This is not intended to be a "Rah-Rah" thread for Loyola basketball next year. Every year we should be optimistic for the upcoming season. This season, however, should be different because there is an opportunity with Wichita State leaving the conference for Loyola to come up with a "Go for broke; Go all in" strategy to elevate its basketball program to the next level for the next several years. There is no more king at the top of the hill in the conference anymore. There is no more dynasty to try and destroy or chip away at. There's an open throne in the MVC, and it's my opinion that the school who comes up with a plan and takes a risk has the opportunity to elevate themselves.

The Returning Team / Players and Coaches: Plain and simple, there are enough pieces with the returning team to be at the top of the conference. We would not be starting a strategy from the very bottom like we had to do when we came into the MVC as a bottom-feeder. We are no longer in the position we were in when we first came into the league -- horizon league talent in an MVC league. We have the players to win, and lets not kid ourselves -- we have 2 guaranteed losses taken off our overall record (WSU) going into next season. We may not be the most talented team in the league just yet -- but we have the most "returning talent" in the conference. It's a veteran team now. They should only be expected to be better than last year -- not worse. The horses are there to run. From a coaching perspective -- Porter knows what he has now. He's been at the helm for enough years that we can now expect him to know what he's doing, have his players prepared for non-conference and conference play, and have a plan to get us to an NCAA birth. A trip to the dance is the number one goal, and with WSU leaving, he just had a major hurtle removed. There is no plausible excuse now. While we've always been optimistic, I think throughout the course of these seasons, we've known that we did not have the firepower to compete consistently with a program like WSU. The hope was to catch them on an off-night. Our focus in conference should no longer be on becoming the giant-slayer... we need to become the giant.

Budget -- There was an earlier thread comparing our lowly budget to that of other private, catholic, Jesuit schools. We are obviously below where we need to be -- and that needs to be remedied NOW. A steady increase doesn't jump-start the opportunity we have. We need to go for broke. If it fails, it fails -- but there is not going to be a better time than this year to establish ourselves as the leader of this league. If there is even a glimmer of interest by this administration into making Loyola Basketball a competitive program, if the money is not invested now it is a huge strategic mistake. There could have been an argument to be made before WSU decided to leave that the investment would not have been prudent for next year since we would never be able to pump in the amount of money that WSU did, and what would be the point in investing a substantial amount of money into a program that will most likely not make the NCAA tournament and show a quick return on the investment? THAT IS NOT THE CASE NOW. This league has always had a king. Before it was Creighton. Creighton left. Then Wichita State became the new king. Now they've left. Somebody can rise to the top here. Why not us, and why not now? It could not be more clear that WSU leaving this conference presents an opportunity for a SHORTCUT into building Loyola into a successful basketball program, that would eventually pay dividends in the future. We know longer have to knock anyone else in our league down from a pedestal to achieve success. We can instantly rise to the top, and build infrastructure to maintain a high level of success. If we let someone else in the conference take advantage instead of us, we've put ourselves BEHIND.

Student involvement -- Come up with a clear plan -- and let everyone on our campuses know about it. Loyola Basketball is coming back! Once you've made the commitment to invest in the program -- make sure everyone knows what the plan is, and make them a part of it. There are 11,000 undergraduate students at Loyola (Duke University -- for the sole sake of comparison - has just over 6,000). How many individual student organizations do we have? According to Wikipedia, there are 750+ academic staff and 1600 administrative staff. There are only 4,500 seats in the arena. There is absolutely no reason that, with a solid marketing effort internally, we could not get 2,500 people consistently at each game during the regular school year. There is an obvious disconnect here. I am tired of hearing the argument "the problem is that there are a lot of other things to do because it's Chicago..." Really? I went to Loyola in the early 2000's. I was a college student living in Chicago. Chicago is great for the first two weeks of each semester because there are tons of things to do --- until you realize that everything in Chicago is expensive and costs money. And then when i ran out of money -- I sat in in my dorm room or my apartment, browsed the internet for a while, and went to the same 4 places over and over again (Hamiltons, Brunos, P-Co, crappy house parties etc.). We've built and/or refurbished all this great on-campus housing.... we know how many undergrads are living RIGHT ON CAMPUS. Why are we not doing anything and everything to create a fun experience at our games and get a percentage of these kids in the building???? I don't care what you want the percentage goal to be -- Hire someone or designate someone whose job it is to make it happen -- PICK a number -- tell everyone you're doing it and that's your goal -- and make it happen! And if you don't make it happen that year -- rip that person out and give someone else a shot at it next year. Make Loyola a basketball school -- not a school with a basketball team. Throw as much money as you can into marketing this program from within, and see where it gets you. There is no way we can say we've tried this before and it hasn't worked. There needs to be a full force bombardment by the administration showing the student's that they are all in. Do something... ANYTHING more than some chipotle give-aways and free t-shirts.


In summary -- I just don't think we can say that there's not an obvious opportunity here right now. It's not going to get any better or any easier for Loyola to elevate it's basketball program in the next five to ten years as it is RIGHT NOW. The talent for our team is there next year -- the talent for other teams in the MVC is not. There will be a team to be marketed -- they're going to win games. We aren't going to have to start from the ground up. Somebody tell me 1) Is there a plan? 2) What is the plan? 3) Who is going to be in charge of implementing the plan? 4) What is the exact measure of success for growth this year for the basketball program (not just wins and losses from the team)? 5) Who is willing to accept responsibility for making it happen? 5) What is the plan if we don't reach the stated goal? Can we figure out what what our attendance was for games last year and then state what our goal is for improvement and how we plan to get there?

Is anyone out there? What the hell are we going to do? I'd like to see us become a real program....

Fantastic post, Toledo.

The only things I could add are:

1. We need to figure out how to keep the team focused and motivated throughout the entire year. No letdowns, no games where somebody mails it in, no going into game thinking we're going to beat a team on talent, good looks, or sheer awesomeness. That's a lot easier said than done... we've seen less talented teams come to Chicago and want to win more than we did (Cleveland State two years ago, Tulane three years ago, Southern Illinois last year), and we've seen more highly regarded teams get overwhelmed by our will to win (Creighton, San Diego State, Boise State, Texas Tech). We've gotten to the point of getting votes in national rankings, only to lose to Toledo and Drake. We've had great games on the road and lousy games on the road. We've had seasons where after the first week in January (20015) or February (2017) it looked like we were headed for a third place finish, only to end up fifth or sixth. It's hard to maintain an all-hands-on-deck, no quarter effort all the time, especially when things are going really well. Part of that is getting a fan base to show up, make some noise when needed, and let the players know that it matters.

2. It is up to the remaining members of the conference to make the MVC a relevant mid-level conference. That means all of us.... no slackers. Bradley has the background, budget, fan base, coach, and talent to make a big step forward. ISU may be down, but not too far. SIU, Missouri State, and UNI have the potential to be low-mid Top 100 teams. And we have the potential, I think, to be a mid-top 100 team. If all of us can do that, and the bottom of the league gets a tiny bit better, we're still a league fighting for a spot in the top 10 conferences. But if we all do nothing more than we did in the past, we're looking at 12th, 13th or 14th best conference.

OK !! This IS rug-cuttin' time !! No ifs ands or buts !! LUC to make the DANCE this season same as X Gonz GTN et al do mostly year after year.

Porter has his extension-- He can and MUST deliver

Valley IS winnable no matter who among the suggested teams join.
Porter and his team WILL do this thing !!

BTW Duquesne landed a fine Coach--Dambrot !! The A-10 had best be ready !! He lived in my condo bldg for a time while coaching the ZIPS to league top tier !!!

I would have Dukes on my list along with Valpo BUT too far east I wager !

I think the Porter extension is a smart move. We don't want him recruiting in a lame duck position. He has big time upgraded the talent level. With Wichita St gone I really believe that without injuries we can win the valley. This is Porter's opportunity to shine ... he has done this with his recent recruiting, now its his time to do it on the court. I am a glass half full kind of guy, but I really believe that we have the leadership and young big men to make this happen! By the way, I'm so sick of the LU blasting on the other board ... I cant wait for the season to start ... Go Ramblers!

OK !! Some days ago the Valley had an emergecy meeting !! What ?? Pray tell transpired ?? Any news ??

AD Watson said that they knew this was coming and were prepared and that it should be a short wait.....Did not seem concerned about WSU leaving

Catch and Shoot tweets that there will be no team added to MVC for next season.

Link? I only see a tweet stating the MVC will be flat with McIntosh not returning to ISUr. I'd be pretty bummed if there is no addition.

If our buddy posted it, he has since removed it.

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Cigarboy sucks!

The stars are aligning for us to take control of this league. It should be us in Missouri State battling it out for a trip to the NCAA tournament this upcoming season. Wichita State is gone, Illinois State's roster is greatly diminished, Porter is secured beyond next season and we've got a good core coming back with a great new talent expected to play. If there was ever a year to buy all in the Loyola basketball, it's going to be this year.

With Wichita State leaving, that's two probable expected losses we can take off our record for next season. It's my opinion that because of this, we can go on the road to a power and take a beating if it means getting a pay out. Can we pick up a game at Michigan State, North Carolina or Villanova? If we can, and get paid for it, I say we do it.

I just hope the powers that control see everything that's happening in the golden opportunity to elevate our program. We can do it next year! I'm hoping optimism runs deep.