Aside from two or three conference games this year, we have closed the gap in competitiveness. Not a huge improvement in record, but it's improved. We have a few nice pieces to build on for next year and hopefully be adding a missing piece or two in the off season. I have been beating a dead horse, but we dominated the MVC while in the Horizon League. 30 point win over Murray, 24 point win over Drake, 20 point win of Mo State. Coaching/right system can make up for a lot. Yes money will help turn things around faster, but Belmont who has had tremendous consistency/regular season success, never really draws big crowds, despite having a top 5 arena in conference.
For those that are concerned about players leaving in the off season, Drew had control of the locker room and kept his players, except for one (Clay Yeo) even though "NIL existed" then. Anyone follow the FBI Wire taps case? It appears Powell has control the locker room now. The alternative is to what just recruit bad players, assemble a bad team and never taste success. Wouldn't have to worry about players transferring then. We have to trust Powell to keep his players despite the limited resources. He immediately had Cooper and Stafford come out with statements right after the season last year announcing their pledge to stay.
I think St. Mary's is good comparison for Valpo. Small private school, average facility, great crowds, same coach for 20 years, good regular season success and occasional wins in March Madness. That would something that most Valpo fans would be pleased with.
Absolutely not! A huge step down in all sports, and would not bring more fans to the games than we are currently seeing. Folks forget the luck we had in Bryce Drew as HC, getting both Broekhoff and Peters for an 8 year period. Those are generational talents for a school like Valpo, both NBA players, and we surrounded with solid supporting players. All it takes is that one kid again, and we are near the top of the MVC. JFL was that guy, and we lost him after year 2, otherwise we might be saying something completely different now. If All, Cooper, and Justus stay, we have Pettigrew coming in, so I think we have a solid foundation for a top 5 finish. Our player turnover would be even worse in the HL, as MVC programs would be able to poach out talent. Right now, it is mainly Power 4 teams and the Big East that can do so.
100% factual statements here. As for the "20 Valpo fans at Arch Madness". I actually learned a few new things from this, most notably being that Valpo used to beat MVC teams on the regular. I think people are too easily conflating the old HL format to the MVC format. When Valpo was in the HL, the format was on campus, with the quarters and semis being at the RS champs home turf, and the finals being played on home turf as well. Valpo fans showed out largely because most of those HL tourney games were home games. Now with a team that is in a bad stretch, why would people spend money in an expensive city like St Louis. Magnolia sold out months ago and hotel prices are near $600. For a team that isn't doing too well, that doesn't seem worth the money to a lot of people. Valpo fans have one of the longest drives to get to the tourney. UNI and Drake are the two schools with the longest drives, however their success makes that trip worth it.
Also cmack, I'm not "marginalizing" Loyola. The A10 is a sister league, and insults do nothing to refute that claim. Loyola had 1 bad season in their first round of the A20. They then went back to being the Loyola that made the final 4. If the A10 wasnt a league that was similar to the MVC, they wouldn't have been able to bounce back so quickly. Butler has remained largely stagnant after falling off in 2018. They have not been to a tournament since and have remained a middle to bottom feeder Big East team. The Big East finally caught up to them
This is more general, but there also seems to be echoes of the groveling about "being Gonzaga before Gonzaga" IE bullying teams in smaller conferences after a string of success. Last I checked, that has also only worked for 1 team and 1 team only. Gonzaga. There have been many "Gonzaga's" that have simply died out because they could not sustain that high caliber "bully ball" mindset and have fallen into obscurity.
Maybe the 9 game skid traumatized us but we have played teams tougher this year...seems like a 7 minute stretches of horrible have cost us several games. Team is young. RP has shown he can get guys here. Lets pump the brakes for a minute and see how far RP's culture can stave off NIL poaching. Stafford next year...Pettigrew seems like maybe MVC ready to contribute...If we can keep the core this squad isnt terribly far off from top half. Does anyone want to face the team that dropped a hundy on belmont? Or the team that put 75 on SIU last 28 minutes? Reminder we solidly got UNI and Belmont... 2OT at bradley and kept drake in touch both games. Scrape out a thursday win and we could nip a top 4 get to saturday... This isnt crazy talk. Progress has occurred. The team is incomplete and has flaws. The gap has closed noticeably though. Beat Bradley or play em real tough and ill bring 3 more to St louis. if it shakes out we draw UIC everybody knows they are gettable despite their nice talent. Obviously we could lose by double digits the last two games if we play less than our A game. Im hammering the kool aid I know but I can envision some scoring blitzes next year with our guards If the bigs get a little better. Lotta of 'ifs' but in this era everybody has alot of ifs. Can we please somehow figure out how to start a game decent instead of just so poorly
Dropping down would be weak and a true commitment to mediocrity, and it will make Valpo as a whole appear as a degrading university. If Drake and Bradley can be successful, so can Valpo. Powell is the right coach and getting better.We need more talent and success.
A ridiculous idea.
This is now a moot point. End of string.
I noted a very recent post on Paul’s Twitter that Northern Illinois will be joining the HL as it’s 12th team in most sports except Football where they will be in the Mountain West (and some minor olympic sports the HL doesn’t sponsor).
This is now a moot point. End of string.
I noted a very recent post on Paul’s Twitter that Northern Illinois will be joining the HL as it’s 12th team in most sports except Football where they will be in the Mountain West (and some minor olympic sports the HL doesn’t sponsor).
A tangent here but did NIU make the move just to move the football program? I can't imagine they'll be as far up the food chain in the MWC as they were in the MAC.
@usc4valpo are we sure we make more $$$ in the Valley than schools do in the HL? I know that YSU makes more $$$$ than any school in the Valley, especially with their NIL Collectives.
@vusupport - apples to orange comparison, Youngstown State makes big dollars with their football program that is in the MVFC, which is a powerhouse FCS conference.
Youngstown is also a public school with 12k currently enrolled
So here is what I have learned in reading our thoughts:
1) We have closed the gap competitively, it just doesn't show in the record.......Ummm....Yay?
2) We just need a generational talent to come to Valpo, no big deal. Oh and we had it with JFL. I love JFL. We were 34-35 when he was here. Had a .444 winning percentage in conference. Had our best MVC record of 9-9. So we need just one generational player, but not JFL. Someone else.
3) We shouldn't change because it looks "weak". What? Who are we doing the middle school toughness test for? We are weak. Our MVC win % is .331. Are we afraid the secret will get out that we are not a "tough" MVC team if we were to leave?
4) We used to "dominate" MVC teams and there are 3 anecdotal examples to prove it. Once again we are .331 since joining. Those three teams were probably three of the best in the MVC when we beat them. Right? Right? How is this relevant to our performance since joining the MVC?
5) No one is saying the MVC jump was the reason for our program downturn. We had our greatest player leave and the Drew institution left. That's a big deal. But I thought it was well understood that Valpo as an institution is struggling to stay solvent. NIL has arrived and created a system of the haves and the havenots. Can we agree that we are a havenot? Lastly the transfer rules are a direct detriment to small schools aka Valpo. So no, the misguided belief that the MVC move was the cause of our trouble can be trash canned. The cause of our troubles is the new reality we live in (NIL/Transfer/Financial troubles/Drew departure) that did not exist when we moved. The problem is that we are just burying our heads in the sand on all of this. "Just one good recruit and its all fixed!"
A ridiculous idea.
Such a ridiculous comment by someone that is clearly out of touch...sit down 72...the facts are we do not belong in this conference in any sport-womens soccer won because its a terrible league in that sport...our best program (volleyball) is middle of the road on this conference...baseball and softball will never win...(except for a few non conference powder puffs)
Basketball -while doing better is still really bad-we have neither the finances nor the resources to compete in this conference-and probably never will-cut and run now
Padilla said we should "punch above our weight"...well we are in the ring with Tyson-getting pummeled how about throwing in the towel
@cmack You quite literally a few replies ago equated the program downturn to the MVC move. There is infinitely more that goes into building a sports program than wins and losses, and that goes for any level of play. Most of the other small private schools in the valley are doing just as poorly both NIL and School health. Heck, before the Wardle hire, Bradley build a small on campus arena and was considering dropping to the D2/D3 level and play out of it. They made a good coaching hire and saw success. Valpo made a bad coaching hire and saw decline. We did used to dominate MVC opponents, hence why, at the time, it was a good move to make the jump up. The team was coming off of a lot of success, and had put up some solid wins against, at the time, good valley teams. Mo State never used to be a bottom feeder. Such wins are "relevant" when going from a conference that never touches top 10. To a conference that is largely considered to be one of the best mid major leagues in the country. Mo State 2011 was one of the best teams in the MVC. When Valpo beat Drake in 2014-15, they were not doing so hot and were in a situation similar to VU in terms of program health and success. They pulled through. If Drake can come out of a similar situation to VU on top, and a school with bad financials like Bradley can be a top performer, I see no reason why VU cannot have success in the Valley. VU has had 2, yes 2, coaches in the entire Valley life cycle. Judging the success of a program in a league based off of two coaches is a wild take
