I love No. 5, mostly because George Brett wore it. With that as the background, here is a five-spot to start the season:

The MVC’s 5 most intriguing personalities

• Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery. The Salukis slipped the past two seasons – an NIT spot and a losing season. The program has endured some drama with off-the-court issues and player departures. SIU appears to be talented enough to make a good run this season. If they don’t, Lowery will need to do a lot of explaining.
• Creighton junior P’Allen Stinnett. Talented. Creighton needs him to be more consistent and less temperamental. His play is especially important with Justin Carter out for a month with a knee injury. Opposing fans are waiting for a Stinnett meltdown when he comes to town. He’s got to get past that.
• Southern Illinois guard Tony Freeman. He has one season and many expect it to be a big one.  Coaches and media types put him onthe preseason All-MVC team before he played a game in the conference. If he is as good as advertised, SIU is in good shape.
• Indiana State guard Jake Kelly. Another transfer from Iowa who could shake things up in the MVC. Indiana State’s backcourt could be very good. Kelly may end up on the All-MVC team.
• Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall. He’s a big personality in a conference where many coaches are reserved (either by choice or nature) in public. Things get more interesting if WSU is a contender.

5 important non-conference games for the MVC

• Bradley at BYU (Friday) – BYU is the Mountain West favorite and 61-3 in the past four seasons at home. Not an easy task for Bradley. If the Valley wants more than one bid, winning here is a good place to start.
• Creighton at Dayton (Saturday) – Same story for the Jays.
• SIU at UNLV (Nov. 21) – The Salukis don’t get many shots at big wins with their non-conference schedule.
• Northern Iowa at Iowa State (Dec. 2) – The Panthers didn’t do enough last season to build a good non-conference resume. This game starts a tough stretch with home games against Iowa and Siena to follow.
• Wichita State at UMKC (Dec. 9) – Impossible to take the Shockers seriously if they lose to UMKC for a third straight season.

5 important January conference games

• UNI at Creighton (Dec. 29) – The co-champs open the season. UNI played great on the road in 2009. Can the Panthers do it again?
• UNI at SIU (Jan. 6 ) – Tough start for the Panthers.
• Creighton at Wichita State (Jan.9) – Oh boy. Where to start?
• SIU at Creighton (Jan. 13) – Jays play at WSU, SIU, WSU, at Illinois State in mid-January.
• Bradley at Illinois State (Jan. 30) – The MVC is more fun when this rivalry means something.

5 MVC players to watch

• Creighton C Kenny Lawson – He needs to do a lot of heavy lifting on his own. His production might be the MVC’s most telling stat.
• SIU F Carlton Fay – It’s time for him to be more of a consistent force as a junior. He failed to reach double figures in scoring in eight MVC games last season.
• WSU G Toure Murry – Better shot selection and better defense will make him one of the MVC’s best.
• UNI C Jordan Eglseder – Dominated at times. Disappeared at others. He is a senior.
• Bradley G Andrew Warren – An outside shooter is just what Bradley needed.

5 things I don’t like about the MVC

• We need some scoring. Two teams averaged 70-plus points in 2009. Same in 2008. Three did it in 2007. Two in 2006. I’m not asking for Paul Westhead. Could we get a few more teams that look good on offense?
• Coach of the Year is always the coach of the first-place team. Why?
• Cedar Falls, Iowa. Too cold. Too icy. Those roads scare me.
• Women’s basketball. It needs to get better. A lot better.
• Illinois State’s schedule. It needs to get better.

5 things I like about the MVC

• Tournament semifinals in St. Louis. That’s a good day of basketball. The atmosphere in 2006 hit a high point.
• Hoops Pub and Pizza in downtown Peoria.
• It didn’t go crazy during the expansion fever and dilute the product. An 18-team round-robin schedule is  perfect.
• Defense. Watch closely during non-conference games. Teams, and I mean good teams, aren’t ready for the MVC defenses.
• Seniors. Valley players stick around.

• Heights’ Perry Ellis not the best big man in the class of 2012? KCPrepHoops goes with Spearville’s Willie Cauley. There appears to be a lot of talent in the state (and the City League) in the junior and sophomore classes. Ellis’ teammate Evan Wessel, Southeast’s Gavin Thurman and East’s Nathan Jackson are also mentioned.
• Indiana State’s Dwyane Lathan is suspended for two games for playing in an unsanctioned 3-on-3 tournament.
• Creighton’s Justin Carter is out for around a month with a knee injury.
• Jim Benson of the Pantagraph (Bloomington-Normal) breaks from the pack to pick Creighton fourth. He puts the Shockers seventh.
• ESPN’s Andy Katz ranks the MVC 10th among DI conferences.

Evansville handles Hanover. Northern Iowa over Upper Iowa.

Bradley was supposed to scrimmage DePaul today. Drake and UMKC also supposed to practice behind closed doors.

Men’s poll

Team (First-place votes) Total
1. Northern Iowa (38) 389
2. Creighton (1) 336
3. Illinois State 299
4. Southern Illinois 272
5. Wichita State 216
6. Bradley 208
7. Indiana State 173
8. Drake 105
9. Missouri State 92
10 Evansville 55

Preseason all-conference
Kwadzo Ahelegbe, G, Northern Iowa
Osiris Eldridge, G, Illinois State
Tony Freeman, G, Southern Illinois
Adam Koch, F, Northern Iowa
P’Allen Stinnett, G, Creighton
Josh Young, G, Drake
Honorable mention: Kevin Dillard, G, Southern Illinois; Clevin Hannah, G, Wichita State; Jake Kelly, G, Indiana State; Sam Maniscalco, G, Bradley, Toure Murry, G, Wichita State

Women’s poll

Team (first-place votes) Total
1. Creighton (34) 393
2. Illinois State (6) 340
3. Drake 296
4. Northern Iowa 253
5. Indiana State 250
6. Bradley 214
7. Missouri State 188
8. Evansville 108
9. Wichita State 97
10. Southern Illinois 61

• After watching most of the game again, I think I underestimated the importance of UNI’s Kwadzo Ahelegbe’s three jumpers – all contested by the Shockers – late in the first half and early in the second. Each one was a dagger.
• I expected to watch the replay and see WSU’s offense go stagnant during the critical times. It wasn’t a lack of movement or effort so much as it was turnovers and missed shots. WSU’s offense doesn’t look pretty, but I think it is mostly because of missed shots and bad passes, not a flawed approach. The Shockers seem to get a reasonable amount of open looks. I won’t say WSU runs its motion and plays perfectly.There are stretches of too much dribbling and too little moving.  I’m sure the precision and execution will improve with time. It won’t show until shots start to fall. Can that happen? Well, UNI was shooting 31 percent from three in its first 10 games. In the past four, it is shooting 50 percent. I wouldn’t expect that much improvement from WSU, but even a slight increase in percentage would help immensely. Saturday’s loss obscured the fact WSU did shoot 38.9 percent from three (although some of those came too late to matter).
• WSU did just as much damage to its chances in the first half. The Shockers had the lead and the momentum for stretches, yet couldn’t build much of a cushion. They were stuck on 19 points from 9:58 until 3:48. Then they didn’t score for the final 2:23 of the half.
• I would think deep inside the coaching staff had to be prepared for a difficult start to the MVC schedule. In the first eight games, WSU gets Creighton twice, Illinois State, SIU and Drake (the top four teams in the preseason poll). I’m not sure how much easier the schedule gets. We will get an indication when WSU goes to Missouri State, a team that is just as inexperienced as WSU.
• Over an 18-game schedule, most teams will go through ups and downs. Shocker fans should hope they are catching Bradley and UNI when they are hot. If the Shockers keep practicing and playing hard, they will improve. They may catch teams on the slide later. That’s the hope anyway. UNI only has one senior, so it is not a super-experienced team. However, the Panthers have three juniors who have played their whole career at UNI. That right there trumps anything WSU has, without looking at the rest of the UNI roster.
• For example, take a look at UNI sophomore Kerwin Dunham, who redshirted in 2006-07. So he is a third-year Division I player (WSU has one of those, J.T. Durley, and he played his redshirt for a different coach). Dunham didn’t do anything splashy on Saturday. He scored four points, had two assists and four steals. More important, he didn’t hurt the Panthers. No turnovers. One foul. Didn’t take a bunch of bad shots. Getting two or three positive possessions from your bench, as opposed to two or three mistakes from a reserve, makes a big difference. WSU coach Gregg Marshall said last week that at some point youth and inexperience no longer is an excuse. He is right. However, there are reasons why UNI looks sharper than WSU. The Panthers still shouldn’t run the Shockers out of the gym like they did on Saturday.
• Iowa’s population is about 2.9 million. Kansas is about 2.7. That does not seem to account for the fact that Iowa seems to produce many more good shooters than Kansas. Why? Drake, UNI and Creighton operate on a never-ending supply of accurate shooters from Iowa. Where are the similar Kansas kids?

Around the MVC

• The view from Cedar Falls. and Des Moines. I may call in sick for next season’s trip to the Cedar Valley. I saw at least 15 cars abandoned, at least two overturned, on the side of the highway after an ice storm. Next time, I’m taking flares, survival gear and snowshoes.
• Big game of Saturday in Normal. The Redbirds shut down Booker Woodfox. Illinois State has out-rebounded Creighton by a total of 45 in the past three meetings. Redbird guard Lloyd Phillips is a second-half player. The Big O stands for Osiris, not Omaha.
• Missouri State continues to play, and lose, without Chris Cooks.
• It’s been a tough week at SIU. Two players quit. A loss at home. You can watch the Salukis play Drake tonight on ESPNU.
• Evansville wins in Terre Haute.

• Bradley is waiting on the status of forward John Wilkins, who may still join the team for the second semester. The earliest Wilkins could play, after serving a five-game suspension, is Jan. 6 against Illinois State. The bad news is junior Andrew Warren is sidelined with a stress fracture in his foot and may not play this season. Warren averaged 13.2 points last season.
• Illinois State is down two players, both of whom may come back soon. Or may not. Forward Bobby HIll (knee) is practicing in a limited fashion. Guard Alex Rubin (broken foot) will be 100 percent soon, coach Tim Jankovich said. Jankovich said the tough decision will be whether to redshirt one or both or try to work them into the rotation over the remainder of the season. Hill, who can help inside, seems to be the more important of the two players.
• Missouri State coach Cuonzo Martin is excited about adding forward Will Creekmore, a transfer from Boston eligible later this month. “I expect him to bring energy, rebounding and a level of toughness,” Martin said.
• Northern Iowa forward Adam Rodenburg, a transfer from Cal-Irvine, is eligible for Sunday’s game against South Dakota State.
• Southern Illinois center Nick Evans is back earlier from a broken left wrist. He played in Saturday’s loss to Nevada. Freshman Anthony Booker, bothered by a hamstring injury, missed one game and played two minutes against Nevada. Booker, the MVC’s top-rated recruit, is averaging 2.9 points and 12.3 minutes.
• SIU coach Chris Lowery talks about defense, freshmen, Romper Room and leaving SIU.
• The coaches are no doubt aware the MVC is hanging around 10th in the various RPI rankings. It is too early for them to be too bothered. Lowery pointed to the Valley’s 41-10 record at home and 6-17 on the road. His Salukis are 3-5 entering tonight’s game at Northern Illinois. They have played at Western Kentucky and Nevada and played neutral-court games against UCLA and Duke. “Our league is not chicken to go and play people,” Lowery said. “Our league is going to play in tough venues and tough spots.”
• The Atlantic-10 is going to the the national darling outside the BCS conferences, and with good reason. Saturday’s wins over Kansas (UMass) and Tennessee (Temple) clinched that. It is worth pointing out the MVC is 5-1 against the A-10, and not by picking on Fordham and St. Bonaventure.

• Offense, of course, is a big focus in practices this week leading up to Friday’s game against Gardner-Webb. Study reveals screening is a big problem for the Shockers. Marshall said the Shockers were called for around 10 illegal screens during their October scrimmage at Kansas State. Monday at TCU, they barely set any screens. “We simply weren’t screening,” he said. “We weren’t trying to get anyone else open. It was like we were afraid to put our body on anyone.”
• G-W averages 23 threes a game and makes 35.2 percent. “They’ve got some really, really confident shooters,” Marshall said. “They’re very similar offensively to what Texas Tech does. They spray it up, try to take the first, quick, good shot they can find.”
• Marshall admits the past five games in Florida and Texas presented a tough test, probably too much for an inexperienced team. Out of those five, WSU played poorly at TCU and badly in the first half at Texas Tech. Of the team’s five losses, games at TCU and against UMKC stand out as disappointing performances. “Had we been 4-4 right now, I would have been very pleased,” Marshall said. “We’re 3-5, so I’m not pleased. I’m disappointed we let two games go that were winnable for us. We’re one below where I think we should be right now.”
• Marshall had a talk with senior Ramon Clemente after Monday’s game. Clemente scored six points and grabbed 10 rebounds. However, TCU’s Zvonko Buljan went for 17 and 10, guarded mostly by Clemente. “Ramon got outplayed at TCU by a guy who is their third or fourth-leading scorer,” Marshall said. “He got out-hustled, out-toughed, out-scored. I told Ramon ‘If you don’t play well. If you get outplayed soundly – we’re in trouble. We’re going to have a hard time winning, because of his experience. He is the experienced guy.”

Around the Valley

• Former Shocker star Warren (Armstrong) Jabali was honored Saturday in Kansas City. Too bad the Shockers weren’t a better team in Armstrong’s era in the late 1960s. Great player who played on some average teams in a great era for the MVC. He played in the NIT as a sophomore in 1966, when that meant more than it does now. WSU went 14-12 and 12-14 in his final two seasons.
• My Hungarian correspondent isn’t quite sure what happened with P.J. Couisnard’s injury. He is playing again (after apparently dislocating a bone in his foot) and scored 19 points for Soproni in his most recent game.
• Creighton picked up a big win over Dayton on Wednesday night. Things don’t look great for the Valley, but you can’t count Creighton or Illinois State out of the NCAA at-large discussion. Both could still roll up enough victories to be in that position come March. Dayton’s schedule is not impressive, other than one big win at Marquette. We will know more how much this win helps in February.
• Anybody remember Don Battee? He played for WSU in 1974-75.
• I watched Drake’s win over Iowa State on Tuesday. The Bulldogs looked good, better than I thought they would. Bulldog fans can stop panicking over coach Mark Phelps. I don’t think Drake will win the MVC, but they will be a factor. They can shoot.
• Topekan Kyle Weems continues to play well for Missouri State. Why can MSU get a series with Tulsa and not WSU?
• Evansville is 6-1 and Jason Holsinger came back life offensively.
• MVC commissioner Doug Elgin is going to be answering a lot of these type of questions unless the MVC starts winning big. The MVC looks like a collection of fairly average teams outside of Creighton and Illinois State at the top and Indiana State at the bottom. Nobody looks like a top 25-contender or potential seed above No. 8 in the NCAA Tournament.