brot4britu wrote:
Well What can I add to the above posts ??? Oh I have been a Rambler since 1947 !! Witnessed some good to great teams--Winning a lot in the Stadium against the best in its time--Ky UCLA OKLA A and M (Now O ST) Manhattan Holy Cross et al--I did see us take Duke apart in 1963---took time off to help Lor raise kids !! This team has not yet made the Dance but when they doin a week or so. I will say THIS RAMBLER TEAM is the second best of all LOYOLA BB Teams of all--NO QUESTION !!
Now then regardless of what I wrote re S Ill on another thread, we are CHAMPIONS of a HAS BEEN league--Frazier Bird Melchiorre and little else over the years--
We had to leave the Horizon--We did -- And now Porter and his team run the roost--Onward from here !!
BTW in my mind only the ACES because of their tragic history and the classy way they have handled it over the years get a pass from me--
I disagree with you, Brot. I think this is a great league with a great future, and I'm damn grateful that we are part of it. I hope we can be a leader in this conference, helping to update the image and make it a city-friendly conference.
I remember when the MCC was a great league-- Loyola, Xavier, Marquette, St. Louis, Dayton, Evansville, Butler, Detroit.... etc. What sunk it was mismanagement, loss of vision, greed, bending the rules, favoritism, small thinking, cutting corners, etc. I like where we are and who we're affiliated with. In some ways, I like it even better without Wichita State, a fan base who (online, at least) had a sour, bullying attitude about their dealings with others. I hope we never get to be like that, and I hope no one else in this conference does either.
I think the conference is going in the right direction. We're not going to have any teams below 200 in the RPI this year. Some good coaches have come in at Bradley and Drake. I like some of the young talent in the league.... Childs at Bradley looks great, Krutwig and Williamson at Loyola, Noah Thomas at Drake (and they have good recruits next year). Imagine Pickford as a senior if he continues to improve each year.
I can see the MVC passing the AAC and Pac 12 when they have down years, if we work together and schedule with an eye to support the conference. We'll have down years, too, when we're 10th or 11th behind the A-10, West Coast, and MWC. I'd like to see all the teams bump up their budgets to the low 3 mil range, and share marketing tactics and results with each other so we're not all reinventing the wheel on our own on building attendance, scheduling, and communications techniques. I think we can do that in this league, and help make everyone better.