 ppg and 20 rpg due to graduation and departures. No Valley team lost even close to that.
This is the first of ten team previews for the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball season. The teams are presented in reverse order of their predicted conference finish.
Last years edition of the Redbirds did something only 5 of the last 33 Illinois State teams have done: end the season with a losing record. To make it even worse, it was the second of back to back losing records, and the salt in that wound is that going into this year, the outlook is even bleaker.