5 and 32 were at the rally last night. We had nice mentions on the 10:00 sports.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

That's awesome.

I'll also note that Jurko has been ripping us again. He's convinced that he knows Loyola alum that played basketball here. He's said that those very same people had no clue that LU was in the CBI. I'm going to call bullshit on that since the school has been very good about keeping the former players in the loop. Players from the 63 team, the 85 team and all the other years have been seen in the Joe during this season. In sum, Jurko is an ass.

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Cigarboy sucks!

If that's true, it's as much Jerko's fault as a member of the media who is supposed to report on sports, as it is Loyola's.

But he only has so much time in the day! He needs to talk about the national powerhouse that is Eastern Illinois...

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Cigarboy sucks!

If things keep going the way they are going in Rogers Park, we will basically be impossible to ignore next season. It took time, internally, to get us to the point we are at now, and in all likelihood it will take time to get others to come around. I applaud everyone who has made efforts to gain us recognition. Hopefully more will come soon. We have to just keep winning.

I wonder if he even knew EIU was playing in the CIT, or if he, like a much more famous alum, thought he really went to Duke (easy to confuse, they both wear blue).

Not a single mention about EIU basketball. He's perfectly happy ripping basketball in Illinois and then not mentioning us or any other team that does something worthwhile.

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Cigarboy sucks!

This is going to be a looonnnngggg process. The neglect of the program and existing in the shadows of the Horizon for so many years has conditioned people to just write us off, and it's part of their mental and muscle memory. Even a large percentage of our own alumni are not able to think of us as a serious D1 sports school.

We had a really good season, but it came from nowhere. Just the simple accomplishment of avoiding Thursday would have been beyond my reasonable expectations at the beginning of the year. Winning the Vegas tournament was so improbable, the possibility didn't even occur to me until about halftime of the Texas Tech game. I posted the Ramblermania article about getting to a postseason tournament as we were struggling to overcome the mid-season loss of Doyle-- as added incentive and a practical goal to shoot for, not even fathoming that we could do something as crazy as WIN a postseason tournament.

Now comes the really hard part: following up one good season with string of good to excellent seasons. We'll get some new signees next week (regular signing period begins April 15), which should help clear up where we stand for 2015-16. Not long after that we'll get some scheduling news. We've got to stay active and newsworthy through the offseason, get excited for next season, and follow it up with solid on-court performance-- not just next year, but the year after that and into the future, and never backslide back to the place we were.

In my opinion, we need to restructure the ticket prices and use the good season and accomplishments to double or triple the revenue from sponsors and advertisers before the next tipoff. I really think a 30% ticket price cut, aggressive marketing of season ticket packages, an improved home non-con schedule, and higher ad revenue from more sponsors is all doable next season. Lower ticket prices would help a couple hundred people pull the trigger on getting to the games. Maybe consider starting weeknight games at 7:30? We should NEVER have a home conference game with less than 2000, even on snowy weeknights. If Creighton is coming in, that should help. We may have a chance to beat DePaul under a new coach, which should help getting some attention.

Nobody wants to go to a basketball game to be lonely. A crowd begets a bigger crowd. We have a great facility that can be fun and exciting, but showing up and finding the place 1/4 full is a turnoff. It's a turnoff to fans (both paying and student), it's a turnoff to sponsors, and it's a turnoff to media.

The CBI Championship was great and it is a big step for the program. I am very proud of the coaches and players. The program is going in the right direction. However casual fans do not care about anything but the NCAA Tournament and even joke about the NIT. The CIT and CBI do not get coverage because most people simply don't care about those tournaments. So I do not fault the media for not really covering the CBI or CIT.

I actually think there should only be three tournaments (NCAA, NIT, and a CBI/CIT combo). I wonder if that is where this is heading anyway given the Power 5 not really being involved in the CBI and the lack of a corporate sponsor.

Finally, I do fault the media for not covering regular season games. I know this sounds crazy, but I actually view a regular season MVC game as more important than a CBI game. The MVC games lead to the only tournament that people care about..the NCAA.

The way I view it is this:

Loyola is located in Chicago. Chicago media should cover news that occurs in Chicago or regarding something Chicago. Ergo, they should cover Loyola basketball. We're lucky if they cover any of our games let alone mention them.

But when it comes to the CBI, I see it as an exception. Sure, it's not that big of a deal. But the media has spent the better part of a month complaining that Chicago college basketball is in a terrible state. You can't do that and then ignore the only local school (ISUred doesn't count in this discussion) to be in a post-season tournament.

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Cigarboy sucks!