Brian Hamilton wrote a piece on our transition to the A-10, centered around the Dayton game: https://theathletic.com/4237862/2023/02 ... tball-a10/

Nothing new or groundbreaking. Just reiterating the step-up in competition and athleticism. I think what gets lost somewhat is that this team would be struggling in the MVC too. Maybe not dead last as we are still better than Evansville, Valpo, etc. But this was going to be a transitional year no matter what.

Always good to see a national feature on the Ramblers, but yeah I think the focus on the A10 glosses over how bad the team has actually been, and kind of bails out the coaching staff. Those that have been following the team know that the coaching staff has been struggling in their own right -- there is no excuse for not figuring out to break a press for two months.

Yes, talent has turned out to be an issue, but the coaching staff needs to take blame for that as well. If you remember, going into the season most believed this to actually be the most athletic Loyola roster in quite some time, and many were convinced we had jumped a level in type of talent we were bringing in. Well, the transfer class has pretty much been a bust, and even the lone bright spot Alston still has glaring issues in his game that will need to be coached out, and I'm not sure I have confidence that will happen.

not so sure on the MVC...I think we would be right in the mix of things....The Drake team, tied for 1st, is pretty much the same one we have played the last two years..When I watch the Valley teams you can see the difference in length, speed, height...Scweigert I think would have been freshman of the year in the Valley.

I think Drake & Bradley both have much better squads than us this year. Yes, it is the same Drake team as the past two years. But let's not forget, we lost to them once last year (with a MUCH better LU team) and we were the 4th seed in the MVC tourney (although we proved to be the clear best team in STL). This year's Loyola is much worse than last year's team in every single metric. Sure, the A10 is a step up and a different style of play. But look at our non-conference performance this year. Nothing that we did outside of A10 play shows me that this is a team that would be in the mix to win a great mid-major conference like the MVC.

Nah, there is just no way. The top MVC teams are about as good as they were last year, but we've taken a huge step back. Let's not forget we could barely beat UIC this year. Dayton and VCU are barely above Drake in KenPom. It's not that the top-level competition is that much better in the 2023 A10 vs. 2022 MVC, we are just way worse than last year.

Maybe we could scratch our way to the middle of the conference, since we're about at the same level as the crappy teams in the MVC, and there are more crappy teams in the MVC than the A10. But Drake, Bradley, Indiana State, and Belmont would definitely whoop us about as bad as the A10 teams have this year. No chance we'd be competing with them with this 2023 squad and coaching.

Guys, we are not in the Valley, so let’s move on and up.
Bathtub Ramblers said it best. Don’t text your ex!

you could be right. my impression is based on the eyeball test. When watching games I have not seen a team from the Valley that I did not think we could beat, especially since we have started to play some better basketball. But Sagran say different , Here are his rankings with us barely above the MVC.
1 BIG 12 = 85.88 86.06 ( 1) 10 86.04 ( 1)
2 BIG TEN = 84.23 83.65 ( 2) 14 83.81 ( 2)
3 BIG EAST = 82.71 82.34 ( 3) 11 82.46 ( 3)
4 SOUTHEASTERN = 82.40 82.18 ( 4) 14 82.26 ( 4)
5 PAC-12 = 81.08 80.89 ( 5) 12 81.03 ( 5)
6 ATLANTIC COAST = 80.23 79.75 ( 6) 15 79.90 ( 6)
7 AMER. ATHLETIC = 77.93 78.02 ( 7) 11 77.94 ( 7)
8 MOUNTAIN WEST = 77.80 77.86 ( 8) 11 77.84 ( 8)
9 WEST COAST = 76.67 77.24 ( 9) 10 76.97 ( 9)
10 CONFERENCE USA = 74.25 74.27 ( 10) 11 74.28 ( 10)
11 ATLANTIC 10 = 73.88 74.23 ( 11) 15 74.14 ( 11)
12 MISSOURI VALLEY = 72.47 72.35 ( 12) 12 72.41 ( 12)
13 IVY LEAGUE = 72.47 71.87 ( 14) 8 72.17 ( 13)
14 WESTERN ATHLETIC = 72.01 72.00 ( 13) 13 72.01 ( 14)
15 SUN BELT = 71.60 71.50 ( 15) 14 71.53 ( 15)

Did anyone watch the Bradley / Southern IL game on Sunday? I was most impressed by the defense and discipline of them both. But that slow awful pace....... boring and don't miss that.

Both are very very well coached and prepared teams right now. I'd rather have their systems / coaching / preparedness / discipline versus whatever we've got going currently. It'll win more than 9 games

Nothing against anybody on our staff, but I wonder if we'll add somebody with A10 experience next year. When we transitioned into the Valley, Moser was very smart to go after Bryan Mullins and give him his first coaching job and he went from DOBO to Associate HC in five years.

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