What a game in Cedar Falls! Wow....

With one game to play this is what I have for the current seeding going into Saturday's games.

1. Loyola 11-6 (H2H over Drake)
2. Drake 11-6
3. Missouri State 10-7
4. Bradley 9-8 (4-2 H2H w/tied teams)
5. Southern Illinois 9-8 (3-2 H2H w/tied teams)
6. Illinois State 9-8 (2-3 H2H w/tied teams)
7. Northern Iowa 9-8 (2-4 H2H w/tied teams)
8. Valparaiso 7-10
9. Indiana State 6-11
10. Evansville 4-13

I'm pretty sure I'm correct with those tiebreakers for 4-7 but someone let me know if I'm not. It's tough since ISU plays at SIU on Saturday. Huge advantage being the 1 seed over the 2 seed because it means playing Valpo/Ind St instead of potentially Brad/SIU/ISU/UNI.

So if we win we are champs....if we lose and MSU wins...we are 2nd.....if we lose and Drake wins we are 2nd ?
It seems like a big difference between 1 and 2........with 1 playing the 1st game on Friday and 2 playing the 3rd....Giving 1 maybe up to 3 extra hours of rest and prep........

Also the competition. Valpo/Indiana state in the 8/9 game are weaker than whoever will end up the 7 seed.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

Winning the conference is huge. Enormous.

First, you lock in an NIT bid AT MINIMUM. For years, we would have gone nuts for an NIT bid. Secondly, we are a huge part of the NIT-- we've finished as national runner-ups twice, and third place nationally once. And we did that during the years when the NIT was the ONLY reasonable option for integrated teams.

Second, we need to take leadership of this conference. We need to be good or competitive in all sports, and we need to be a persuasive and deciding factor in decisions made my the conference. We ceded that power and control when we were in the Horizon, and because of that, the conference twisted into a pretzel and blew itself up. We need to be a loud voice at the front of the table in the MVC.

Third, we need to help set an example for moribund athletic programs in the league. We need the lower budget teams to boost their funding, and we need the league to weigh in on helping scheduling..... we need another conference challenge that helps, and maybe a showcase in St. Louis or Chicago or Des Moines.

Or Detroit.

_________________
Let's go Braden!

JCT...interesting you brought up the state of the Valley.....probably a really good thread for the off-season but since you brought it up. Seems like a couple teams stepped it up this year. MSU brought in a well pedigreed coach and did some instant upgrade with a ton of transfers.I know Evansville is going to finish last but on the surface really had an influx of money.....with an xNBA coach as head coach and two x head coaches Licklitter and Graves as assistants and major talent coming in as transfers next year. Interesting will be to see if the head coaches at SIU and ISU get the axe this year if they dont win the tournament. BIG question for me is what do we need to do to be a two bid team to the Dance. Some teams upped their SOS but no one really pushed their rankings.It will be tough as we are mostly a developmental league with our teams being way better at the end of the year than the beginning and seldom get tons of non-con wins.

Win tomorrow, and no matter what, this season can be considered a success.

If we win the regular season conference, we'll have made a post-season tournament 2 years in a row, and when we first joined the Valley, that seemed like a pipe dream. I didn't that we'd get back-to-back conference championships in the first ten years of the Valley. I would have been happy to just get one in ten years when we first started. Tomorrow's game is huge.

Don’t jinx us Toledo we haven’t won yet!

Excited for Friday! Let’s win 3!

Northwestern - in the cellar of the Big 10 (Illinois not far ahead of them)

DePaul - in the cellar of the cellar of the Big East

If we get back to the NCAA again, we will have proved we are the best program in Chicago/Illinois to play for, and last year wasn’t just a one-off. We can do it!

LUC is now the best in the VALLEY !! First step done --now we must build--our reputation is growing larger with each win--OUR guys led by Porter Moser are about to show that we Are the class team in ILLINOIS From here on our guys will be as Butler used to be-- WE shall handle success with far more Class though. see us as a Midwest Gonzaga PM has started somethig great !!