MVC Hoops: 2017-18

[oklahomamick]

Loyola crushed uic by 24.  Something wrong at uic

[VU2014]

Something wrong at uic

Coaching. Effort. Roster Formation (to many iso players). Coaching.

[vufan75]

Loyola crushed uic by 24.  Something wrong at uic

Went to Loyola-UIC game today. My 1st Loyola game day experience. Will post thoughts later.

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[wh]

Just another day at the office for the MVC. 5-1 all games. 4-1 D-1 games.

Im still trying to get used to all this winning.

[valpotx]

Glad that we made the jump when we did.  Even though it is still early, after many more losses today, the HL is in the bottom 5 conferences in RPI

[VUGrad1314]

Gotta take the opportunity to advance while it's there. The program really needed this to keep the momentum going. Even if the chances for an at-large aren't great (I still don't believe that personally) they are certainly greater than they were in the HL. To me that was one of the greatest and most convincing arguments in favor of the move: I'll take a puncher's chance at an at-large over no-chance at all, especially since it raises our floor as well as our ceiling. All other things being equal we will land in better postseason  tournaments (and in-season tournaments for that matter) with higher seeds in those tournaments as members of the MVC than as members of the HL.

[oklahomamick]

Even though this is a rebuilding year we probably could win a 6th out of 7 HL conference title. 

[VUGrad1314]

Even though this is a rebuilding year we probably could win a 6th out of 7 HL conference title. 

Do we want to be Belmont safe in our little non-competitive bubble and just be happy we made it  or do we want to try to follow the path of Gonzaga\ Butler\Creighton\Xavier\Wichita State\UNI etc. and become a top mid major power that actually wins once they get there? Thankfully it looks like we've chosen the more difficult more competitive path. This choice will have lasting benefits for our athletics.

[historyman]

I still have a hard time thinking of Loyola as good due to them being pretty bad for so long.  Interested to see how we do against them this year. 

Much like MO ST, Loyola will get some big wins and some bad losses but they won't be nearly as consistent as Valpo due to the Crusaders deep depth.

[VUGrad1314]

More fantastic MVC numbers:

https://twitter.com/Valpo_Hoops/status/937377748011634688

If you're scoring at home that's:

4 top 100 teams
7 top 130 teams
and all 10 in the top 200

Hopefully Bradley keeps it rolling today. Go MVC!

[vufan75]

Loyola crushed uic by 24.  Something wrong at uic

Went to Loyola-UIC game today. My 1st Loyola game day experience. Will post thoughts later.

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First trip to renovated Loyola's Gentile Arena yesterday. A few things I noticed that have been discussed on the forum.

Game ticket posted prices were $25/$20/$12. Event parking in nearby parking garage was $10. Saw 2 concession areas on lower level concourse. Noticed beer and wine sold from tables set up in several areas around concourse. Rest rooms accessed from concourse or in larger hallway outside arena.

One of my daughter's works for Loyola Medicine in Maywood in the Ortho Dept. Yesterday was sponsor day at the game, so we rec'd complimentary game tickets and were hosted in a stadium area called Lions Den. Had a nice sandwich, dessert, drink spread for sponsor guests. It was an area up above general admission seats about midcourt. Someday they hope to have suites there.

Had opportunity to speak awhile with recently hired Assistant AD/ Director of Development for Athletics, which he said was a new position for Loyola. He is a fundraiser for athletics. He previously was at DePaul. Nice guy. One bit of info he shared was he said he coached the Jenkins twins when they were younger. He joked that he takes a little credit for the Valpo win vs. Ole Miss and the Jenkins play. [emoji6]

I asked about the pep band. He said at Loyola in order to participate you had to take one music class. Regarding pay, he said he thought they received maybe $8-$10 per event played from something he called the student services fund. It looked like the pep band had a director, as one person not in the band definitely was leading the band.

I am a bit confused by marketing at Loyola though. The official team nickname is Ramblers, the mascot is dressed in a wolf head,  and we sat in what was known as the Lion's Den area?

As far as the game itself, Loyola looks pretty good. Look forward to the Valpo games against them! UIC has talent but just doesn't play well together it seemed.



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[VU2014]

Joe Lunardi has the MVC as 1-bid league right now. Kind of a bummer but also understandable. I'd love for the Conference to become 2-bid league again.

https://twitter.com/ESPNLunardi/status/937809929947308032

[historyman]

Loyola will get some big wins and some bad losses but they won't be nearly as consistent as Valpo due to the Crusaders deep depth.

Boda-bing!

[VU2014]

Bad news for Bradley. He was a good defender.
https://twitter.com/DaveReynolds2/status/938804597333942272

[VUGrad1314]

Reaction of Bradley fans appears to be almost positive. The only concern among the fans commenting on MVCFans is that it may hurt the Braves' depth but other than that most fans seem to think this could be a case of addition by subtraction.

[VUGrad1314]

In order to be a multi bid league we really need to rack up as many Big wins as we can right now and can't afford bad losses. Even the Mountain West is struggling to get multiple bids and they have 5 schools in KenPom's top 80 and a 6th team just outside the top 100. Boise State's thumping of Loyola could prove costly. We only have two teams in the top 80 but could possibly double that with a perfect 2-0 night tonight.

[underdawg]

So now Loyola beats number 5 Florida-- Great victory for the Ramblers

[VUGrad1314]

Here are the RPI Numbers:

UNI 28
Valpo 54
Missouri State 61
Loyola 69
Illinois State 95
Evansville 99
Bradley 119
Southern Illinois 178
Drake 193
Indiana State 215

We need more big wins Valpo needs at least two of the next three no blowout losses and no bad losses to get strong consideration Missouri State and Loyola probably need to surprise some teams in conference and have no bad losses and the bottom of the league needs to get better

[VUGrad1314]

For those concerned about MVC expansion here are some numbers among possible candidates:

South Dakota State 65 but I think Daum is a senior
Belmont 86 in a bad year Impressive
South Dakota 88
North Dakota State 92  Split with Bears close loss to USC
Milwaukee 93 Maybe the Montana State loss (RPI 77) isn't so bad
Murray State 110 Big games still to come
Northern Kentucky 137 Sweeping East Tennessee State instead of splitting with them and beating Vermont and Memphis would have REALLY helped them
New Mexico State 138
SLU 163
Grand Canyon 214
Oral Roberts 270
UIC 305

[VU2014]

Another strong win for UNI.
https://twitter.com/ValleyHoops/status/938968573820760069

[a3uge]

Another strong win for UNI.
https://twitter.com/ValleyHoops/status/938968573820760069

That's a better win than IN ST over IU, but it won't get the recognition. Great job. I wish mid major fans respected other mid majors and treated these wins more seriously.

[valpotx]

UTA is known for baseball, and that is it .  It is a commuter campus, so they get no publicity in DFW for anything other than that typically.

[bbtds]

UTA is known for baseball

Who? UTA?

[valpotx]

Also, they haven't fielded a football team since some time in the 1980's, but they maintain the football field for their T&F team, HS football, and HS band competitions.

[covufan]

UTA may not be UT Austin, but would be a good team for a home and home series.