Men’s Missouri Valley Conference predictions

The Missouri Valley Conference has a much different look this season. Gone are the days of Wichita State being the overwhelming favorite to win the conference with the departures of Fred Van Vleet and Ron Baker. D.J. Balentine from Evansville and Anthony Beane from Southern Illinois, two of the conferences best scorers, also graduated. With the big names gone, a door is left wide open for a new team to take control of the conference, more information at this page.

Without further adieu, here is how The Scout ranks the MVC this season, in order from best to worst.

1: Southern Illinois

The Salukis were a surprise team in the conference last season. The rest of the MVC knew Anthony Beane was going to have a good season, but guys like Sean O’Brien and Mike Rodriguez stepped up to support the team. This year, five of their top six leading scorers return, including O’Brien and Rodriguez. Most importantly, the core of the team consists of seniors. Even though SIU isn’t the most talented team in the conference, they have a wealth of experience. The combination of experience and ability will bolster the Saluki’s MVC championship run.

2: Wichita State

Sure, the Shockers lost two of their best players in program history in Ron Baker and Fred van Vleit and they’re going to be extremely difficult to replace. But Gregg Marshall has clearly built a strong program in Wichita, and he’s recruited some quality players to keep the winning going. The Shockers are going to be in a tight race with SIU for the MVC regular season title, but Wichita State is ultimately going to suffer. Landry Shamet and Shaq Morris will be good, but not great, which is why they won’t win the conference.

3: Illinois State

Like Wichita State, ISU lost its leading scorer from a year ago in DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell, but head coach Dan Muller has built a strong program over in Bloomington. ISU brings back starters Paris Lee and MiKyle McIntosh, but overall they’re just not quite as talented or experienced as SIU or Wichita State. They’ll make another postseason tournament, but they won’t really be in contention for a title; this conference will be a two-horse race.

4: Indiana State

This will be a good team because of one guy: Brenton Scott. He was second on the team in scoring last year behind now-graduated senior Devonte Brown. This season Scott will take the reigns. The Sycamores will have some supporting seniors to take the pressure off Scott scoring-wise too. Indiana State will probably have some defensive issues. Best bet is they hover around .500 this year.

5: Missouri State

Although Missouri State only won eight games in the conference last season, that result was still pleasantly surprising for many Bears fans. The team has a couple strong scorers returning in Dequon Miller and Chris Kendrix, but the rest of the supporting cast leaves little to be desired. However, they have a good amount of experience at the top. Miller and Kendrix will help lead them to a solid finish in the conference and have the potential to pull a UNI-like run through the MVC tournament.

6: Northern Iowa

UNI shocked the conference last year by winning the MVC Tournament and earning a bid to the NCAA tournament. Wes Washpun, Matt Bohannon and Paul Jesperson powered the surprise run, but now they’re all gone. The Panthers will be much different this year; the aforementioned seniors were the team’s leading scorers, so this will be an underclassmen-laden team. Like Bradley, they will go through a lot of growing pains this season. UNI will finish under .500 this year, but they’ll show some encouraging signs of improvement.

7: Evansville

Evansville loses the nation’s top career scorer D.J. Balentine, and the Aces will pay dearly for it. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicious were amazing scorers and wreaked havoc on the conference. Now, the Aces have to start fresh and find new production on offense. Luckily, they have Jaylon Brown to help out, but the team will still have plenty of struggles offensively. This will be a tough transitional year after finishing second in the conference last season.

8: Loyola

We now enter the part of the conference that is significantly less talented than the rest of the MVC. Loyola has Milton Doyle returning as its second leading scorer from last year, but that’s really it. Its best shooters have graduated, so Loyola will have to rely on mostly untested guys this season. Maybe the Ramblers will surprise people if they shoot the ball well, but it’ll be tough for Loyola to put the ball in the hoop consistently.

9: Bradley

This will be another difficult year on the Hilltop. There is no senior leadership on this squad because, well, there are no seniors. Donte Thomas is the most talented player, so it’s nice that he’s also one of the oldest guy on the team. Bradley is still young, and they’re going against a lot more experienced units this year, so they will struggle quite a bit. However, there will be some shining moments. Expect guys like Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye and Luuk van Bree to take big steps forward this year. If they don’t, things could get ugly quick.

10: Drake

Drake will rely on senior Reed Timmer to carry them offensively, just like they did last year. Outside of Timmer, there isn’t much offensive help. Like Bradley, Drake has very little senior leadership; the Bulldogs only have one senior, Jacob Enevold, who played just 17 minutes a game last year. Really, anything more than three wins for Drake would be impressive. They need to take some kind of step forward from their two-win performance in the conference last season.