MVCfans.com

Each week we will open a poll for users to predict the end of season finish for the MVC 2015-16 basketball season. We will work in reverse order, concluding with the predicted MVC champion chosen by our users between the last two teams remaining in week 9.

Indiana State was selected as the 6th place finisher (results: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4217 )

Week 6 - Who will finish in 5th place during the 2015-16 MVC mens basketball season?
-You are choosing the team that you believe will finish in 5th place for this regular season. Poll open until Monday, September 28.


Official MVCfans.com - Predictions:
10th Place - Bradley
9th Place - Missouri State
8th Place - Southern Illinois
7th Place - Drake
6th Place - Indiana State
5th Place - .....

Ufor me it was LUC again, but I would have voted ISUb here.

I think the Valley really needs Loyola to be a very good team ASAP. If they can attain 5th this year and improve on that next, and get more Chicago talent to stay perhaps it can happen.

This year's race for 2nd through 5th is going to be a dogfight. If not for losing Doyle for 11 MVC games last year, Loyola probably would have finished 4th or 5th in 2014-15 (0-5 in five games against 3rd-5th place teams without him, 2-0 with him-- both away from home). I think losing the steadiness of Christian Thomas in the frontcourt probably keeps Loyola about the same as last year. Can ISUr actually be better without Lynch? How much does UE improve with the the same guys in the same system? With a solid home court record historically, UNI will certainly win 6+ league games at home (maybe as many as 8) but how many out of 9 conference road games without Seth Tuttle/Nate Buss/Marvin Singleton? Which team(s) in the top 5 lays eggs at 6th or 7th place teams (or worse)?

I think the league will have Loyola, UE, UNI and ISUr all in the 10-13 win range, so the non-con SOS tiebreaker might come into play for a couple of these teams; UNI has the toughest non-con schedule, ISUr might be 2nd toughest. Loyola's non-con schedule is improved, but probably still weakest in the group.

shockalot wrote:I think the Valley really needs Loyola to be a very good team ASAP. If they can attain 5th this year and improve on that next, and get more Chicago talent to stay perhaps it can happen.

Any team improving is good for the Valley as a whole, but back-to-back tourney appearances by the Panthers would be the biggest boost to the MVC this year. Maybe Luke McDonald can be what Doug McDermott was supposed to be. ISUr needs to get over the hump as they are slowing improving year-by-year. UE could have a monster season this year, but they look to fall off the cliff after Mock graduates. Bradley is an historically good program...better than WSU, so hopefully Wardle can get them out of their historically bad slump.

Rambler63 wrote:This year's race for 2nd through 5th is going to be a dogfight. If not for losing Doyle for 11 MVC games last year, Loyola probably would have finished 4th or 5th in 2014-15 (0-5 in five games against 3rd-5th place teams without him, 2-0 with him-- both away from home). I think losing the steadiness of Christian Thomas in the frontcourt probably keeps Loyola about the same as last year. Can ISUr actually be better without Lynch? How much does UE improve with the the same guys in the same system? With a solid home court record historically, UNI will certainly win 6+ league games at home (maybe as many as 8) but how many out of 9 conference road games without Seth Tuttle/Nate Buss/Marvin Singleton? Which team(s) in the top 5 lays eggs at 6th or 7th place teams (or worse)?

I think the league will have Loyola, UE, UNI and ISUr all in the 10-13 win range, so the non-con SOS tiebreaker might come into play for a couple of these teams; UNI has the toughest non-con schedule, ISUr might be 2nd toughest. Loyola's non-con schedule is improved, but probably still weakest in the group.

Jacobson hasn't finished 5th since his first and second year as a head coach. I don't see him back there this year either.

This is where UE finishes under Martyball.

A 11-3 non con that looks good on paper but is against a majority of teams with a 250+ RPI.

Then a typical .500-.650 run in the MVC because everyone knows how to defend the motion offense.
Call it 12 - 6

UE plays Friday and loses.

23-10

Back to back CIT champions. Hang another banner boys!

I'm voting UE here on out until eliminated.

shockalot wrote:I think the Valley really needs Loyola to be a very good team ASAP. If they can attain 5th this year and improve on that next, and get more Chicago talent to stay perhaps it can happen.

I think everyone in the Valley overstates what Loyola can possibly bring. Let me paraphrase: They ain't bringing Chicago.

PurpleAndWhite wrote:This is where UE finishes under Martyball.

A 11-3 non con that looks good on paper but is against a majority of teams with a 250+ RPI.

Then a typical .500-.650 run in the MVC because everyone knows how to defend the motion offense.
Call it 12 - 6

UE plays Friday and loses.

23-10

Back to back CIT champions. Hang another banner boys!

I'm voting UE here on out until eliminated.

12-6 is going to be better than 5th. The numbers don't work out. So, either you're overly pessimistic about where your team finishes, or overly optimistic as to what that means for the win total.

PurpleAndWhite wrote:This is where UE finishes under Martyball. Then a typical .500-.650 run in the MVC because everyone knows how to defend the motion offense. Call it 12 - 6

This is my prediction as well.

Edit: Maybe not 12-6... 10 or 11 wins.