MVC Hoops: 2017-18

[covufan]

I'm pretty sure any team can beat any team on any night in this league.

Yes, a great thing about this conference.

Hoping for Valpo and a bunch of away teams tonight!

[oklahomamick]

We would be 5th best in the hL this year...

[VUGrad1314]

Fourth at best...

[talksalot]

Hoping for Valpo and a bunch of away teams tonight!

Illinois State 72   Northern Iowa 83
Indiana State 77     Southern Illinois 82
Loyola 80   Drake 57

we are 2-7 and looking up at everyone else...

Samford and SeLa lost, UCRiv is down early to Irvine... the only bright spot today is the Utah State Aggies clobbering the Air Force 71-49.

Valpo's RPI tumbled to 176...SOS at 144

[VUGrad1314]

All this time we were worried about RPI anchors and celebrating being away from them and it turns out in this league WE are the anchor.

[a3uge]

All this time we were worried about RPI anchors and celebrating being away from them and it turns out in this league WE are the anchor.

Well it's clear you don't know how RPI works...

[VUGrad1314]

I know enough to know that my statement isn't false. We have the conference's lowest RPI... By far... That makes us the anchor weighing down the league right now ... That is a position Valpo should NEVER  be in... I may not be privy to the mathematical formula but I know bad basketball when I see it and what we are playing is bad basketball especially on offense.

[a3uge]

I know enough to know that my statement isn't false. We have the conference's lowest RPI... By far... That makes us the anchor weighing down the league right now ... That is a position Valpo should NEVER  be in... I may not be privy to the mathematical formula but I know bad basketball when I see it and what we are playing is bad basketball especially on offense.

Every team plays each other twice. Win or lose both games vs Evansville, it affects Missouri State the same since they also play Evansville twice.

[ml2]

a3uge is right. As far as the other Valley school's RPIs are concerned all that really matters is what we did in the non-conference. It's hard to believe now but we actually had the second BEST RPI in the league based just on non-conference results. You can see the numbers here on ESPN's RPI ranking under the column NCRP.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/rpi/_/groupId/18

[bbtds]

and it turns out in this league WE are the anchor.

Just not as big an anchor as the big anchors in the HL.





Valpo in the MVC

[VU2014]

We aren't the anchor. We actually performed well in the Non-Conference, so us struggling now doesn't hurt our Conference-mates this season. We could be a bad loss for one of the top teams but we won't really hurt anyone this season. There really isn't a team with a good shot at a at-large bid. Maybe Loyola.

But it's embarrassing to see this proud program at the bottom of the Conference in it's first season. Embarrassing is the best word I can think of to define this teams play since the UC-Riverside game.

[valporun]

Don't forget...our ENTIRE roster was recruited based on needs for the Horizon League. NONE of our roster came here because we are in the MVC now. They came because of our win ability in the HL. Now, we're seeing the realities of having to take our lumps, be the new kid on the block, and take our losses, learn from them, and get our guys working together. Confidence is hard to build when you're the new kid, but we'll get there. We just have to keep doing what we're doing, win or lose, and get our heads into what we have to do to be competitive in the MVC. Yes, our non-conference schedule didn't help us as much as it looked, but we were playing a bunch of "wins", not really learning a whole lot about our team and how to grow. We're just so used to being at the top that we don't know how to lose and rebuild/reload. We'll have to take our lumps for a couple of years, like we did in the HL, but we'll get back there. Like the Philadelphia 76ers, we'll just have to "TRUST THE PROCESS".

[VU2014]

I hope our guys are putting in the extra work when people aren't looking.

https://twitter.com/BUBrianWardle/status/958043465702617089

[VU2014]

A healthy reminder that College Basketball Teams are cyclical and Coaches whose teams were pretty pedestrian or bad just a few years ago are now some of the top teams in the conference. Wardle's team had 5 wins a few seasons ago. This is going to be the first season Loyola is over .500 in conference play. It takes times to build teams. Hinson's has been with SIU for 6 seasons and his teams are starting to hit its stride.

We're in the midst of a disappointing season but the future could be very bright for this young team.

https://twitter.com/FatherHarry1/status/960539021419143170

[VU2014]

Illinois State's star player Milik Yarbrough was arrested this morning. No word if he'll be uniform tomorrow against SIU tomorrow or against Valpo on Sunday. ISU also just lost Keyshawn Evans who will be out for a few weeks.

If Yarbrough isn't in uniform it could have a huge impact on the game against us on Sunday.

https://twitter.com/Pg_Benson/status/961339978289700866

[VUGrad1314]

Andy Kennedy has been fired by Ole Miss. That means Bradley and Illinois State should be very concerned that they are about to suffer the same fate as Loyola this year and have their home half of a P5 home and home ripped away from them with nothing to show but cash.

[ml2]

Andy Kennedy's base salary is 1.9 million dollars a year, times three years left on his salary means that Ole Miss will be paying about 5.7 million dollars to fire their all time winningest coach. Given that, they certainly won't bat an eye when their next coach asks for 80k-100k to buy out each of their games at Bradley and Illinois State. Too bad, those would have been great home games for the conference next year.

[VUGrad1314]

Man this sucks. NCST backing out this year probably cost Loyola any shot at an at-large bid and now Ole Miss may have the potential to do the same to Illinois State and/or Bradley both of whom I think are going to be really good next year along with much of the rest of the conference. I wish there was more we could do to force these P5 schools to honor their agreements and play both sides of a home and home but I guess without these buyouts, teams in conferences like ours wouldn't even get a chance at P5 home games.

[valpo64]

Are we not schdeduled to do a home & home with Vanderbilt starting next year?

[bigmosmithfan1]

I wouldn't be so sure that Ole Miss backs out of that, given all of the media attention that series got when Ole Miss accepted ISU's Twitter challenge. (And actually, the amount of money they're throwing around in buyout cash and new salary makes it more likely that the AD is gonna not want to throw away an extra 100k to avoid playing two road games in a rebuilding season, not less).

Regardless, it sucks, and speaks to the need for midmajors to try and get the home game upfront in these deals (or in the middle if it's a 2-for-1). Utah famously backed out of a scheduled game at Ball State last year *in August* after BSU had already played the front two games of a 2-for-1 in Salt Lake City. Utah had to pay 200K for backing out so late, but it was still too late for BSU to find a D-1 opponent at that point.

[VU2014]

Are we not schdeduled to do a home & home with Vanderbilt starting next year?

Heard it's in the works but I'm not sure if it starts next season or not. We have a series with Oral Roberts coming up I believe.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/Standard_Sports/status/963465360006680576

[vu72]

Lusk won't win out.  He has a bunch of talent but like Kampe, either he is bringing in talented head cases or he can't coach.

[VU2014]

Seeding probabilities.

https://twitter.com/MVCfans/status/963786475643994112

[valpotx]

We will beat UNI at home, so we are probably going to be the #9