Valparaiso has ACCEPTED* the Invite to become the 10th Member of the MVC!!!!

[VU2014]

He also had 16.3 million reasons to leave for Vandy...

I'm curious if Valpo gave him $1 million per year for 10 years and promised major ARC renovations within x-number of years if it would have enticed him to stay? Complete hypothetical and a bit pointless but it would be interesting.

I agree with SanityLost17 that Bryce is extremely competitive and wants to contend for a final 4 one day and the road is much easier and realistic at Vandy in the SEC, especially the way the NCAA Selection Committee completely stacks the deck against Mid-Majors these days and are completely P6 biased when it comes to bubble teams.

[agibson]

I'm curious if Valpo gave him $1 million per year for 10 years and promised major ARC renovations within x-number of years if it would have enticed him to stay? Complete hypothetical and a bit pointless but it would be interesting.

I'll admit to being curious what kind of counter-offer VU put together. I assume there were discussions.

[vu72]

Bryce left because he is uber competitive and wants to go to a final 4 and compete for a national title some day.   

That is it.   

No other reasons.  Can't do that at Valpo.  Possibility exists at Vandy to get there eventually. 

I agree his chances of competing for a national title are better at Vandy. They increase from zero to .01 percent

[bigmosmithfan1]

The point is, fans of every good mid-major team say "our guy will never leave - he's so happy here and money isn't everything!" In basically every case save for Gonzaga, they turn out to be wrong. There is always the salary that you can't turn down, the stage that's too big to resist, the competitive disadvantages that become too exasperating.

(All the talk of a good salary and good facilities is nice and important, but come talk to me after your team gets robbed of a tourney bid because they aren't in the P5 and tell me your coach still has no wandering eye...I still believe that was the breaking point for Bryce last year. If Valpo gets our deserved at-large bid, I'm not necessarily convinced he would have stayed, but it would have made the decision a lot more interesting.)

[Dave_2010]

Bryce left because he is uber competitive and wants to go to a final 4 and compete for a national title some day.   

That is it.   

No other reasons.  Can't do that at Valpo.  Possibility exists at Vandy to get there eventually. 

I agree his chances of competing for a national title are better at Vandy. They increase from zero to .01 percent

Take a look at Duke before Coach K...a couple of final fours in the 60s and 70s, but not too far ahead of Vandy today. Both are/were academic heavy institutions with some recent success, but not a national championship pedigree. I'm not saying Bryce is Coach K, but with sufficient financial support (read: most Power 5 schools) a good coach/recruiter can win big.

Moral of the story, if Bryce is as good as we think he is/can be, Vandy has more than enough resources for him to win a national title.

Personally, I've always had the impression that his long term goal is the NBA. He seems like someone motivated by unfinished business at that level.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bigmosmithfan1]

Bryce has always been driven by a pursuit of a title, something I think goes back to his senior year in h.s., with the Indiana state championship game that got away from his Valpo High team.

[IrishDawg]

What a smaller school can offer a good coach is job security. At Valpo Bryce would of been able to have 5 up and down seasons without anyone really calling for his head. At Vanderbilt he's 2 bad seasons away from being fired.

At Valpo he can have those up and down seasons at least in part because of his name and history as a player at the school.  While I don't disagree that schools in mid or lower level conferences can generally offer more job security, unless they're just downright terrible years, Vanderbilt isn't going to fire him for not making the tourney for 2 years.  Kevin Stallings was the poster boy for up and down years and Vanderbilt kept him around for 17 years (7 tourney appearances) before the pitchforks and torches were ready to go. 

Lets say Lottich keeps Valpo around a top 100-150 team each year, but doesn't have a tourney appearance in the next 4 seasons.  No one here will be calling for his job?  You've already a poll where 2 voters said they were disappointed by him this year (I voted for "too early to tell").

[covufan]

I would like to know which jobs offered Jacobson that kind of money (2.5-3 million as you stated) because there really aren't that many of them out there.  http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basketball/coach/

My 'guess' is that Jacobson was not quite in the interview/offer process where $2.5-3M was discussed.  I'm sure it was more likely that the exploratory committee or search firm inquired his interest in a vacancy (vacancy most likely not named at this point), and he (or his representative) politely said no, not interested at this time. 

[covufan]

I would like to know which jobs offered Jacobson that kind of money (2.5-3 million as you stated) because there really aren't that many of them out there.  http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basketball/coach/

My 'guess' is that Jacobson was not quite in the interview/offer process where $2.5-3M was discussed.  I'm sure it was more likely that the exploratory committee or search firm inquired his interest in a vacancy (vacancy most likely not named at this point), and he (or his representative) politely said no, not interested at this time. 

I posted this before reading the rest of the history.

[bbtds]

No other reasons.  Can't do that at Valpo.  Possibility exists at Vandy to get there eventually.

Why? Butler was in two national championship games.

I agree with the way Valpo operates at this time that is very much out of the question. But what makes Butler and Valpo so different? Valpo people like to say it's the cities they are in but I contest, having lived in both, that it does not make it that much harder on Valpo.

[FieldGoodie05]

No other reasons.  Can't do that at Valpo.  Possibility exists at Vandy to get there eventually.

Why? Butler was in two national championship games.

I agree with the way Valpo operates at this time that is very much out of the question. But what makes Butler and Valpo so different? Valpo people like to say it's the cities they are in but I contest, having lived in both, that it does not make it that much harder on Valpo.

Today we have a basketball budget of $2,000,000+.  Where has this budget come from?  Has our spend increased significantly from Mid Con > Horizon?

[wh]

Jacobson embraces challenge of raising Valley's profile

Mark Emmert | memmert@gannett.com
Updated 8:45 p.m. CT May 12, 2017

"...When the Illinois State men's basketball team went 17-1 in Missouri Valley Conference play last season and didn't get invited to the NCAA Tournament, the sting wasn't just felt in Normal, Ill. Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson winced right along with Redbird fans.

"We simply did not do our part to help them get an at-large bid, and that's a responsibility that I take very seriously," Jacobson said Friday before a Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser in West Des Moines..."

"...As a league, obviously we need to get better. But I've always approached it from the standpoint, we need to do our part at Northern Iowa..."

Finally! A coach willing to admit that THEY let their conference down, that THEY need to do a better job, that elevating the conference profile begins with THEM. I've never heard 1 HL AD or coach among all the old guard programs in decline ever publicly admit such a thing. And the fans - it's always about which white knight program is going to come in and save the league.

"Change begins with me."  What a novel concept!


http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/2017/05/13/ben-jacobson-embraces-challenge-raising-valleys-valparaiso-wyatt-lohaus-tywhon-pickford/319827001/

[4throwfan]

WH, I agree.  Ideally, all ten programs in the conference have the same attitude, and are willing/able to take action.

[valpo64]

Even 6 or 7 out of 10 would be a big step up from the HL.

[Dave_2010]

The best part of this has been the massive increase in press that MVC schools get, both in their local market and in other markets within the league footprint, relative to the HL. Alums of many HL schools barely care about their athletics, never mind the community at-large.

The more words written and spoken about your league/program the better, both for tournament placing and fundraising.

[4throwfan]

Dave, I agree. It seems that we're moving from a commuter school conference to more of (but not totally) a college town conference, and I think that we will, as a result, see a lot more fan involvement and coverage.  We've already seen more fan involvement on this board. 

That being said, I will miss the Commissioner's annual write-ups.  He is a great fan, and an asset to the HL.

[vu72]

The best part of this has been the massive increase in press that MVC schools get, both in their local market and in other markets within the league footprint, relative to the HL. Alums of many HL schools barely care about their athletics, never mind the community at-large.

The more words written and spoken about your league/program the better, both for tournament placing and fundraising.

Certainly a lot more words written.  It is hard to get a decent piece written in a town like Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee or Chicago.  Wright State and Green Bay  had/has decent coverage but again, they are in more of a college town setting or at least a smaller town. I like the Valley coverage a lot and our press guys will have a lot more in common then the guys (are there any?) who regularly cover the teams in large cities.

[VULB#62]

The amount of Valpo mentions in both the online and hardcopy press across the midwest has been astounding so far with some of that spreading nationally ---- and we haven't even accepted the invite yet!  Do you think for one minute that that would be the case for whoever is selected to replace us in the HL?  The benefits to VU  are already coming in. 

[VU2014]

We could be accepting soon after baseball is finished up.

https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/866711184950644736
https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/866711715546890240
https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/866711982208110592
https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/866712974509125632

[VULB#62]

There is some grumbling on the MVCFANS forum that Valpo should not be dragging their feet and waiting for BB to be completed.  (See the What's the Holdup? string).  Tex did a good job in explaining the HL post-season rule and the bind we are in.  But, some MVC posters indicated we should just suck it up and leave or pay $50K to stay or something like that.  Sorry, but there are 32 players and 5 coaches who have busted their chops to get this far, and Valpo is not a monster that eats its own offspring.

[bigmosmithfan1]

That was one of the dumber posts I've seen on MVCFans or anywhere on social media recently - I realize message boards are places for fans to vent, but it's like these folks don't understand how contracts work. Yeah, man, let's get right on to throwing our baseball team's season under the bus to placate a few impatient fans at another school. I'm sure they'd want their sons/daughters to be treated that way mid-season.

[historyman]

If only the ARC had nicer bathrooms and seats, Bryce would still be at Valpo calling timeouts

It's a laughable quote for sure but little things, such as Homer making a point to remember your name, go a long, long way.

[wh]

Valparaiso basketball: How will the Crusaders do in the MVC?
by Doug Winkey 8 hours ago

https://bustingbrackets.com/2017/05/22/valparaiso-basketball-will-crusaders-mvc/

[wh]

Racers remaining in OVC for now
May 22, 2017 | Posted by   Neal Bradley | Football, Men's Basketball

http://theracerinsider.com/2017/05/22/racers-remaining-in-ovc-for-now/#prettyPhoto

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/867467930472243202
https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/867467800440446976