Every year, sports editors from various student newspapers at schools across the Missouri Valley Conference take their own MVC preseason men’s basketball poll. After the tradition started at The Standard, Missouri State’s campus newspaper, The Scout is continuing it in 2022.
The Drake Bulldogs were the unanimous pick to win the Valley, with a cluster of other schools in the mix behind them. Drake returns four key players from a season ago, where they lost to Loyola Chicago in the MVC Championship game.
The members of the poll also vote on first, second and third team awards, along with All-Freshman, All-Newcomer and All-Bench team awards, similar to how the MVC’s official polls are structured.
The poll’s voters comprised of: Jonathan Michel: The Scout, Matt Lucas: The Scout, Mason Klemm: The Scout, Scotty Prerost: The Vidette (Illinois State), Reid Watkins: The Vidette, Makayla Strickland: The Standard (Missouri State), David Warrington: The Northern Iowan (Northern Iowa) and A.J. Wuest: Belmont Vision (Belmont).
Below are the results of the 2022-23 MVC Student Writers Preseason Basketball Poll:
Standings (first place votes):
Drake (7): 84
Bradley: 75
Southern Illinois: 71
Northern Iowa: 63
Belmont: 51
Missouri State: 48
Murray State: 43
Indiana State: 37
Illinois State: 29
Valparaiso: 24
Illinois-Chicago: 14
Evansville: 7
All-MVC First Team (points)
Tucker DeVries, Drake (105, *Preseason Player of the Year), Marcus Domask, Southern Illinois (92), Rienk Mast, Bradley (91), Ben Sheppard, Belmont (85), Cooper Neese, Indiana State (76)
All-MVC Second Team
Ben Krikke, Valparaiso (67), Roman Penn, Drake (59), Lance Jones, Southern Illinois (50), Donovan Clay, Missouri State (40), Bowen Born, Northern Iowa (30, won tiebreaker)
All-MVC Third Team
Garrett Sturtz, Drake (30), Rob Perry, Murray State (28), Kobe King, Valparaiso (19), Cameron Henry, Indiana State (18), Malevy Leons, Bradley (13)
MVC Coach of the Year
Darian DeVries, Drake (22), Bryan Mullins, Southern Illinois (9), Brian Wardle, Bradley (8), Casey Alexander, Belmont (6), Ben Jacobson, Northern Iowa (2).
All-MVC Freshman Team
Robbie Avila, Indiana State (35, *Freshman of the Year), Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Belmont (22), Michael Duax, Northern Iowa (18), Isaiah Walker, Belmont (17), N.J. Benson, Missouri State (15)
All-MVC Newcomer Team
Duke Deen, Bradley (29, *Newcomer of the Year), Keishawn Davidson, Belmont (17), Brian Moore Jr., Murray State (17), Bryan Trimble Jr., Missouri State (12), Matthew Lee, Missouri State (12)
All-MVC Bench Team
Zach Hobbs, Indiana State (23), Ville Tahvanainen, Bradley (18), Dalton Banks, Southern Illinois (17), Ja’Shon Henry, Bradley (14), JaCobi Wood, Murray State (14)
