ST. LOUIS—Creighton appears to have the strongest team in a stronger Missouri Valley Conference.
Coach Dana Altman, who has produced 10 straight 20-win seasons and 11 straight postseason bids, was a near unanimous pick on Tuesday to win the league this season. The Bluejays, who finished fourth last year, return seven of 10 players who averaged double minutes playing time.
Returning assets include guard P’Allen Stinnett, a member of the preseason all-conference team after being named freshman of the year and newcomer of the year as a freshman. Josh Dotzler is a three-year starter at point guard for Creighton, which got 36 of a possible 39 first-place votes.
“I think we just have the most guys back,” Altman said. “Our guys are talented, but we’ve got a long ways to go in a lot of areas.”
Creighton was one of five schools to make it to the postseason, although only regular-season and tournament champion Drake (28-5) played in the NCAA tournament as a fifth seed. The Valley sent four teams to the NCAAs in 2006 and is hoping for at least two this season.
Illinois State was relegated to the NIT despite winning 25 games.
“Last year the overall strength of our league probably hurt Illinois State more than anything,” Altman said. “Not taking anything away from Drake, but our league was down.”
Four of the 10 schools won 20 games, three had losing records and three others were near .500. This season, he sees no weak schools.
“When our league’s been the best is when we haven’t had bad teams,” Altman said. “In 2006, we didn’t have a bad team.”
Southern Illinois was picked to finish second, based probably more on past success than the strength of the current roster. Senior guard Bryan Mullins is the only returning starter for the Salukis, who have made seven straight postseason appearances.
Coach Chris Lowery believes schools will be motivated from last season’s NCAA snub.
“All the coaches are challenged to really rise up, because we don’t need to be a renaissance league every five or six years,” Lowery said. “We’ve got to be national every year and we have the coaches to do that, and I think we have the young talent, too.”
Illinois State was picked third, although coach Tim Jankovich’s team has only one returning starter and enters the season with injury issues. Guard Osiris Eldridge is the preseason player of the year after leading the conference with a 17.1-point average last season, but guard Bobby Hill (knee) and forward Brandon Sampay (hip) are not expected to be ready until December and guard Alex Rubin is out six weeks with a cracked bone in his foot.
“We’re going to be a completely different team in late January,” Jankovich said. “I think this is going to be a steeper hill to climb than most years.”
Drake was picked for fourth under new coach Mark Phelps, who stepped in after Keno Davis left for Providence, and Bradley was fifth. Rounding out the conference in polling by coaches, media and sports information directors were Northern Iowa, Indiana State, Evansville, Wichita State and Missouri State.
Drake landed two players on the preseason all-conference team, guard Josh Young and forward Jonathan Cox, who joined Eldridge, Mullins and Stinnett.
Illinois State, led by two time Valley player of the year Kristi Cirone, was a unanimous choice to win the women’s race. The Redbirds are the favorite for the first time after sharing the conference title and winning the conference tournament last season.
Cirone, a senior guard, is the Valley’s active leader in points (1,482), 3-pointers (163), free throws (371), steals (183) and assists (478). Also on the all-conference team were forward Maggie Dwyer of Missouri State, guard Jacqui Kalin of Northern Iowa, guard Maggie Krick of Illinois State and center Shannon Novosel of Evansville.
Drake was picked for third, followed by Evansville and Northern Iowa. The projected bottom half of the league: Missouri State, Indiana State, Bradley, Southern Illinois and Wichita State.
