2018-19 VU Schedule

[vu84v2]

How about Valpo/Marquette and Loyola/Wisconsin at the new Bucks arena?

TBH, most Wisconsin college BB fans would wonder why they had Valpo playing in this foursome instead of Northwestern.

You raise a good point, but there are some good reasons why Valpo would work in this foursome:
-There is a strong Valpo alumni base in the Milwaukee area. Beyond that, there is also a strong Lutheran base that would have some interest and affinity towards Valpo. It would have better attendance than many of Marquette's non-conference home games.
-Marquette and Wisconsin might prefer to have a team in the foursome that would not be a rival for recruits.
-Valpo wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) expect a game like this to be a 'buy game'.
-Marquette has had weird issues with scheduling. They play in a very tough conference, but for non-conference they schedule a lot of sub-200 RPI teams at home and a handful of tough games (but usually only one or two teams about RPI of 200 in a given year). Thus, they get little interest for games against Houston Baptist, SIU-E, Eastern Illinois, etc. They replace a game that would likely have attendance of 6000 with a nearly packed house due to the better opponent and the pairing with Wisconsin. Note that this would need to be in a year when Marquette is playing at Wisconsin, since Wisconsin might not want to play two games in Milwaukee.

[VU2014]

Great environment. Anytime the ARC gets a name brand program in the ARC it's near capacity attendance. The difficulty is getting those schools to agree to come to the ARC. Scheduling has radically changed the last 8-10 years. Power programs aren't willing to take on the risk. If they agree to a 1-1 or 2-for-1, they'll take the first home game then buy out the away game if they see any risk. The scheduling inequality in the non-conference is hurting the sport. Even just taking mid-majors out of the equation, less programs are willing to play each other on the others home court and that's bad for college basketball.

[IrishDawg]

You raise a good point, but there are some good reasons why Valpo would work in this foursome:
-There is a strong Valpo alumni base in the Milwaukee area. Beyond that, there is also a strong Lutheran base that would have some interest and affinity towards Valpo. It would have better attendance than many of Marquette's non-conference home games.
-Marquette and Wisconsin might prefer to have a team in the foursome that would not be a rival for recruits.
-Valpo wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) expect a game like this to be a 'buy game'.
-Marquette has had weird issues with scheduling. They play in a very tough conference, but for non-conference they schedule a lot of sub-200 RPI teams at home and a handful of tough games (but usually only one or two teams about RPI of 200 in a given year). Thus, they get little interest for games against Houston Baptist, SIU-E, Eastern Illinois, etc. They replace a game that would likely have attendance of 6000 with a nearly packed house due to the better opponent and the pairing with Wisconsin. Note that this would need to be in a year when Marquette is playing at Wisconsin, since Wisconsin might not want to play two games in Milwaukee.

Counterpoints

1. The new Bucks arena is where Marquette will play its home games.  This wouldn't be a neutral site game for them, so they wouldn't want to bring in a fan base that's going to make their voices heard unless it was going to provide them with an RPI or perception boost if they got the win.  Valpo needs to prove themselves in the regular season, and likely consistently before that invite would come.  Additionally, they wouldn't want to have a doubleheader in their new arena in which they wouldn't get all the tickets and ticket revenue, especially bringing in Wisconsin to play someone else.

2. Valpo may not want this to be a buy game, and I'm not saying that they should, but Marquette certainly doesn't need a game at the ARC when they can schedule buy games against Vermont (and similar schools), who is almost always going to be at the top of the America East.  A win at the ARC does very little perception-wise for Marquette, and though a loss wouldn't necessarily be detrimental, the return game would essentially be too risky with little reward for Marquette, and little risk with great reward for Valpo.  I'm not saying it's right, but that's how teams from major conferences view going on the road against programs who are "good enough to beat them, but usually not good enough to benefit them".

3. Marquette was never near 6000 (at least in reported attendance) last season prior to the NIT.  Their lowest attended game during the regular season was Eastern Illinois at 11,647.  As a counterpoint to your argument that playing Valpo would get the arena packed - they only brought in 13,476 for Georgia and 13,307 for Purdue last year.  If Valpo brought enough fans to pack the remainder of that arena in Milwaukee, then I'd wonder how the Crusaders have attendance problems of their own.

Valpo's in kind of a weird spot right now for scheduling major conference opponents, and unfortunately there isn't a short-term easy fix for it.

[VULB#62]

How about Valpo/Marquette and Loyola/Wisconsin at the new Bucks arena?

TBH, most Wisconsin college BB fans would wonder why they had Valpo playing in this foursome instead of Northwestern.

Good Point.  Let GB amd UWM play UW. 

The two northern MVC privates (LUC and VU) should go head to head with the two northern BE teams (MU and DPU) on a regular basis.  That's great college basketball for the Chicago MKE corridor.  Always dblheaders alternating annually between the Bradley center (soon to be replaced by the new bucks arena) and downtown Chicago (so what if it is in DePaul's Wintrust Arena). Each year the opponents alternate as well.  That kind of annual event is something all four schools can build alumni gatherings, parties/receptions and it is in the core alumni population centers  of the four competing schools.  I'd drive down from the Green Bay area to watch a double header like that at BOTH venues. 

And if someone wanted to expand it a bit I guess you could involve NU and Bradley.  But.....All private - all the time.  A Saturday triple header starting in the afternoon and ending with a 9PM night cap would feed the habit of any BB junkie.  I'll bet that a major national name sponsor could be found to underwrite some of it plus there might be some sharable TV rights involved too.  Call it something like the Great Lakes Challenge

[EddieCabot]

Lots of great ideas in this thread!  I hope someone in the athletic department is taking notes ... with the move to the MVC and Loyola's FF run, now is the perfect time to upgrade the schedule.

[VULB#62]

I realize that negotiations would have to take place and that the two BE schools have the leverage going in.  But to sweeten the pot, I also have ceded the Home Court to both MU and DPU (their arenas), but by doing that perhaps the after-expenses financial split could be more equitable.

This could be the tipping point that makes Chicagoland college BB (and by extension MKE too) a true player.

[vu84v2]

Agree with the sentiment that there are lots of good ideas floating around here (many better than my own).

To IrishDawg's comments:
1. That is very true. Still, Marquette hosts Wisconsin every other year and almost half of the people who attend are Wisconsin fans. And yes, they would need to share revenue with Wisconsin, but it would build some additional excitement to have a packed house for this type of doubleheader.
2. Your points are valid, but I was suggesting a one time thing with no return game at Valpo for Marquette.
3. Marquette drastically inflates their attendance numbers. Those numbers might be tickets sold (which I doubt). Georgia and Purdue probably had something close to that number of people attend, but Eastern Illinois and many other non P5 teams had no more than 8000 in the Bradley Center. - with some games (along with weekday games against lesser conference opponents) having under 6000.

[VUGrad1314]

Buffalo is playing West Virginia and Marquette. Hopefully we'll get news of some quality games coming soon.

[VU2014]

Buffalo is playing West Virginia and Marquette. Hopefully we'll get news of some quality games coming soon.

If Nevada is coming to Chicago to play Loyola. Maybe we could get a series done with Nevada? We get the first home game because it would be convenient, then we fly out to Nevada the following year? Maybe some wishful thinking.

[VUGrad1314]

Love the idea. Great thinking. Maybe that's one of the Sweet 16 teams Paul Oren was referring to.

[IrishDawg]

Buffalo is playing West Virginia and Marquette. Hopefully we'll get news of some quality games coming soon.

I'm confused because both of those are buy games.  So does it not matter where those games are played?  I feel like if that was the case Valpo could get those games whenever they wanted (sort of like Belmont does each year). 

Buffalo also played Syracuse and Texas A&M on the road this year (2 days apart, which is brutal) and Duke and Iowa State on the road the previous year (again, 2 days apart), so it's not like their tourney run is resulting in these games, they just don't seem to care if they get a return game.

[bigmosmithfan1]

Think it's safe to say that our MVC-MWC Challenge opponent will either be San Jose State, Colorado State, or Air Force. They were the bottom three teams in the MWC standings, and all played on the road in the challenge this year.

[talksalot]

VU Career Records vs:

San Jose:  0-1, lost in Hilltop 71-69, Dec 14, 1956
=========
Colorado State:  1-0, in the Opening Round of the Hoosier Classic 61-47 December 28, 2000.  (lost to IU the next day 63-60)
=========
Air Force:  9-14, Valpo's won the last 4
Most Recent game was December 30, 1993 in Colorado Springs, we won 84-79 as part of a 6-game deal, 3-home/ 3-away
We beat them in the ARC on December 1, 1992 in the season opener 66-58
We beat them in Colorado Springs November 23, 1991 in the season opener 73-68
We beat them in the ARC on December 3, 1990 72-61
We lost to them in Colorado Springs 79-65 on 11/25/1989 in the season opener, the first of 8-straight losses to begin that season.
We lost to them in the ARC on December 5, 1988 59-56

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/984137282486702080

[crusader05]

More from the University:
http://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/news/2017-18/18162/valpo-mens-basketball-to-play-in-inaugural-myrtle-beach-invitational/

[VU2014]

It sounds like the mystery Sweet 16 team is West Virginia after all.

[VU2014]

Wait what? Another Sweet 16 team (not named Loyola)

https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/984142077167579138

[EddieCabot]

More from the University:
http://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/news/2017-18/18162/valpo-mens-basketball-to-play-in-inaugural-myrtle-beach-invitational/

Great job by the staff getting into a quality neutral site tourney.  Now let's see what they can how they do with the non-con home schedule!

I assume we have SIUE and BSU returning games.  Was the UC Riverside a home and home or just a one-off?  What else is in the works?

[M]

Those are some potentially quality opponents there at least in name.

[justducky]

Those are some potentially quality opponents there at least in name.

Their 17-18 ending RPIs are West Virginia- 24, Western Kentucky- 32, UCF- 87, Cal St Fullerton- 130, St Joseph's-149, Wake Forest-162, VU-181, and a team to be named later.  Hopefully we can come out of the gate strong!   

[VUGrad1314]

If we could start this upcoming year the way we started this past year I guarantee we will have some wins that matter at the end of the season. This is a tremendous scheduling get for our program. Kudos to the staff for getting it done. Hopefully  the rest of the schedule is strong as well.

[IrishDawg]

Really just depends on the matchups whether or not Valpo gets an NCAA tournament quality game or two in the tournament.  West Virginia is probably the only "guaranteed" NCAA tournament team in the field.  Western Kentucky may remain in a similar position, but in my opinion is going to be taking a step back next year.  UCF will probably be about an NIT level team, same with Wake who should be improved over last year.  Cal St. Fullerton could be favored to win the Big West next year, but a win over them probably isn't going to give you at-large consideration.  Saint Joseph's will probably have a similar level team to this year.

It's a good, solid tournament though and certainly isn't anything to sneeze at.  If Valpo (and the MVC in general) wants to get at-large consideration, then the OOC scheduling, regardless of where the games are played, needs to be stepped up, especially as the committee starts to move away from RPI based scheduling and wins.  According to Kenpom, here were the rankings of the MVC OOC scheduling:

1. Illinois State (22)
2. Northern Iowa (28)
3. Indiana State (100)
4. Drake (167)
5. Valpo (241)
6. Missouri State (250)
7. Evansville (273)
8. SIU (289)
9. Bradley (297)
10. Loyola (315)

Now, I don't think you need a murder's row of opponents like what Northern Iowa and Illinois State had this year, but especially if the coaching staff feels like they're going to have a good team coming back, then that's the time to challenge yourself in the non-conference, at least to be in the top half of the country.  Otherwise you wind up in a situation like what St. Mary's experienced last year (OOC Schedule was 296th), and what Loyola would have likely experienced, where if you don't win the conference title, you aren't getting in.

[justducky]

Those are some potentially quality opponents there at least in name.

Their 17-18 ending RPIs are West Virginia- 24, Western Kentucky- 32, UCF- 87, Cal St Fullerton- 130, St Joseph's-149, Wake Forest-162, VU-181, and a team to be named later.  Hopefully we can come out of the gate strong!   

From a MVCFANS post ----Arkansas rumored to be final team.

[VU2014]

Nice to know we've been heard.
https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/984440863999823877

[VU2014]

Honest Question: Would you consider doing a hypothetical 3-for-1 with Butler? They get 3 home games and we only get 1 home game at the ARC.

I would say thanks but no thanks. I could probably swallow doing a 2-for-1. Besides swallowing your pride I'm not sure a 3-for-1 even makes economical sense. If we were talking about a Duke or Kansas or a program of that echelon then tell me where to sign, but that's not realistic.

https://twitter.com/NJHoopsHaven/status/984473534327152641
https://twitter.com/Title_BU/status/984487881480818688