NCAA Basketball Preview 2014-15: Missouri Valley
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The Missouri Valley was the most lopsided conference in college basketball last season. Wichita State knifed through the conference undefeated en route to a 34-0 regular season while Indiana State was the next best team in the conference, earning a six-seed in the NIT.
Wichita State should have a hammerlock on the conference once again as they return Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet, and Tekele Cotton. They will be without Cleanthony Early and a couple other role players from last season, but the nuts and bolts from last season's team is intact and the Shockers should be a top 10 team again this season. Wichita State made the Final Four in 2013 and could have done the same in 2014 had they not gotten unlucky and drew Kentucky in the one-eight match-up.
After the Shockers, it's a pick'em as to who will be the second best team in the conference. Indiana State was the second best team in the conference with a Missouri Valley record of 12-6, but are losing four key seniors from last year's team. Missouri State will likely leapfrog them because only one of the four seniors they are losing contributed heavy minutes last year. They also have Marcus Marshall healthy again after he played in just 12 games. He averaged 14.3 points and shot 39.6 percent from three as a sophomore last season.
Northern Iowa should be the team that takes the biggest step forward from last year. They are losing no key contributors and the team had six freshman on the roster last year. With those guys a year older and Seth Tuttle bringing his 15.4 points and eight rebounds per game back from last year. Northern Iowa could jump from 16-15 last season to being in the running for an NCAA Tournament bid.
Illinois State is in the same boat as Northern Iowa bringing back their entire roster from last year when they went 18-16. The team is very balanced with three players scoring between 13.5 and 10 points per game. They will also have Michael Middlebrooks healthy after he showed flashes of being a dominant low post player in the four games he played last season.
Evansville could be a top-four team in the conference this year after being the second-worst team in the conference last year with a 6-12 conference record. Like Illinois State and Northern Iowa, all of their key parts from last year are back including D.J Balentine, who averaged 22.8 points per game as a sophomore last season.
Southern Illinois went 9-9 last season in the Missouri Valley and will likely have a similar season this year. They lose leading scorer Desmar Jackson, but have five recruits incoming including power forward Jordan Carolina. This is still an undersized team and will not be able to hit enough threes to offset their disadvantage on the boards.
Bradley went 7-11 in conference last year and could be even worse this year as their losing most of their contributors to graduation. Drake and Loyola look to be a ways away from being .500 programs as well.
Wichita State should win the conference again and could go undefeated in conference once again. The Missouri Valley likely will have many teams that could reach the NIT, but not quite get in the discussion for an at-large NCAA bid. Evansville might be the conference's best hope of a second bid with Balentine's ability to take over a game.
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