So I've never watched much MVC basketball. Can anyone shed any light on what the style of play is like in the MVC versus how it was in the Horizon League? Is that going to play to our advantage or not? I'm interested to see what style of play Porter adopts to help us within the new conference.

Different MVC schools play slightly different styles. Northern Iowa, for instance, plays a similar style to the older Green Bay teams, in which they shoot threes with great accuracy to help open things up inside, control tempo, and play plodding defense. But in general, the thing that sticks out for me when watching MVC basketball is upper body strength. You won't see a lot of frail, lanky guards in the MVC.

Compare UW-Milwaukee's roster this year with a random team in the MVC, like Missouri State. Milwaukee has six players weighing 180 or below. Missouri State has one, a Freshman, and six players at the guard position who weigh 190 or more. Milwaukee only has four guards weighing 190 or above. Missouri State has four players over 225 pounds, including two Sophomores and a Freshman. Milwaukee has three. And there's a big difference between raw weight-- which tends to cut down on speed-- and strength, which doesn't. I'd say those two teams that I picked at random show the difference. You could pick two other teams at random and see a similar dynamic.

MVC teams also tend to spread scoring more evenly and rely a bit less on high-scoring guards. The top two scorers in the Horizon last year were combo guards (Ray McCallum from Detroit and Kendrick Perry from YSU). Meanwhile, three of the top four scorers in the MVC last year played all or most of their time as a forward, including Doug McDermott from Creighton and Jackie Carmichael from ISUr. I think the officiating style also lends itself to this dynamic, in which a lot of physical play isn't called-- particularly in the paint. So I expect strength training to be a big part of Loyola's transition to the MVC.

This is probably one of the bigger factors differentiating the leagues -- and it could be gone this year.

With the new rules in place that explicitly outlaw hand checks, arm bars, etc. the play could open up quite a bit. I've seen quotes from several coaches noting how many free throws have been taken in exhibition games already this year. It will take awhile for teams to adjust to tighter officiating, but overall we could see a more free-flowing game. That's a good thing, in my opinion, even if it means watching a few free throw shooting contests early in the year.

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Bradley's exhibition game against Upper Iowa was an example of how the new officiating emphasis is going to impact MVC teams. Between Bradley and Upper Iowa, there were 75 free throws. The Bradley beat writer had a good article on the new officiating emphasis:

http://www.pjstar.com/bradleyhoops/x115 ... -a-monster