SubGod22 wrote:
I don't think people talking about the Creighton/Loyola swap are blaming Loyola as much as saying that's led to a big hit on perception and RPI. An MVC with both Creighton and Wichita would be seen as a lot stronger than what we have now. Both are top 25 type teams and that would boost the likes of UNI and ISUb as well as WSU by having another top team to go against.
With that said, this is as bad as I've seen the MVC in at least the last 15 years when I started paying much closer attention to the sport in general. A lot of youth out there. I saw a similar discussion on I think the Redbird board today. Someone had asked if the MVC would ever get better.
My thoughts are as follows.
Wichita will continue to be a good program. They'll return a lot of talent and I like what they're bringing in.
Loyola has a solid young core and if Moser can recruit more talent to support them they'll improve over the next couple of years for sure.
Illinois State has a lot of new faces but some good talent. Need more post depth but they could win some games the next few years.
Drake has what I feel is a good coach, but we have to see how he recruits and develops. Too early to tell for sure.
Indiana State should be solid. I like Lansing but they need to step it up recruiting a bit as I don't see anyone ready to take over for Odum or Arop.
UNI will always be well coached with Jacobson and look to have some good young pieces. Another year or two and they'll be even better.
SIU was left in a big hole by Lowery. It's going to take Hinson some time.
Bradley I think will get better when Lemon is gone. I like some of their young pieces but something isn't working. Give them 2 more years and you'll see good progress.
Evansville is Evansville.
Missouri State has some nice young players as well. If they can stay healthy and get another couple recruiting classes to fill in some things they could be pretty good starting next year.
I really do believe we can and should be competing with the A10 and those conferences from 6-10. And I think we will be in the next year or two.
You guys will definitely get better. I know you're losing, but you've been competitive and just haven't developed how to win those games. It really is a culture thing. Marshall has focused on bringing in talent from winning HS and AAU teams. Not just good players, but players who come from winning programs and have that swagger and confidence and just attitude of winning. You'll get over that hump and when you do, you have a high ceiling.
Since subgod is either too lazy, too uninformed, or both, I will complete his Evansville comment.
One of the 5 youngest teams in D-1 will continue to take their learning lumps this season. The talent of Ballentine, Boo, Mock and possibly Simmons if he can beef up some, make this the most promising teams of the Marty era. There are certainly question marks that there won't be defections, but there is actually some light with this team.
Recently, the local paper disclosed that a group of well connected boosters have formed a seperate task force, for the sole purpose of improving the basketball product. Part of this also includes a very generous increase in funding from these boosters for this purpose. UE is currently mid-pack in the MVC in basketball funding. We are dead last in coaching salary, which is primarily a hometown discount for an unproven D-1 coach. Should Marty need to be replaced at some point, it is apparent we will have a little more money to throw at a replacement. Of course, huge salaries alone don't make a good coaching hire....ask SIU and Chris Lowery.
A new multi-million dollar basketball practice facility opened on campus last year. That, along with a new, 130 million dollar arena make our facilities on par with anyone in the conference.
Since you have only been following basketball for a few years, you probably aren't aware that we spent our first 7 years in the Valley leading this conference in attendance. 10K-11K for all of those seasons. Or that we had a 20+ year period averaging over 8500 per season. This ended when Crews was ran out of town by a new president and AD, who both nearly killed the program with some very moronic moves. Fortunately they are both long gone and we appear to have admins more committed to the athletic programs again. Another interesting tidbit, the conference RPI jumped 7 places the season we joined. I am sure there were some other factors, but we certainly didn't drag it down when we joined. I'm sure the older Loyola fans here can vouch for the success and state of our program in the MCC years. Not to mention, the MCC was a better conference than the MVC during that era.
I am not arguing that things haven't really sucked for us Aces fans for the last decade...and I understand that many barbs are justifiably earned. But as a 40 year plus fan, I can tell you for the first time in a few years, I can actually see this program headed back to where we were 15+ years ago. Of course, Cub fans always feel this is their year as well. I can also tell you as a long time fan, the upside of a winning Aces program is higher than several of our fellow conference members.
My point of coming on here originally was to discuss last weeks game with our old rivals from the MCC. I wasn't aware of the delay on the approval process and wasn't able to get in before the game. Reading this post, I was going to tell them that I understood their frustration with the Valley board. I was a regular poster from about 95 on the old Valley boards. I started when the Valley board was a BB on AOL. Like many of the old timers, who I still see on the various school boards, I completely quit going to Valleytalk or whatever it is now due to the cesspool that a few posters were turning it into. I didnt expect to see any of them here as well.
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