Bradley

 

Conference Rank: 9th

OMAHA, Neb. -- The Creighton men¹s basketball team is the near-unanimous pick to win the Missouri Valley Conference, according to the preseason poll announced today during the league¹s annual Basketball Media Day. Creighton earned 36 of 39 first-place votes in the survey of league coaches, beat writers, sports information directors and play-by-play men.

Bradley Braves

 

Bradley (7-3)

Creighton (6-1)

Drake (9-1)

Northern Iowa (7-2)

Southern Illinois (4-4)

Other (Illinois State, Missouri State, etc)

Back with my first daily recap in a couple days. There were 14 games last night, so here are 14 nuggets (1 from each game) to chew on.

1. Coming off a disappointing loss to Michigan State, Bradley rebounded for an important win at Wright State. In what was the game of the night, the Braves won in OT despite off-games from leaders Jeremy Crouch and Daniel Ruffin. Continuing their tour of the Horizon League, BU heads to #19 Butler next.

DAYTON – When a team holds the opponent’s two best players to one total basket in regulation play, you would expect that team to win, unless that team is the young Wright State Raiders.

With their two leading scorers held to just one for 10 in field goals an experienced Bradley team had enough other weapons to defeat Wright State in overtime 72-65.

With 33 seconds left in regulation play and Wright leading by four at 57-53, Bradley’s Andrew Warren hit a 3-pointer to cut the Raiders’ lead to one.

The MVC's hopes of getting multiple teams into the NCAA Tournament are slimmer than they've been in recent years. Yet the talent level isn't too bad, comparable to other 2nd tier leagues like the CAA and WAC. The only real void is the lack of true go-to scoring star like they've had in Jamaal Tatum or Nate Funk. If his first game is any indication however, perhaps Creighton freshman P'Allen Stinnett will be that guy. Another guy off to a great start is Drake's Jonathan Cox, a 6-8 junior averaging 15 and 10 after two games.

MVC Top 10

1. Randal Falker, F, SIU

The Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll is voted on by the league's head coaches, play-by-play men, beat writers and sports information directors.

Preseason MVC Men's Basketball Poll

Rank Team (1st place votes) Points
1. Southern Illinois (39) 390
2. Bradley 311
3. Missouri State 283
4. Creighton 266
5. Illinois State 235
6. Wichita State 210
7. Northern Iowa 197
8. Indiana State 110
9. Drake 80
10. Evansville 63

Bradley (22-13, 10-8)

Creighton (22-11, 13-5)

Missouri State (22-11, 12-6)

Southern Illinois (29-7, 15-3)

Other (Illinois St, UNI, WSU, etc)