It should come as no shock that the plurality of the league is not happy with us. But I did find this gem on the Evansville board:



Now that's some good trolling!

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Cigarboy sucks!

The fact that you found a post on the Evansville board is impressive. I don't even bother as there are four posters and little action.

I think you will find that while initially, few were thrilled about your addition, myself included, most fans have lightened up. It appears that your other sports may compete fairly well in the MVC but basketball is really all that matters in this conference as that's our one sport to really put on display to the nation. There are definitely questionmarks there with your program at the moment but many are holding off on absolute judgement until we see how you adjust to a higher profile conference and if you can capitalize off of your location and new commitment to the program.

If after five years you've never avoided Thursday, then many will give up on you and you'll hear a lot more. Some may not wait that long. But I honestly think there's a chance you could avoid it this season. A few programs (SIU, DU) are really down and nobody is sure what to expect from ISU this season as they have a lot of new faces. BU is another question mark but many believe that Ford has them moving in the right direction.

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The Roundhouse

I suppose it is said about most conferences but EVERY Valley game is a WAR. Along with that I would expect Loyola to have extra incentive built-in instate wars of their own with league members Bradley, Illinois State & Southern Illinois a total of six times each season plus possible end of season tourney games with those particular teams.

Welcome and good luck in all games except when playing our Sycamores...........

With some of the discussion that's been going on over at ShockerNet about this coming season, some of us have done a little light research on you guys and are feeling a bit more optimistic. I think I've got this right, you guys were pretty young last year and started the season resepctably. I hear that you had two or three key injuries and then struggled losing a number of close games. It appears that most of your games were competitive and the losses could be attributed to the injuries and being young. Young teams sometimes have to learn how to win those close ones.

It appears that you'll still be young, but I believe most of those youngsters played quite a bit last season with the exception of Doyle who had to sit a year after tranferring from KU. It appears that you'll still heavily rely on a SO class that has a decent amount of talent.

You appear to be a little thin on the inside, but have some young guys who could develop. The MVC is a pretty physical conference and it helps to have a couple of guys who can bang away inside. Perhaps Cody Johnson can be one of those guys for you this season as he appears to have decent size. The more I look at things the more I feel you guys will be able to compete fairly well in your first season. Hopefully Moser and company can continue building with the next couple of classes and push you higher.

If interested in seeing all the rosters in one place, I've put them together here. I think they're all up to date as I've used the athletics websites for the info with the exception of Evansville who doesn't have theirs up to date yet. But I used some recruiting info to plug in the rest. I also used some guess work on who may start. Some teams are more difficult than others due to who left/graduated or in the case of SIU, lack of talent.

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The Roundhouse

Your analysis of the Ramblers is pretty good. I'm not sure i'd say we are thin inside...we just bring a bit of a different game.

Christian Thomas is the guy to watch. He made a huge jump from his freshman year to his sophomore year. He is undersized for a post man but the energy he brings seems to make up for that. He has tended to hold his own against bigger guys.

The other two inside men, Matt O'Leary and and Nick Osborne (both 6'8") were young. They started to show some flashes towards the end of the season. Word has it that O'Leary has bulked up (which was important because he was thin).

We sat out Jeremy King last year. He was raw coming out of high school. Hopefully the year of practice did him well and he can serve as a nice roll player in the post (at 6'10"). He'll be more of a defensive player anyways. Hopefully he can add some offensive output to his game.

Cody Johnson is the guy that could bypass O'Leary and Osborne if he plays well. Not really sure what we are getting in him as of yet.

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Cigarboy sucks!

GUMMY has it !! Thanks a lot--One thing for sure The MVC is HUGE !!!! I am thinking our new competition will NOT be as good as Shockers--BUT most have BIGS and More bigs !!
OK, as Go says, we will be bringing a different sort of game. Will it work ?? Time will tell--
One thing--we have played Braves a lot and have held our own down the years.

Our old league had a big here and there--BUT Cripes ! , not like the VALLEY !

GO RAMBLERS !!

Thanks GUM !

SubG - Nice job on the rosters post. Only thing about Loyola is that Christian Thomas will definitely start. Most likely in place of Johnson, but who knows. In my opinion, White, Crisman, Doyle, and Thomas are locks to start. I think Osborne will probably start most games early in the season.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Brot,

It's "SubGOD", not "SubGUM".

You must have been hungry for some Chinese food when you read his post!

I'd seen some talk on here about Thomas, but didn't realize he was an inside guy based off of height and weight. You guys were pretty difficult being the new to the conference.

And there's nothing wrong with an undersized post if utilized properly. On our Sweet 16 team back in '06 our starting PF was 6'5" but had a motor and rebounded like crazy and didn't back down from anyone. It can be hard to compete nationally with that all the time, but it can work.

I can't speak for the other Valley teams, but there has been a trend to get bigger inside. Some settle for big while others still try to maintain a level of athleticism and not just big bruiser types. Style of play dictates that though. WSU wants to get up and down so we want our bigs to be able to move, but still bang when in the halfcourt or on D.

October can't get here soon enough. And I'm glad some of you found the roster link useful. I like to be able to see things in one spot when doing analysis and we've been talking about prediction standings and it's hard when you can't remember who's returning what and who's bringing in who.

Your young team could be exciting. I look forward to seeing them play and kicking their ass

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The Roundhouse

Hope you can make it out to Chicago one of these years. I'm sure some of the guys on here would like to share a beer with you before and/or after a game

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Cigarboy sucks!