You’d think a team returning four starters and a double-digit scorer from injury would be a legitimate threat to win the conference.
Not in the Missouri Valley.
Dr. Tom Davis has perhaps his strongest team in his years at Drake, but the defense was absent last year and there’s no reason to expect a change big enough to make the Bulldogs any better than our No. 7 team.
RECAP:
Last season, Evansville had serious backcourt questions.
Those were answered by the stellar play of then-freshman Jason Holsinger, who made the MVC All-Newcomer team and was the Aces’ second leading scorer (12.6 ppg).
This year, it’s the bench that’s in question.
With five starters returning, the Aces have real hopes at a successful 2006-07 campaign. But for the Aces to take the next step into the top tier of the MVC, the bench has to take some weight off the starting five.
RECAP:
The Aces won three of their final four regular season games.
Unfortunately, Illinois St. coach Porter Moser couldn’t suit up for the Redbirds last season.
Moser, a two-year starter for Creighton and a member of the 1989 MVC champion Jays, has had a rough time in his return to the Valley, and last year was his worst season yet.
The 9-19 campaign was the worst of his three year tenure, and he’s 36-51 overall. But Moser returns three players that were integral down the stretch and has some strong newcomers that the Ledger staff feel will be instrumental in the Redbirds ability to stay out of the basement and finish No. 9 in the Valley.
If you’ve ever listened to him talk, you know Royce Waltman is the type of guy who can make you believe pretty much anything.
But addition by subtraction? That’s a hard sell, Royce.
Gone are David Moss (he’s in Europe playing for Polpak Swiecie) and Tyson Schnitker (he transferred to Southern Indiana). Gone with them are a combined 27.3 points, 8 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game.
In their place? A handful of career role players, an unproven junior college transfer and a few freshmen.
Last Friday and Saturday, with Florida-Auburn looming as the biggest football game in the nation on Saturday night, fans packed gyms throughout the country for Midnight Madness to catch an early glimpse of their favorite basketball squad.
We here at the Ledger couldn’t be more excited.
Beginning this weekend, the Ledger will be rolling out the beginnings of its Missouri Valley Conference preview. The teams the Ledger staff has pegged as the ninth and tenth-place teams in the Valley will be broken down this weekend, and two or three teams will be previewed every weekend hereforth, which leads up nicely to the debut of a handful of MVC teams on Nov. 13th.