MVC Preseason selections

[Cdizzle]

Now I'm curious if Muller was one of the 2 people that voted ISUr first in 2013. Might give me some guidance as to what he thinks a first place team looks like.

[uniftw]

Illinois State has a great potential to be this year's rpi disaster for the league. With all the new players, IlSU is likely to stink up the court in non-con and start figuring it out about the time league play rolls around. Lots of potential talent at IlSU, but I've seen what Muller did with Jackie Carmichael, and he had proven, not potential, talent.

ISU returns 4 of 5 starters and have a couple of subs returning as well.

UNI returns 8 people with starting experience (including Jesperson at Virginia).

UNI has 11 guys back that saw pretty good/significant time (including Jesperson at Virginia).

Belittle UNI for winning "first loser" last year, but this first loser returns a lot more (With a much better coach) than Illinois State

[Championz]

All I see from Redbird fans is a lot of yapping but no substance whatsoever to back anything up. It's been that way for 17 years now.

Christ, you'd think Illinois State was a team coached by Tom Izzo, coming off an undefeated season and Valley championship. Seems like the Mullerism disease is spreading. Could be a huge death toll if expectations of a Top 10 Redbird team don't pan out.

[jturner38]

1. It's a preseason selection. WSU should be the #1 pick UNTIL the rest of the teams prove they are looking like contenders. No matter how you think your team will do what is the reason NOT to pick Wichita st?

2. UNI is the most LIKELY team to challenge WSU. Does not mean that UNI will finish 2nd even though they have the talent. Evansville has the talent too but will Marty realize that he has more than just Ballentine?

3. I dont think Mo St will finish 3rd because their non conference schedule doesnt look that challenging. Even though they get Marcus back I just dont think they finish 3rd. I think they will really miss Gullley. More so from a rebound perspective.

4. ILL st has a lot of things to prove. All about player execution in games and if Coach Muller proves his voting for #1 wasnt a foolish attempt. He still not a proven Coach yet in my eyes. Anybody other than Redbird fans agree or disagree? Redbird fans youre welcome to counter my opinion. Not saying Muller cant coach never said that.

5. I think this is gonna be a good test year of Greg Lansing coaching ability. I already think he is a good coach but the success he had partly to do with #13. Now that he has new pieces with some key returning pieces and a injury how will Lansing run the Sycamores? I personally think he finds a way to get them to finish higher than 7th/6th. Im going with the Sycamores will not play on Thursday (My prediction) I have counter arguments for those that disagree though. One concern would be frontcourt depth but I have the most likely solution for that. Im going to the scrimmage on Nov. 9th to see what they will look like.

6. Once again everybody will need to do well in non-conference. Good luck to all the teams in the league.

[Grons]

uniftw, I wasn't trying to "belittle" UNI's team, fans, or program. UNI deserves respect and has it from me and many others in and out of the Valley. The point I was trying to make was you didn't win the conference title last year...You haven't won it yet with the current group of guys you have either.

I just find it funny that some people think UNI is going to be the only "real" competition to WSU and some are going as far to say they will be 14-4 in conference play. The Redbirds split with UNI last year and UNI only won 1 more conference game then us...I could go on and on about all the adversity we faced last year too(most inexperienced team in the nation, 2 guys over 6"4 majority of the season,etc). Evansville and MSU surely don't think UNI is the only competition to WSU.

One thing is for sure, The Redbirds are bigger and more athletic then they were last year. Our new found height will afford us the opportunity to play different defense sets other than a zone. We will look like a different team out there, but we still have our two best pieces coming back in Lynch and Knight. We also have a ton of solid role players coming back. We are deep. It's going to be a fun year for the Birds. Good luck to all!

[BTbird]

Illinois State has a great potential to be this year's rpi disaster for the league. With all the new players, IlSU is likely to stink up the court in non-con and start figuring it out about the time league play rolls around. Lots of potential talent at IlSU, but I've seen what Muller did with Jackie Carmichael, and he had proven, not potential, talent.

ISU returns 4 of 5 starters and have a couple of subs returning as well.

UNI returns 8 people with starting experience (including Jesperson at Virginia).

UNI has 11 guys back that saw pretty good/significant time (including Jesperson at Virginia).

Belittle UNI for winning "first loser" last year, but this first loser returns a lot more (With a much better coach) than Illinois State

I think you responded to the wrong message. I never belittled UNI for being "first loser". I agree with you 100%. UNI was great last year and they will be even better this year. I think your coach is one of the best in the valley as well. WSU was a historically great MVC team last year so there is no shame in second place. I was simply responding to a comment that said is going to stink it up early and be an rpi nightmare because of all the new players. I was just reminding that poster that our nucleus is still in place from last year. UNI didn't even cross my mind when I posted that or any other school for that matter.

[BTbird]

4. ILL st has a lot of things to prove. All about player execution in games and if Coach Muller proves his voting for #1 wasnt a foolish attempt. He still not a proven Coach yet in my eyes. Anybody other than Redbird fans agree or disagree? Redbird fans youre welcome to counter my opinion. Not saying Muller cant coach never said that.

Nope, sounds about right.

[Cdizzle]

Just for the record, UNI did not take 2nd in the league last year. I'm expecting a great year from UNI, but they were a marginal team last year; finishing just above .500 in league, and below .500 (against a good Non-con, but still) in the non-conference.

You could just as easily make the case for UNI that "the good news is, everyone's back. the bad news is, everyone wasn't that great last year" as you could that they will grab 13-15 Valley wins and challenge a Top 20 team for the conference championship. I'm more on the side of UNI being a fringe Top 25 team, myself. But the argument wouldn't be far-fetched.

[Rollbird5]

4. ILL st has a lot of things to prove. All about player execution in games and if Coach Muller proves his voting for #1 wasnt a foolish attempt. He still not a proven Coach yet in my eyes. Anybody other than Redbird fans agree or disagree? Redbird fans youre welcome to counter my opinion. Not saying Muller cant coach never said that.

What I'd say about Dan is that usually you have to give a new coach a couple years to get his players in and his system implemented. He now has his players and system in place so this will be the year to determine how good of a coach he will be or won't be.

[mathewson10]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... all-season

I guess the crazy Redbird fans aren't the only ones making crazy predictions.