Do you smell basketball in the air? While fall fans are having tailgates for football games or getting ready for the next soccer game, many basketball fans are counting down to October 12th when the 2012-13 college basketball season begins. The first bounces of the ball for team practices is just a month away, with games only a few weeks after that.
Creighton basketball had a great run last season going 29-6, winning the MVC tournament championship and winning an NCAA Tournament game. With All-American, Doug McDermott, coming back along with almost everyone else, the hype machine is on full speed.
Leading up to this season, many publications will take their shot at providing information to fans on what to expect by trying to predict the first Top 25 poll as well as projecting the final 68 teams in the Big Dance. Lindy’s Sports is the first preseason magazine on the shelves and we picked up a copy on Tuesday when it came out. They had a lot to say about Creighton, McDermott and the rest of the MVC. Whether you are cheap or if you are just looking for the highlights, here is a breakdown of what they had to say.
Number 8?
The thing that sticks out the most in the magazine is right on the front they have the top 10 teams. While many other preseason predictions by the national media have the Bluejays somewhere in the teens, Creighton is sitting at #8 by Lindy’s. Now I drink the blue Kool-Aid as well as some, but being put up that high is somewhat of a surprise. That’s ahead of national powers UCLA, North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis, Syracuse and Michigan State.
According to the piece, that means they think Creighton will be a #2 seed based on this ranking. If last year was any indication from the NCAA selection committee, a year like last season will only earn them an 8 seed. But if the hype meter gets them out there early and the Bluejays answer the call, who knows. Lindy’s is taking things a step further and expecting the Bluejays to make a run to the Elite 8. Wouldn’t that be something? I guess the key is the #8.
Local Contributions
Readers will get a share of familiarity when reading the capsules on the MVC. Omaha World-Herald Creighton beat writer, Steve Pivovar, does the write-ups on each of the teams as well as a couple other articles in the magazine. Pivovar uses his unbiased views to rank the league and does a nice job breaking down the teams. About the only thing he doesn’t do on the MVC is the recruiting section, which was done by Frank Burlison.
The Top Small Forwards
At the early part of the magazine, there are player ratings for each of the positions. It isn’t a surprise here that Doug McDermott is sitting at the top of the small forwards list. Behind McDermott in the list is Solomon Hill from Arizona, Tim Hardaway, Jr., from Michigan and Jamaal Franklin from San Diego State. Along with the position rankings is a feature on one of the players in the listing. Surprisingly, only two of the five positions feature the top player in the list, with McDermott being one of them. As I read the article, it almost seemed like I read it before. Oh yeah, I read it before in the OWH earlier this summer. If you read this article, then you pretty much have read this from Pivovar as he did the feature on McDermott.
A Little Love for Echenique
Hidden behind the promotion of McDermott, Gregory Echenique is mentioned several times throughout the magazine as well. Echenique is listed at #20 of the top 25 centers in the nation sandwiched in between Keith Clanton from Central Florida and Davante Gardner from Marquette.
One thing to note: According to this list, Echenique will be going up against four “centers” ranked ahead of him during the regular season– Tony Mitchell from North Texas (2), Zeke Marshall from Akron (11), Jared Berggren from Wisconsin (16) and Jackie Carmichael from MVC rival Illinois State (18)
The Top Frontcourts
Farther into the magazine, they rank the top 10 backcourts and frontcourts. Once again, McDermott and Echenique make the rankings as the 10th best frontcourt in the nation. Even Grant Gibbs was mentioned as a part of that frontcourt as he is the third best rebounder on the team returning this season. Their quote: “Ok, you thought you’d see a list of the best frontcourts this season that didn’t include the best forward in the country? Not a chance.”
Non-Conference Tilts
Looking through the rest of the rankings, there is always the question of how well did the Bluejays schedule in the non-conference. At the end of the year, things may turn out quite differently than what is predicted. As it stands now in the early season preview, Creighton will play only one team out of the top 25 (Wisconsin thanks to the Las Vegas Invitational). There isn’t even a team in the rest of top 40 that will play the Jays. It is sort of disappointing only for the fact that teams like Saint Louis (9), Pitt (28), Saint Mary’s (35), Drexel (36), Nevada (37) and VCU (38) were all looking for games late in the game, but for some reason Creighton didn’t end up on the radar.
Out of the predicted field of 68, in addition to Wisconsin, the Bluejays will play Akron and North Texas who are both expected to get the conference’s auto-bid. California is expected to make the field this year as well
But lets take a look at the opponents the Jays do have and where Lindy’s predicts they will finish this season:
- North Texas–1st in the Sun Belt
- UAB–6th out of 12 teams in C-USA
- Presbyterian (Las Vegas Invitational)–6th out of six teams in the Big South South division
- Longwood (Las Vegas Invitational)–5th out six teams in the Big South North Division
- Wisconsin (Las Vegas Invitational)–5th out of the 12 team Big 10
- Arizona State/Arkansas (Las Vegas Invitational)–The Sun Devils are picked 9th out of 12 teams in Pac-12 while the Razorbacks are picked 5th out of 14 teams in the SEC.
- Boise State–7th out of 9 teams in the Mountain West
- St. Joseph’s–5th out of the 16 team A-10 behind St. Louis, Butler, Temple and VCU
- Nebraska–Last in the Big 10
- Akron–1st in the Mid-American conference
- California–4th in the Pac-12 behind UCLA, Arizona and Stanford
- Tulsa–10th out of 12 teams in Conference USA.
Valley Breakdown
The main story in the MVC section of the magazine talks about how the MVC wants to be more than a one-bid league. Last season they did get back to multibid status with Creighton and Wichita State going to the big dance. While Doug Elgin professes how they want to continue to have multiple teams in the tournament, Lindy’s isn’t convinced.
In a different part of the magazine, Lindy’s lists their 68 teams they think are headed to the NCAA Tournament. Creighton is the only one listed for the MVC getting the automatic bid. They also rank the Valley as a conference #12 sandwiched in between the Colonial (who took a big hit with VCU leaving to the A-10 and Old Dominion a lame duck team headed to C-USA) and the Ivy. So the magazine doesn’t consider the MVC a conference to reckon with other than promoting Doug McDermott.
All-Conference Teams
Here were the predictions for the All-MVC teams:
First Team
- Jake Odum, Indiana State
- Colt Ryan, Evansville
- Jackie Carmichael, Illinois State
- Doug McDermott, Creighton
- Gregory Echenique, Creighton
Second Team
- Anthony James, UNI
- Tyler Brown, Illinois State
- Carl Hall, Wichita State
- Ben Simons, Drake
- Seth Tuttle, UNI
Third Team
- Anthony Downing, Missouri State
- Desmar Jackson, Southern Illinois
- Grant Gibbs, Creighton
- Malcolm Armstead, Wichita State
- Dantiel Daniels, Southern Illinois.
Here is what the team capsules had to talk about. The ranking below is how Pivovar predicted.
- Creighton–Creighton was the only MVC team that got a full-page spread when they were talked about. There isn’t anything new in here that most Creighton fans don’t know already. McDermott and Echenique will be in the post with Will Artino and Geoff Groselle backing them up and hoping their contributions will let Wragge be more of a sniper outside. In the backcourt, Austin Chatman is taking over the point guard role with the departure of Antoine Young and having Grant Gibbs as an extra guard out there. Jahenns Manigat, Josh Jones, Avery Dingman, Nevin Johnson, Isaiah Zierden and Andre Yates are all mentioned as possible options. One other thing mentioned is that Johnson is the Top Newcomer for the Bluejays where he can help on perimeter defense as well as being a slashing scoring threat from the wing.
- Illinois State–The story on them talks about Dan Muller coming in to be the coach, the Nic Moore transfer and Kaza Keane coming into replace Moore. He will have the keys to the offense with Jackie Carmichael and Tyler Brown as the big 1-2 punch while Jon Ekey, John Wilkins and sixth man Bryant Allen talked about briefly. Carmichael was mentioned in the part of the magazine in a section called “Off the Beaten Path” where they talk about players that people may not be familiar with, but might catch people’s eye as the season goes on.
- Wichita State–Their capsule talked about how the Shockers had their non-conference schedule wrapped up in mid-June based on their loss of nine senior scholarship seniors in the past two years. Coach Greg Marshall talks about his talented but inexperienced group with what he calls the best he has had at Wichita State. Demitric Williams and Carl Hall are the most experienced players back and there are expected larger contributions from Oregon transfer Malcolm Armstead and Ohio transfer Joe Mitchell. In the recruiting section by Burleson, he says the newcomer to make the biggest impact is guard Fred Van Fleet and expects him to start or play a lot of minutes. He also mentioned that signing Van Fleet was the “Number 1 signing coup.” However, in the same breath he says that the biggest miss was the Shockers missing on local talent Perry Ellis.
- Northern Iowa–The first part of their review talks about head coach Ben Jacobson’s decision to not allow his players to play in the Prime Time Summer League but instead stay on campus to take part in the new NCAA rules on practice time with players in the offseason. The fact that they have 12 lettermen and a couple of redshirts returning could give the notion that they have a veteran team heading into the season, especially with basically five returning starters–Anthony James, Jake Koch, Marc Sonnen, Seth Tuttle and Deon Mitchell. Don’t be surprised to see UNI move up as the year goes on. If they don’t, I’m sure the people in Cedar Falls will start to get a little restless
- Evansville–Of course there is the obligatory talk about Colt Ryan, probably one of the overshadowed scorers in the country. Coach Marty Simmons is expecting a better supporting cast for Ryan this season with Troy Taylor, Ryan Sawvell, Ned Cox, Lewis Jones and Jordan Jahr taking on expanded roles. In the Recruiting section by Burlison, he talks about freshman Adam Wing who fits the mold of Ryan. He was a Mr. Kentucky nominee that is reportedly equally dangerous spotting up or coming off screens while shooting off the catch, or beating defenders off the dribble and then launching from any range. Looks like there could be another player that will give opposing defenses headaches similar to Mr. Ryan.
- Drake–Drake is in sort of a rebuilding mode with eight newcomers to the program. The capsule talks about the transfer of four players, including Rayvonte Rice, and two others who gave up basketball all together. The rest of the preview talks about the return of Seth VanDeest and the addition of Chris Hines, who graduated from Utah, but had a year of eligibility left. There is a small mention of Ben Simons. As far as recruiting goes, there is a lot of talk in that section about incoming forward Daddy Ugbede who is coming to the Bulldogs from Nigeria and expected to be a top rebounder in the Valley right away. He is also expected to be the newcomer that “Takes you by surprise.”
- Indiana State–As with a lot of coaches, the talk in this preview is about the extra time that they were able to spend with players this summer. For the Sycamores, it might be good considering their only starter back is Jake Odum and nine newcomers to the program. The rest of the copy is spent talking about Odum and his battle and recovery with his foot problems. One player we are told to keep an eye on is Manny Arop who was a top 100 recruit coming out of high school and transferred to Indiana State from Gonzaga last season.
- Missouri State–The information needed for this publication was late enough that it included the loss of Jarmar Gulley for the season due to an off season ACL tear. It compounds the loss of Kyle Weems, Caleb Patterson and Michael Bizoukas. This season it is Anthony Downing surrounded by a cast of role players and five newcomers to the team.
- Southern Illinois–There is a lot of talk in this capsule about Barry Hinson coming in and the Chris Lowery firing and how Hinson is going to turn the program around. The last paragraph does outline the returning players and the addition of Wyoming transfer Desmar Jackson who may be the “star” replacement for Mamadou Seck.
- Bradley–Geno Ford was not afraid to talk about his team last season– “We were the worst shooting team in the league…I don’t know if we were the softest team in the league but we weren’t the toughest.” Although they have seven lettermen returning, Ford said the Braves need to upgrade their talent. The capsule talks about Will Egolf getting a sixth year of eligibility. I am really starting to think that Bradley is getting a habit of having centers for six years.
All in all, the Lindy’s preview is a nice read, and really, I haven’t even gotten through the 220 pages of information yet. What is sometimes a drawback to these publications is the information can get outdated quickly. With a lot of this information turned in sometime in July or so for this to get published, there still has been a lot that has changed in the past few months–the transfer of Kansas’ Milton Doyle, the transfer of Cezar Guerreo from Oklahoma State or the fact that Waverly Austin is not going to South Florida now. However, it is still fun to get the hard copy publications in hand knowing that basketball season is that much closer.