Messages

Welsh-Ryan arena itself is not that nice. Sure it seats 8100, but its old and deteriorating...easily the worst in the B1G (now, there are also some awesome facilities in this league).

You are exactly right, 62, that if you win, an old, beat-up arena is called quaint, historic, etc....but when you lose, its called an excuse.

All of that said, I've seen some drawings of the lakefront plans and they are impressive. If they pull this off, they will jump to the top half/third of the B1G immediately in terms of facilities.

I must say, I find this talk of San Jose very distressing.  I'll have you know I have my heart set on driving to the venue.

Just a leisurely 2100 mile drive from St. Louis, but you may wanna get started pretty soon. 

If it doesn't break the bank, I would obviously be flying.

KANSAS CITY!  KANSAS CITY!  KANSAS CITY!

Wedding Crashers
Dayton, Auburn Hills or Lexington!

NW State 68
SFA 66
Final

and spousal permission...

"...uh...I have to go see a man about a horse. See you in a few days!"
<JB runs out door to already running and packed car, throws it in reverse then screams down the street>

The CIT is for the mid-majors (no BCS teams allowed), and teams must have winning records...not sure if that makes it "better" or not.


The CIT also doesn't use a true bracket format, nor do they "seed" the teams. They schedule the 16 first round games, and use geography as much as possible to cut travel. Then, they take the 16 remaining teams and "reset" the field, and so on. Bit strange, but it helps the teams not travel all over the place.

Speaking of uniform colors, etc.  This came across the Facebook wire earlier today.  Valpo will apparently be sporting very bold/gold kicks for the tourney this year. 

Why are they part blue?

No blue. Perhaps the lighting but looks black to me. They are gold and black.

Very common. 100k is quite high, however.

I wonder if Tubby Smith will be soon to follow...

Minnesota reportedly will give Tubby a 100k (no, there's not an extra zero, that's 100k) just for making the NCAA Tournament. Somehow, firing him after that kind of bonus would seem odd. Then again, I'm not sure why he would get a bonus like that....it seems a bit shocking that he could get that for doing something that half or more of the teams in his conference do annually.

Sorry if those came across as harsh/attacking towards you...just woke up and was feeling combative

Over the years, it's gotten to a point where SID's played get fuller and fuller, and the visible results are smaller and smaller, I just know how hard they work and how much they deal with, so I get fired up on that type of debate.

I say, we just screw the local news, make some national headlines and we will be on the front page of every paper nationwide

Did they(VU) even send out a release to her hometown paper(s)?  I don't know. It seems that we lack good info from the University.  Do we even have an SID?  If we have one, what does he or she do??  I appears to be"not very much".

1) Yes, we have an SID. We also have two interns in the department.

2) I would be quite surprised if these stories are not sent to any and all appropriate media outlets.

3) What does an SID do?
Website, media guides, game stats, game notes, game stories, records, stats, reporting, game management, tv/radio management, interview requests, media requests, scheduling picture/video/etc., travel with the teams...that's just the start. We have 19 sports...with three people, they are busy, I can assure you (I've held that position at a different school...its a full-time job and then some)


As a former SID, your comments, IMO, are uneducated and are very typical of people who have no idea what an SID actually does. SID's have a TON more responsibility than writing and putting out game stories...if the local papers choose not to use what they receive (and they get a lot...way more than they can fit in a newspaper) that's their choice.

Most local papers have cut staff to a point where they just take the AP national news and print it and they are done...local/regional news doesn't matter to them anymore.

Wonder if there's any chance they move this to the ARC....you know, we do have the big screen in there, and there would be more room.

They are bold. They look awsome.

We were the 13 and played 12 seed Florida State.  They didn't have their light uniforms so they wore dark and we wore white.

[Utah]

We will set a dozen more finals today...I will update the "Seeding" post as those get set for some perspective on the whole deal. Also, root for Utah in the Pac-12.

Bryce talking about it all:

Nice video! 

Bryce's Skype mic is better than Ryan's.

But, it's a little funny that they do this stuff by Skype.  Valpo presumably has better TV (and radio) production facilities elsewhere on campus?

Yes, but it was filmed at 10:30 last night. Bryce was probably at home.

Lots of good discussions here, but in my opinion, the overal RPI ranking of conferences isn't really a factor in seeding.  What I'm trying to say is that it obviously impacts overall SOS and RPI, but beyond that, the committee doesn't really look at conference affiliation.  Their task is to select the "best teams" and seed those teams based upon what they've achieved.

Ding!! The committee will look at raw numbers, not the conference affiliation.

Do not forget ML's comment last year about a succession plan being in place.  I took it as its just a matter of time. 

Any athletic director WITHOUT a succession plan and short list (for AT LEAST their top sport, usually most of them) is a very poor athletic director.

[Drew family gets some very good news]

Saw this on Andy Katz's (ESPN) blog today:

Drew family gets some very good news

Homer Drew was resting his aching left knee Wednesday, fresh off arthroscopic surgery for a torn meniscus suffered while playing with his grandchildren.

He had a piece of the Valparaiso net with him at home, a symbol of the first Crusader NCAA berth since 2004 and a gesture by his son Bryce that meant even more than anyone could value.

Within the past week, the Drew family received the most wonderful news that they have longed for since their world was rocked in October 2011.

"Janet is cancer-free," said Drew in his comforting Midwestern tone. "We've got to get to the next six months to get to the year mark.''

Janet and Homer Drew received cancer diagnoses within a week of each other. Homer's was prostate cancer. Janet's bladder cancer was much more serious, which led to a number of complications and multiple surgeries. But she has rallied the past year. I spent days with the Drew family in late 2011 and shared their story with ESPN.com. I'm not sure I've been around a more positive family going through such an ordeal.

(Emphasis added)


Forget the NCAA, forget the HL Championship, this is the best news anyone in the Drew family could get. Family is so much more important that basketball in the grand scheme and this is certainly news we've all been waiting to hear.

Continued prayers to the Drew family...and anyone else who may need them (I happen to be a Catholic...this is certainly a time of great prayer for us).


The full blog post is below:
es.pn/WcChwW

1). Pitt. They are not an offensive juggernaut by any means. A team tht probably can't blow people out. They play man, which I junk would allow Buggs to penetrate much like against WSU and they don't shoot the ball well, so we should be able to zone them and take away some of their athletic advantage.


2). Michigan State. They would beat us up like WSU did, only on a much grander scale. They are peaking at the right time and have both the athletes and the bigs to be nightmares for us at all five spots at both ends. Against some BCS teams, a mid-major might have the edge at one or maybe two spots...we would have an advantage (maybe) on offense when Ryan played the four but then we would be overmatched at the other end with their bigs.

Ok...no bickering now 

Two questions for everyone:

1) Which team that could be a 3/4/5 do you MOST want to play and why?

2) Which team that could be a 3/4/5 do you LEAST want to play and why?

I wasn't able to watch, but I know the coaches had some new things they wanted to try tonight (nothing to lose, really) but given the score, I'm not sure how well they worked.

Going forward, we need someone to develop into a playmaker...every team has one it seems except us...someone who can get the ball and just go get a basket. That's summer work, individual work and desire. Its there...this will be the first full off-season with our new staff and they have proven in the past that they can develop players.

Over the last month, the system (the one that jack wanted to scrap  ) has been working very well...the players have been more aggressive and have started to better understand what the coaches want. Couple that understanding into the summer program and they will be working on the things they need for this offense, and the results will come.

As far as your last statement, jack...I fear you very well could be correct...I have no way of knowing for sure...but just seeing how things have gone the last couple of weeks makes me wonder...

The whole point of a tournament is to celebrate the winner and the thrill of the competition. In the Olympics, the 2d and 3d place finishers are honored.

I agree with this in the Olympic model. The Horizon League, however, does not give out silver medals (nor do most others...). By this logic (just using this as an absurdly ridiculous example) whoever from the other teams made all-tournament should have been there as well. They lost a heartbreaker, I don't think it should be expected of them to sit there and watch the team that beat them celebrate. As I recall, we did not stay on the floor last year...

As for Donlon, I was simply stating facts. Our guys were on the floor celebrating, he was alreaday giving interviews and the WSU writers were hurrying to get stories in. Had they won, the Dayton media would have covered the celebration and then rushed to meet deadline, just the same...and would have been late.

(Sending from phone so no quote)

There's not a right or wrong, not at all. I understand and respect everything Paul said. That's his opinion and what I said was mine. Nothing more. Paul had been a great contributor here and I just Estes to offer a differing opinion.

/rant

Just wanted to say this as well:

No, we didn't play real well last night...but for those saying "we have no chance in the NCAA because we didn't play well last night", how quickly we forget the game at Green Bay to end the season (which, was also a big game...playing for the outright title, rather than just a throwaway).

Conference tournaments are hard to win...and the HL (and most other conferences) limit practice time during the tournament to be "even". So, we didn't have as much floor time to work out any bugs we may have had. Now we have time to relax, rest and reset for the NCAA's.

[Expectation Met!]

A great quote from Greg Maddux...he was talking about pitching, but it applies to basketball too: "You go out there thirty or so times every year. Five times, you're great. Nobody is going to hit you...your stuff is perfect. Five times you're awful...you feel like you couldn't beat a little league team. The other twenty or so, you're ok. The thing that separates people is this: when you're great, you make sure you win, when you're awful, you find ways to stay in the game...you might lose, but you give your team a chance...and when you're ok, you battle through it and find a way to get it done. You don't get to pick the nights, they just happen."


As far as expectations, I expect us to compete for a conference championship every year. Does that mean we are always going to win...nope. But, I expect us to be around every season. This year, we won the HL, we won the HL Tournament. Expectation Met!

You want to bash the Nebraska loss? Buggs played 20 minutes and Will was the PG for the rest...that's not his game whatsoever. LaVonte wasn't eligible yet. And to say that they were a bad B1G team is accurate...but remember that the WORST B1G team beat the #3 team in the nation two weeks ago. I thought this was a game we should have had...but it was our ONLY chance against BCS teams, so its not like we went 0-5 against them.

New Mexico and St. Louis? Again, before LaVonte was eligible. Yes, these two games we got smacked...by VERY good basketball teams. I was disappointed about these two at the time, but that's waned quite a bit as the season has gone on and they went on to win conference championships.


Since the Oakland loss, we are 19-3 (including our last six and 10-of-11). We did not have our best stuff a few of these nights (Loyola, Detroit, YSU losses...GB (HLT), WSU (HLT) wins) but we still got it done in some of them. Last night is a prime example. We weren't great (and for Heaven's sake, everyone, we turned the ball over a lot (and quite a few were just bad plays), but its not like WSU wasn't playing defense...this is the team, after all, that held Detroit to 52 or whatever a few days ago), but we made plays when we had to.

I would be more disappointed going forward if we don't capitalize (the start of next year might be rough...) on the success this year. I'm not trying to direct this at you Paul, but yours is the post I'm most responding to (though there were several before, too). I think we could (and should) have won a couple more games that we didn't, but there's NO team in the country that doesn't lose a couple of games that make you scratch your head.

So, disappointing moments? Yes. But my expectations are met. We competed for (and won) a conference title. Now, the next expectation (once we do that regularly, and this is two years in a row) is that we will compete for wins in the NCAA Tournament and not get blown out.