Ramblermania.net

So with just 3 weeks till the start of the Valley where is our confidence level assuming Williamson and Skonka return ? There are only two teams with worse non-cons than us, UNI and Missouri St. although ISU and Evansville are just a 1/2 game worse.
Current Kenpom rankings which are influenced by Strength of Schedule have SIU at 90, Loyola at 93,Bradley 126, Indiana St 140,Illinois St. 154, Valpo 159, Drake 173, UNI 179, Evansville 187, Missouri St 211.
Loyola(72), SIU(67) and UNI(62) with the toughest ranked schedules with no other school in the top 100.
Drake has a win over Boisie St....but only a 3 pt win over UMKC
Indiana St lost big time to Ball St...defeated UWGB on the road
Bradley with wins against Penn St and SMU but losses to UIC and IUPUI
SIU with wins against St.Louis and Tulsa but lost at home to Buffalo(82)
Valpo has a win against UNLV and a loss to High Point
Evansville has a win and a LOSS to Ball State...how weird...and a loss at Arkansas St.
ISU has a win against BYU and a big loss to UIC
Missouri St. best win against Western Kentucky....lost to Air Force
UNI....no good wins and last two losses by 20 or more to North Dakota St and Utah State
Just some observations....Valley teams look inconsistent with most teams having the ability to beat good teams and lose to bad teams. All most all Valley teams played pretty competitive non-con schedules. My how UNI has fallen. Valpo scares me. LU tries to score a lot at the rim and as the Maryland game showed us a rim protector can cause us problems..Valpo has the 7 footer and also played a very athletic , lanky UNLV team close..
Do not know much about significant injuries at other schools........Seems like the Valley will be a tussle again this year and will come down to winning close games and not taking any nights off....Loyola will have to shoot better and decrease turnovers.....As of now only defense looks like championship level......not saying LU cannot win Valley but will have to play better than they have......I like SIU and their veteran experience.

Loyola.

Loyola can, and should, win the Valley regular season.

The best thing we have going for us is -- the TALENT is there. We have played a tough non-conference schedule, and we've been going through growing pains, but at some point, the shots are going to have to start falling. One of our biggest problems has been not hitting wide open shots, and i find it hard to believe that this problem is going to plague us for the entire year.

There is no team in the Valley right now that looks head and shoulders above us. We've shot terrible from the three point line -- and worse -- we've shot terrible from the three point line on WIDE OPEN LOOKS. Once things start clicking, we should be too much for a lot of Valley teams to handle. The shots eventually will fall.

Despite the setbacks, I don't think there's any reason to believe that we can't have the same amount of success that we had in the Valley regular season last year. We might even end up doing better.

Until our shots start falling, I think SIU is the favorite with their experience. Interested to see how they do tomorrow vs Murray State and then Saturday in their rematch with #14 Buffalo.

If we remember how to hit 3's and shoot free throws, I think we are still the best team in the Valley.

The top 2 are the Ramblers and Salukis, IMHO. Buffalo was not a bad loss for SIU, Buffalo is very good. They’re experienced and largely healthy to this point, and depth is what killed them last year.

I’d still bet us against the field to win it.

I stabd with Feaddy on this !! Ramblers then Salukis !!

Drake.

Though SIU with all the seniors and Pippen the scorer and Bol the rim protector down low scare me too.

Predicting a 3 seed.

By mid or late January, Loyola will be the best team in the league. As it is, I'd put us around third, maybe fourth. By the time SIU plays at the Joe in late January we should be ready to make a run at the MVC crown.

Before that happens, though, we'll have to get past some tough games at Drake, home against ISUr, home and road against Indiana State.

I think the Furman and Ball State losses were the mysterious ones for me. Played at mediocre level for what I expect from this crew, yet were right there to maybe win both. If we had won those,, the other losses would be more understandable at this point in the teams development, in the teams attitude, and our collective thoughts would be less dire at this time.
In a way, perhaps the guys will respond to this situation with better efforts going forward and a sense of urgency.
I'm looking to see their play against St. Joe's as an indicator of our progress going into the Valley.
Furman at #23, to me, shows the silliness of the ratings. Their win against us and Villanova really put them there but since, Villanova's lost a couple more and we have done the same. So, letting go of looking at rankings, etc., may actually free up this team to just play every game.....
All the stuff PM is certainly preaching. Show me the money time has arrived. Talent on paper is nice, but it's just paper. I think they will show up.
GO RAMBLERS!

Coffee is for closers.

Loyola should be picked to win this thing if we can close.

The biggest difference between this year and last year is that we are not closing. It is obvious that we are struggling with placement. There are five or six times a game where it is clear that the new players are not in the right place on the court.

The good news is that PM is making changes in the rotations and changing the way we use certain players. These are good adjustments.