PDF Release

ST. LOUIS - Drake, last year's regular season and tournament champion, has been tabbed as the league favorite in the annual coaches' preseason poll, receiving nine of ten first-place votes and 99 points.

Second-place pick Southern Illinois earned 84 points while UNI (75 points) finished third with the final first-place vote. Missouri State took fourth with 67 points. Illinois State was selected in fifth place with 58 points, followed by Valparaiso (53 points) in the sixth slot, Indiana State (41 points) in the seventh spot and Bradley eighth (28 points). Rounding out the poll is Evansville as the coaches' ninth-place pick (26 points) and Loyola as tenth (19 points).