Wahoo's Comprehensive Preseason CBB Preview: Part 4

[Wahoo]

We will cover the following conferences in this part:

• MAC
• MEAC
• Missouri Valley
• Mountain West
• Northeast
• Ovio Valley
• PAC-12
• Patriot League

Read Part 3 here: 

 

 

MAC

Potentially the best conference in the country, you won’t want to miss any of the MACtion this year. Three teams start in our Top 25, with Bowling Green and Central Michigan narrowly outside the rankings. We project 6 teams to make the tournament, and Northern Illinois firmly on the bubble. While Eastern Michigan doesn’t have any out-and-out stars, we like the balance across the starting lineup and bench (7 B overalls). Buffalo is the opposite and will be relying on their top 4 to have outsized impact. Western Michigan lost a lot of firepower and their roster doesn’t jump off the page, but we think they have some underrated pieces and will surprise in conference play. This Western Michigan team will also be scary in a few years. They have the top 3 freshman - SF Ivan Skeelo, PG Kiran Patel, and PF Su Nguyen - that will all be competing for Freshman of the Year. Either of Bowling Green’s centers Peter Krause and Travis Burkholder could also sneak into the conversation.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	11	Eastern Michigan
2	18	Buffalo
3	20	Western Michigan
4	26	Bowling Green
5	31	Central Michigan
6	38	Toledo
7	56	Northern Illinois
8	101	Kent State
9	108	Ball State
10	119	Akron
11	165	Ohio
12	168	Miami (OH)

 

First Team All-Conference

C Christopher Nettnin	Jr	Bowling Green
SF Glenn Everett	Jr	Central Michigan
SF Matthew Powell	Sr	Western Michigan
PG Clifton Sligh	Sr	Buffalo
SF Stephen Kelley	Jr	Buffalo

 

Second Team All-Conference

C David Tolan	Sr	Eastern Michigan
PF Timothy Fitzpatrick	Jr	Ball State
C Steven Seeber	Sr	Toledo
C Christopher Lovell	Jr	Buffalo
SF James William	Sr	Northern Illinois

 

Top Freshman

SF Ivan Skeelo

Fr

Western Michigan

 

MEAC

There isn’t much to impress here with 0 C-rated or above players. We like Morgan State’s full starting lineup of Ds to have the edge.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	194	Morgan State
2	211	MD Eastern Shore
3	214	Norfolk State
4	290	Howard
5	317	South Carolina State
6	337	Delaware State
7	348	North Carolina Central
8	358	Coppin State

 

First Team All-Conference

SG Li Vargas	Sr	South Carolina State
C Adolfo Bravo	Sr	Norfolk State
PF Sean Arnold	Fr	Norfolk State
SG Oscar Casiano	Sr	Morgan State
PF Ron Joshi	Sr	MD Eastern Shore

 

Second Team All-Conference

PF Robert Sprik	Fr	MD Eastern Shore
SF Peng Verma	So	Morgan State
SG Luis Childs	Sr	Howard
PF Jaime Martinez	So	Morgan State
SG Michael Collins	Jr	North Carolina Central

 

Top Freshman

PF Sean Arnold

Fr

Norfolk State

 

Missouri Valley

Evansville is by far the cream of the crop, with the only B- or C-rated players in the whole conference. They will need to be perfect to improve upon our projected 13 seed.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	136	Evansville
2	216	Indiana State
3	228	Illinois State
4	229	Murray State
5	239	Bradley
6	253	Drake
7	261	Valparaiso
8	272	Missouri State
9	292	Northern Iowa
10	313	UIC
11	315	Southern Illinois
12	359	Belmont

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Eric Kimura	Sr	Evansville
C Solomon Souverain	Jr	Evansville
SG Alan Khurshid	Jr	Evansville
PF Michael Cosio	Sr	Evansville
C Mark Serafin	So	Evansville

 

Second Team All-Conference

PG Joshua Sprecher	Sr	Murray State
PG Scott Gillam	Jr	Evansville
C Mario Hernandez	Fr	Evansville
C James Birch	Jr	Northern Iowa
PF Stephen Brown	So	Evansville

 

Top Freshman

C Mario Hernandez

Fr

Evansville

 

Mountain West

The top of the Mountain West will be a treat, with Colorado State, Fresno State, and Wyoming duking it out for the title. San Diego State is one of our first four teams out of the tournament. Colorado State’s top 2 - Jr. C Andre Mann and (Sr.) SF Jules Stillwell - will compete with each other for the MWC POY award on their way to All-American accolades. Our one concern is if Colorado State has enough depth around these stars to make a deep run. Fresno State and Wyoming both have better pieces to support their primary scorers, but we just can;t ignore the sheer firepower both Mann and Stillwell bring to the table.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	4	Colorado State
2	14	Fresno State
3	23	Wyoming
4	54	San Diego State
5	89	Air Force
6	98	New Mexico
7	99	Utah State
8	104	Boise State
9	123	UNLV
10	124	Nevada
11	172	San Jose State

 

First Team All-Conference

C Andre Mann	Jr	Colorado State
SF Jules Stillwell	(Sr)	Colorado State
C George Tate	Sr	Utah State
C Cameron Champagne	Sr	San Diego State
C Kevin Carey	Jr	Boise State

 

Second Team All-Conference

PF Jason Witucki	Sr	Fresno State
PF Michael Johnson	Jr	Wyoming
C Francis Mcpherson	So	Air Force
SF Max Garner	(Jr)	Colorado State
SG Christopher Leffew	Sr	Wyoming

 

Top Freshman

C Mathew Haines

Fr

Air Force

 

Northeast

Fairleigh Dickinson and Sacred Heart have the most pieces to compete. Sacred Heart have the one C overall in the conference, which could make a difference deep in conference play. However, we favor the top of Fairleigh Dickinson’s lineup that features 4 preseason first- or second-team All-Conference players.  

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	181	Fairleigh Dickinson
2	199	Sacred Heart
3	218	Wagner
4	237	Le Moyne
5	251	Stonehill
6	270	Saint Francis (PA)
7	291	Central Connecticut State
8	300	Merrimack
9	352	LIU

 

First Team All-Conference

C Jeremy Lollis	So	Sacred Heart
C Eric Hall	Sr	Fairleigh Dickinson
SG Peter Aviles	Sr	Saint Francis (PA)
C Robert Mcconnell	Fr	Stonehill
PF Robert Schreckengost	Sr	Fairleigh Dickinson

 

Second Team All-Conference

C Simon Howton	Sr	Stonehill
PG Frederick Fisher	So	Wagner
PG Wen Park	Jr	Central Connecticut State
SG Daniel Olson	Jr	Fairleigh Dickinson
PF Timothy Martin	Fr	Fairleigh Dickinson

 

Top Freshman

C Robert Mcconnell

Fr

Stonehill

 

Ohio Valley

No Cs to be seen here, but the OVC does have more depth than many other bottom conferences. Tennessee State looks to be able to put together the best lineup, and we even favor them to sneak up a few seed lines to 14.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	176	Tennessee State
2	200	Tennessee Tech
3	223	UT-Martin
4	225	SIU Edwardsville
5	276	SE Missouri State
6	284	Morehead State
7	329	Eastern Illinois
8	340	Southern Indiana
9	355	Lindenwood
10	357	Little Rock

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Robert Heather	Sr	Tennessee State
C John Cundiff	Sr	Morehead State
SF Michael Demiri	Sr	Tennessee Tech
SG Adrian Pereyra	Jr	UT-Martin
SG Harold Holley	Jr	SE Missouri State

 

Second Team All-Conference

PF Nhan Rosales	Sr	Tennessee State
PF Minh Sun	Jr	UT-Martin
SG Andre Cook	Sr	Lindenwood
C Ronald Canova	Sr	Eastern Illinois
SG Brandon Bartolone	Sr	UT-Martin

 

Top Freshman

SG Jack Conn

Fr

SIU Edwardsville

 

PAC-12

Could the PAC-12 really only get 2 bids in its final season? Utah will be able to put together the most fearsome starting lineup, but there are stars on rosters across this league, highlighted by Colorado’s preseason first-team All-American Sr. SF Jonathan Hughes. Unfortunately, many of these stars may not get a taste of tournament play. Only Utah and Colorado project as tournament teams, with Colorado just making the cut. UCLA is out first team out, and Washington State makes the next four out. Every league game will be high tension for this bubbly conference.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	10	Utah
2	46	Colorado
3	51	UCLA
4	57	Washington State
5	65	Oregon
6	67	Oregon State
7	92	Arizona
8	97	USC
9	113	Cal
10	127	Stanford
11	137	Arizona State
12	163	Washington

 

First Team All-Conference

SF Jonathan Hughes	Sr	Colorado
C Carl Bolser	Jr	UCLA
PF Timothy Plungis	Sr	Utah
C Esteban Velazquez	So	Oregon State
SG Don Burtner	Jr	USC

 

Second Team All-Conference

C Ian Elmore	Jr	Washington State
SG David Bland	Sr	Arizona State
SF Jared Biller	Sr	Oregon
C Mickey Overby	Sr	California
C Jeremy Wright	Sr	California

 

Top Freshman

PF Stepan Asik

Fr

Colorado

 

Patriot League

Army-Navy may be the best rivalry game of the year. Army is a legitimate national title contender with 3 A overall players, but they don’t have much to back them up. Navy also has a bonafide star in Sr. C William Klee, who will drive this team to the tournament. These 2 teams will fill up the conference awards season, and Army’s Jr. PF Jack Beckmann and Sr. PG Reginald Gray are contenders for national awards.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	2	Army
2	25	Navy
3	204	Holy Cross
4	231	Boston University
5	240	Loyola (MD)
6	245	Colgate
7	265	American
8	285	Lehigh
9	320	Lafayette
10	347	Bucknell

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Jack Beckmann	Jr	Army
PG Reginald Gray	Sr	Army
C William Klee	Sr	Navy
PG Michael Copper	Sr	Army
C Robert Redd	Jr	Navy

 

Second Team All-Conference

SF Clint Springer	Jr	Navy
C John Schall	Jr	Army
C Igor Mower	Jr	Navy
SF Timothy Joseph	So	Navy
PF Hung Takara	Sr	Army

 

Top Freshman

C John Taggart

Fr

Navy