Next year will also effectively be the first season of Valpo's post-Drew era. There's been someone from the Drew family coaching them since 1988 (Homer, Scott, and Bryce). You can't really count last season, since Bryce Drew left for Vanderbilt on April 6, 2016, and Matt Lottich was named as replacement the next day-- with a roster entirely signed by Drew.

Worth noting that per verbal commits they will have the highest star rating in terms of ranked recruits. 4 star in Joe Burton a OkSt transfer, 3 star in Bakari Evelyn a Nebraska transfer, 3 star 7'2 center Derrik Smits who redshirted with injury... plus an incoming 3 star 6'7 forward (this team is tall across the board). Granted star ratings are far from everything and i haven't really researched their production. But if they all are as good as advertised they could potentially challenge for a top 3 spot right away.

From the outside looking in it's pretty similar to how Loyola may look to those who don't do their research. We lose Milt, who at times our team could look lost without (not necessarily a knock on other players, just that he played so many minutes and everything normally ran through him), but are also gaining a ton in return.

Road Trip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzg9cE7-2LQ

So arguably the two best recruiting classes are from the two newest teams....while the other teams sit back and blame everyone but themselves for any drop in conference competitiveness.

Pretty much. Blame Loyola for not being Creighton instead of Bradley for being a 200+ RPI team for the past four consecutive years, or Indiana State sliding from a 72 RPI in 2013 and a 73 RPI in 2014 to a 234 last year.

dont you think a lot of the bs we get from other schools is just city mouse vs country mouse stuff ?

Not at all that. I'm also an SIU grad, and it's nothing to do with where the school is (most students/alums are from Chicago area), and everything to do with perceived status of basketball reputation. (Some of) These fans still see their schools as being on the level they were 10 years ago, (at least in terms of reputation), so in their minds the problem with lack of at large bids and WSU leaving must reside with the new kid. They refuse to accept the fact that the new kid has worked to get better, passing them up, while they've gotten worse. Bradley in particular, who we've absolutely owned since we joined the MVC.

It is really odd how angry most fans are. Especially how UNI is the only school left in the Valley to make the tourney since we joined. I sympathize with Evansville and Drake fans who have been punching bags as well, specifically being punched by schools that don't have much better success in the big picture.

That said I will say I think we've gotten a lot more respect recently especially with the recruiting. For now we have gotten the good rep as "a tough out;" beatable but competitive. Which is honestly accurate. I still say we've been steadily pointing the arrow up 3 years in a row, and hopefully that rep gets upgraded after this year.

I think the anti-city thing is real amongst the other MVC schools. Remember when Republicans cheered when Chicago didn't get the Olympics? Ever read a right wing political blog comment section when Chicago is mentioned?

In downstate Illinois, the perception is the rest of the state subsidizes Chicago's wild spending and the hoardes of slovenly poor people-- even though Chicago is the only truly thriving part of the state.

Chicago gains vast majority of Illinois' new jobs



You should read the Peoria Journal Star comments sections when Caterpillar moves their HQ to Deerfield to get an idea of what it's like.

Told myself I wouldn't get involved with the some of the yokels over at mvcfans...but I took the bait and now am going back and forth with a couple of them. Really is unbelievable how much hate LU gets over there. I agree with the others--I hope we absolutely dominate conference and shut these clowns up (although they'd just fall back even more on the attendance argument in that case).