#23 in the ESPN poll, this is a fun time to be a Ramblers fan!

These rankings are riot! Just hope that the team and Coaches realize what got them here and how easy it can slip away. Drake was ranked and getting pub, ranked 25 last week, and one loss to Valpo knocked them out!

As long as we smile at the rankings, take it as a validation that our work ethic, culture and drive is what we got us here and we continue to work, defend, share the ball and do all things we have so far...we will be OK. We are good, but not good enough to take it for granted or to coast.

I don't think Porter has an off switch, so I don't think it will be a problem.

Here's another enormous benefit from being ranked (hopefully): scheduling. If Loyola can appear in the rankings every now and then and stay there for a while, it will be a lot easier for P5 teams and Big East/A10/AAC teams to pull the trigger on scheduling us.

The ranking is great, and an accomplishment itself, but hopefully we don't stop here. We all knew 2 years ago that this was going to be our most talented team (when we got Kennedy and Welch, and knew Krut and Williamson would be seniors). Porter built an amazing supporting cast, and we are just now starting to see the benefits of what we built.

I know it's greedy, but I want to see us win out and keep this ranking. THIS IS THE YEAR and I hope our guys know that. We get two big wins this weekend, and we are well on our way. I honestly believe that we have the ability to beat up on Drake by double-digits. If we throw them off of their plan, and they will start to panic like they did against Valpo.

This is a really exciting time! I hope we can ride this ranking all the way to the NCAA tournament.

The irony here, as we've seen a few times over the past few weeks, is we've beaten some teams so badly we've knocked them from Quad 2 to Quad 3 wins. Before our two games against Missouri State, they were at 69 or 70 in the NET and now they're at 109-- only because they got two road wins at Illinois State this weekend.

We also beat Bradley twice at home right after their road loss at Illinois State, and they dropped out of Q2. After they lost yesterday at home to SIU, they dropped from 146 to 151.

I was watching our game yesterday, so I just kept track of Drake on the live stats. I don't know what Valpo did to beat them, but opposing coaches have figured out something. They've had trouble in three of the last four games-- the first one in OT against Illinois State, the Saturday game where they came from 10 down in the 2nd half, and yesterday's loss. That one road loss dropped them from 13 to 32 in the NET.

I'd be careful about doing whatever Illinois State did against Drake. They lost by 35 the next night.

North Texas and Missouri State are creeping back toward Q2 territory.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

WWG1WGA

Looks like Missouri State already has as of today. Bradley has even almost come back to being Q2 wins for us.

Also not entirely out of the realm of possibilities that UIC, Valpo, and UNI could move up from Q4 to Q3 wins for us.

Right you are. I think I meant Bradley. Not enough coffee.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart