Drake University's Roman Penn and Tremell Murphy both earned spots on the All-Missouri Valley Conference preseason men's basketball team, the league announced Thursday, October 15. The Drake University men's basketball team was also picked to finish seventh in the league standings.
 
The Bulldogs are coming off back-to-back 20-win seasons and return five of the team's top seven scorers from a season ago. UNI was projected as the league favorite in the annual poll voted on by the league's coaches, media and athletics communications staffs.
 
Roman Penn collected preseason second team honors after leading the league in assists last season while earning All-MVC and All-Newcomer honors. In addition to his 5.6 assists per game, he also added 12.0 points per game and a team-high 43 steals.
 
Tremell Murphy was named to the preseason third team after missing the bulk of the 2019-20 season due to injury. As a junior in 2018-19, he averaged 10.4 points and 6.5 rebounds per game while shooting 50.4 percent in leading the Bulldogs to the 2018-19 MVC regular-season title.
 
The team began practice Oct. 14 in preparation for the upcoming season that is slated to start Nov. 25 at Kansas State.