It's been just over a year and just about full sports year since word leaked out about Loyola joining the MVC. I'm wondering what everyone's impressions are of the teams/schools we've seen so far.

In my opinion, and perhaps not so surprisingly, Bradley has vaulted to the forefront of our intra-league rivalries so far. We knocked Bradley out of the MVC men's AND women's baketball tournament in March, and we just lost a very tough 8-7 MVC softball tournament championship to Bradley last weekend. But we're also getting a lot of competetion from Bradley in the Chicago recruiting market, as they've made a renewed push to land Chicago talent. The fact that Loyola has Peoria's Jeff White and Bradley has a couple of Chicago players added a lot of intensity to the regular season games we played against them in men's basketball. Add to that the long athletics history between the two schools, proximity, and both being private.

Although we had some surprising or minor upsets against Missouri State, Illinois State, and Northern Iowa, I don't think we're taken very seriously yet by most of the other fanbases. What we need to do is win on the road to make a statement that we're going to be a formidable competetor in this league. That will get their attention. I hope this coming year provides at least two or three of those road victories in conference...

I agree Bradley is an intense rivalry for us. If we and they are both good in the next couple of years, then they'll be fun games.

Wichita St. was obviously pegged as "the new Butler" from day 1.

I also hope Illinois St. and to an extent SIU are decent because I think they would be two teams we would really want to beat down the road. ISU red has had some nice recruiting coups, and SIU could be on the rise with Hinson.

I also think the state vs. private rivalry can work in our favor there. And not to bash UIC, but there seems to be a pecking order in the state schools when it comes to where the better students go. I think U of I is 1, ISU and NIU are a close 2/3, SIU 4 and UIC 5 (that's a generous 5 but probably on the same plain as EIU, WIU, Chicago St., NE IL, etc.). So I think you'll see our in-state students get a little more riled up to beat ISU, which has a lot of the kids they were competing with in school.

I'm really not that fired up about the rest of the teams, though don't we have some history with Evansville?

Yup !! We do have a history with the Aces--BUTof all the schools in the MVC, two standout as our BIG rivals for different reasons.---
--Bradley--They go all the way back to my time at LUC---back just after the Civil War --
--Wichita State--Yes they will be our new "Butler"--except the Shockers are classy--The Puppies were not--except for Arch of course.

The rest ?? Well, as stated, we beat them at their house a time or two, respect will come.

You know, we now have the makings of a winner--We have height, some depth and we have MILTON--We are looking really good. We will be a hand-full for this League starting this season.

Do you have any facts to support this? I don't think you do. NIU, SIU, ISU getting better students than UIC?

I don't agree. I read that and thought-- WHAT?!? It's U of I, *gap* UIC, *gap* ISU, NIU, SIU, EIU, WIU, NEIU, Chicago State.

Edit: Maybe lusuperfan is a lawyer.... Because U of I, NIU, and SIU have law schools.

Agreed...this is more likely the correct order. Sorry, I can't help myself sometimes.....I hate seeing people talk out of their ass....especially when it does my alma mater an injustice. All it takes is a little bit of research. UIC on the same plain as Chicago State? C'mon...I think lusuperfan got a rejection letter from UIC at some point.

I agree that Wichita State seems like "The New Butler" to us... but for some reason, I don't hate Wichita State the way i HATED Butler. I actually respect the way they play and take care of their business. Butler's fans, style of play, cockiness and attitude drove me nuts.... But Wichita State, however, seems like they just win ball games and play hard... I'm jealous of their talent but I don't "hate them"-- i just respect them.

As the resident WSU fan, I know there are a couple of others from time to time, I want to say thank you to you guys. I've seen a number of you over the past year talk about us being your new Butler but with more respect. I obviously don't know near as much about Butler as I didn't watch them play much and have never had any contact with their fans. But it feels good to be in this position as a non-hated rival. Too often people find reasons to hate others and feel rivalries have to have that kind of intensity.

For years we had a very respectful relationship with ISU that seems to have gone out the window, for the most part, the past few years and a lot of fanbases seem to hate us. I do know that online, some WSU fans can come off pretty brash. Even when we were bad (the 90's) we were a confident bunch and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. We had success and knew we could again and that bothered people. Then of course, when we broke through in '06 the flood gates opened after the years of abuse we'd taken from others. I think that's mostly calmed down on our end with a few exceptions and I think you guys see it more than most of the others because you're not jaded by what happened nearly 10 years ago when we started to make our climb.

I also want to thank Toledo for talking about the team and not just the fans. I'm biased, but I also love the way 3G gets the team to play. Unselfish. Disciplined. Hardnosed. And we want to play uptemp and will play as fast as the other team lets us. But it's defense first and we can grind it out when needed. And we definitely recruit athletes.

I really do hope that LU and others continue to build on what they're doing as I'd love to see the MVC strong again. I think you guys will get there. You have some really good talent and Doyle is special. It may take a new coach though. But I do think the Valley is going to slowly rise with the likes of what ISU and BU are doing in Illinois. SIU and LU are a little farther back but also got later starts and/or were starting with less. MSU is a wildcard. UNI should stay strong. It's going to be fun, especially in a few years.

I hope when you guys punch through and start fighting for and finishing in the upper half, that there's still a great deal of respect between our two fanbases. Sometimes that competition can heat things up in either a positive or negative way. I hope it stays positive as there's already enough negativity in the MVC.

Sorry for rambling. I just really like what's being built in Chicago and you guys have been great.

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