ST. LOUIS -- Creighton has been picked to win the 2011-12 Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball crown. The Bluejays return three starters from a team that won 23 games last year. Kyle Weems of Missouri State, meanwhile, has been tabbed the league's Preseason Player of the Year.
Creighton tied for fourth in the league race last season and represented the MVC in the championship series of the CBI, falling to Oregon in a best-of-three series. Returning starters include Doug McDermott, Antoine Young, and Gregory Echenique.
The Bluejays enter the 2011-12 campaign as one of nine schools nationally who have made the postseason in 14 consecutive seasons. McDermott, one of two sophomores on the 2011-12 pre-season all-MVC team, last year became the first freshman since 1951-52 (Cleo Littleton of Wichita State) to earn first-team all-MVC honors. He set the league freshman scoring record with 581 points, and he averaged 7.2 rebounds per game.
Echenique, meanwhile, led the league in blocks (1.83) and field goal percentage (60.9). Young was tops in the conference in assists (5.0) and he averaged 13.1 points per game last season. Both Echenique and Young earned spots on the pre-season honorable-mention unit.
| | MVC Preseason Poll | |
| | School (First Place Votes) | TOTAL |
| 1 | Creighton (29) | 389 |
| 2 | Wichita State (7) | 350 |
| 3 | Indiana State (4) | 331 |
| 4 | Northern Iowa | 245 |
| 5 | Evansville | 234 |
| 6 | Missouri State | 216 |
| 7 | Drake | 159 |
| 8 | Illinois State | 111 |
| 9 | Southern Illinois | 90 |
| 10 | Bradley | |
