The New Lindy's Preseason College Basketball Preview issue is here!

I had a chance to sit down and review thoroughly and takes notes, so I can give everyone a really full review..

and let me start with this...
the issue to say the least...disappointing...and I do say more on this in my full blog, available by private message later...
...it isn't worth driving to the store to get even if it was free...and I can certainly save you the time and money.

I picked up a copy at Borders in Peoria but checked first at Barnes and Noble, but they didn't have it.
Borders (as B&N does, too) allows you to have a cup of coffee and read without having to pay as long as you don't spill coffee on the magazine...so that's what I did.

Let me say it was IMPRESSIVE bad, lacking anything worth praising it for, so my review will indeed be pretty negative.

There were several articles about last year, coaching changes, and who the top teams are...as well as on the topic of women's basketball etc.....
NONE of all this was even worth reading as all of it has been hashed and hashed again for the past 6 months...nothing new.
There was one short story about the new dirty side of college basketball and specifically touched on Calipari and Memphis' issues and on Tim Floyd and the OJ Mayo thing.
But where they missed the boat by a mile is that this cheating has been going on for decades, and they pretend they don't know (or worse, maybe they really don't know) and they never mentioned that the OJ Mayo case and even the 5-6 year old Reggie Bush case at USC still hasn't drawn much of a sniff from the NCAA and it is rapidly cooling off, moving off the front pages and into obscurity, and likely USC will never get penalized as they should.

That would have been the story for them to go after instead of treating all this like it's just too bad that a couple of fine coaches got caught up in an unfortunate little issue!!

OK..the Top 40 preseason teams...
Kansas, Texas, Michigan State, Villanova, UNC, Purdue, then BUTLER at #7 in the NATION!!
(wow- this isn't going to happen often)
Then UK, Michigan, and Cal at #10.
Illinois is #25, Creighton is #34 ....

But I soon came to find that not very surprising because when I read the Missouri Valley section, I found it was NOT ONLY written by the Creighton beat writer (Omaha Herald writer Steve Pivovar) but the guy wrote the entire Valley section as if the MVC only has ONE team.
Everything was Creighton this, and Creighton that oh well.....literary privilege, I guess....
The guy even went so far as to say Creighton's the best team in the Valley this year...but read on below...


OK..here are the conference rankings...
Big 12
ACC
Big East
Big 10
SEC
Pac-10
MWC
A10
CUSA
then the MVC is #10

The Field of 65 has UNI in the auto bid but CREIGHTON as an at large....sorry ISU.

No MVC player gets any kind of mention at all in the entire first half of the mag where they discusses all the best players, the preseason All American teams, etc..
except... the guy ranks Osiris Eldridge as the #19 ranked SMALL FORWARD in the nation!!
Seriously, Osiris doesn't make the shooting guard list, but he makes the small forward list at #19.
But when he independently lists a top 100 players overall...no Valley guys...none.

In the A-10 Saint Louis is picked 12 and they really has nothing whatsoever good to say about them.

In the Big 10, Illinois is 5th, Indiana is 10th.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So now onto the Valley section...not much for anyone....outside of Omaha.

To start with, he concedes that the preseason ranking of the MVC teams is this...
UNI, Creighton, Wichita (seriously, the guy picks the Shockers 3rd), then ISU, SIU, BU (6th), InSU, MSU, DU, Evansville.

OK...so then he discusses the teams and starts with Creighton FIRST AND FOREMOST...and then relegates every other team behind Creighton in the order he picked them to finish...but he spends THREE PAGES talking about Creighton and says they are the best team and really believes they are going to win it anyway...even tho he threw a bone to the rest of the Valley by going with the widespread top pick UNI.
The writer really took advantage of his bully pulpit here to advance a overt Bluejay agenda!


Then he rates the recruiting classes....guess whose recruiting class is not only the BEST in the Valley, it is the ONLY recruiting class worthy of even mentioning and talking about...
yup ......he talks endlessly about all the superb recruits Creighton has coming in.
Nobody else warrants even a mention in small type.

He also lists the BEST incoming recruit and most likely to make the jump to the NBA as Creighton's 6-0 pg Andrew Bock.

Here are his other picks among incoming recruits..
-Most immediate impact on his team - Jake Kelly (still not even eligible at Indiana State)
-Best rebounder - Jordan Myers (SIU) (the kid is their leading redshirt candidate!)
-Best jump shot - Creightons Justin Carter (of course it was going to be a Creighton player)
-Best NBA prospect - Andrew Bock
-Biggest "Signing Coup" (meaning getting a guy who had better offers) - again it's the Bluejays' Andrew Bock! who else??
-Biggest loss they come up with some obscure big guy I had never heard of and label him the biggest loss in recruiting, because guess what...Creighton wa safter the kid and he decided to go elsewhere!!


OK -- some of this writer's awards....I will leave that in the section you have to request privately .. see below...


.....
Then finally....a few words about the BU section....in fact the same words would cover any other section....
nothing new, and nothing even very relevant at all....

All the OTHER team previews were short (the ones for NON-Creighton MVC teams), didn't say much, and could have been written six months ago.....

I can't really give the issue a nod.....or a recommendation


I love college basketball, and I have always loved reading EVERY single preseason issue..
but this I did not love....(I have even stronger words if you want to see them...)
it was a love-fest with the Creighton Bluejays

to see more, log on to BradleyFans.com or check out this thread and send me a private message.
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13075



One last item...Missouri State also has new, redesigned uniforms for this upcoming season...
Here they are...
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs265.snc1/9219_151437760947_577405947_3383370_4174399_n.jpg