Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I went to that other messageboard. They are asking whether this is the worst that the MVC has ever been. Valid question. In fact, Ramblin' Ray and I had this discussion last night. To this point, I haven't been blown away by the MVC teams we've seen. Sure, we've lost games, but we have been in them all. No team seems like that are going to beat the crap out of us (that is sure to change with WSU).

Regardless, some may be saying the following tongue in cheek, but I believe that are quite a few out there that actually believe this:



I had no idea that we were responsible for the way that all the MVC teams play! Even when not playing us!

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Cigarboy sucks!

Ignore 'em. We're (The MVC) still in the top third of conference RPI. It is down compared to last year but it happens. You guys are young and will be a force in the league in the future when Doyle gets some seasoning. If you guys can get a legit low post scoring thread, I see you moving up the Valley ranks very quickly.

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Sycamore Pride

That board is brutal. Porter talks about culture change, and although sometimes it can be annoying, he is right. I have been a fan for a long time and I finally can see the University putting the right focus on the program. That focus has been missing for a long time. The problem with culture change is that it does not happen overnight. Both students and alumni will become interested when we win consistently. We have upgraded our facilities and are starting to see an upgrade in talent. I believe that in time, hopefully sooner than later, that will translate to wins which will generate enthusiasm. For now we as alumni need to remain loyal fans and support this team by attending games and providing financial support if possible. Getting back to that board … I could not care less what is said about Loyola. Yes I am frustrated with some of these losses, but I am very proud of our university and the direction it is moving! Hang in there … we will see better days!

I don't think people talking about the Creighton/Loyola swap are blaming Loyola as much as saying that's led to a big hit on perception and RPI. An MVC with both Creighton and Wichita would be seen as a lot stronger than what we have now. Both are top 25 type teams and that would boost the likes of UNI and ISUb as well as WSU by having another top team to go against.

With that said, this is as bad as I've seen the MVC in at least the last 15 years when I started paying much closer attention to the sport in general. A lot of youth out there. I saw a similar discussion on I think the Redbird board today. Someone had asked if the MVC would ever get better.

My thoughts are as follows.

Wichita will continue to be a good program. They'll return a lot of talent and I like what they're bringing in.

Loyola has a solid young core and if Moser can recruit more talent to support them they'll improve over the next couple of years for sure.

Illinois State has a lot of new faces but some good talent. Need more post depth but they could win some games the next few years.

Drake has what I feel is a good coach, but we have to see how he recruits and develops. Too early to tell for sure.

Indiana State should be solid. I like Lansing but they need to step it up recruiting a bit as I don't see anyone ready to take over for Odum or Arop.

UNI will always be well coached with Jacobson and look to have some good young pieces. Another year or two and they'll be even better.

SIU was left in a big hole by Lowery. It's going to take Hinson some time.

Bradley I think will get better when Lemon is gone. I like some of their young pieces but something isn't working. Give them 2 more years and you'll see good progress.

Evansville is Evansville.

Missouri State has some nice young players as well. If they can stay healthy and get another couple recruiting classes to fill in some things they could be pretty good starting next year.

I really do believe we can and should be competing with the A10 and those conferences from 6-10. And I think we will be in the next year or two.

You guys will definitely get better. I know you're losing, but you've been competitive and just haven't developed how to win those games. It really is a culture thing. Marshall has focused on bringing in talent from winning HS and AAU teams. Not just good players, but players who come from winning programs and have that swagger and confidence and just attitude of winning. You'll get over that hump and when you do, you have a high ceiling.

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The Roundhouse

We didn't replace Creighton. When Creighton announced they were leaving, everybody instantly moved up in the heirarchy. The MVC looked around for a school to join the league to make ten schools. Each school under consideration had to have some necessary qualities-- willingness/ability to join (remember, there are contracts and substantial entrance/exit fees involved), fiscal health, solid leadership, good academics, location, competitiveness, facilities, ease of travel, the right set of non-revenue sports, a similar budget to other schools, and potential for improvement. A bonus was that we could add some things that were lacking or underrepresented in the league-- market size, a rich history, access to media, a way to raise the league's recruiting profile, a market with a large pool of alumni for different schools, etc. And those things are important, too-- it's no coincidence that the MVC headquarters is in St. Louis instead of Rolla, Missouri or Decatur, Illinois.

We were chosen from among a short list of candidates. From what I've heard, right off the bat, Belmont and Denver were not willing or able. That left Valpo, UIC, UMKC, and us.

So we replaced Southern Illinois, who replaced Drake, who replaced Evansville, and on up the line. Indiana State is the school that "replaced" Creighton, and I'd have to judge their performance as not too shabby. They're 15-4 overall, with an RPI of 51. Creighton has an RPI of 10, but much of that is due to the fact they only played two road games in the non-con as a member of a stronger league. Think that's also going to be the case next year, when Doug McDermott graduates?

From a recent historical standpoint, the league has been weaker. In 2011, the league got one bid, and the top RPI team was Missouri State with 43. Creighton had an RPI of 122 that year, in McDermott's freshman year. There was only one bid the three previous years before that, too, with only Northern Iowa in 2010 and Drake in 2008 cracking the top 40 in RPI. This year, there are four teams in the RPI top 100, and one in the top 10: Wichita State (8), Indiana State (51), Missouri State (81) and Northern Iowa (88). A fifth team, Illinois State, is bubbling just under the top 100 at 106. In the past 35 years, there's only been one time where a league team had an RPI ranked above where Wichita State is right now-- Southern Illinois finished with a 7 in 2007.

If the league is substantially weaker at all, it's down in the neighborhood where we're living right now. Evansville, Bradley, Southern Illinois and Loyola are all 200+ in the RPI, but we all knew this was likely at the beginning of the year, didn't we? If there's any surprise at all, it's that Illinois State and Drake have done as well as they have and remained out of the 200+ club. Would that dynamic have been different at all if Creighton hadn't left? No.

I firmly believe we would have an RPI 40-60 spots better if we had been able to schedule our non-con as a member of the MVC. I trust that it will be substantially better next year, and better the year after that. Being in the MVC will mean probably having one or two more home games per year on our non-con schedule, and getting better quality teams to come to Rogers Park. It will mean more willingness for BCS teams and strong programs to schedule us in a home and home or 2 for 1. Having top teams play us at home in the non-con helps attendance throughout the year. That's abundantly clear from the past several years-- this is easily the worst non-con home schedule we've had since at least 2009-10, probably longer. There was no DePaul, no Kansas State, no Purdue, no St. Louis-- not even a Fordham or Western Michigan. Our entire home non-con schedule was composed of three former conference rivals (Milwaukee, UIC, Northern Illinois) and two schools you had to Google (Rockhurst and Campbell).

I hope somebody on the staff is working on putting together a good schedule right now, and not waiting until late March.

Just a quick note on the schedule. I heard from a source that we had Auburn penciled in for a home and home but that it fell through at the last minute. Granted, they aren't GREAT, but at 166 (kenpom), they certainly would have looked better than Rockhurst (the team we replaced Auburn with)

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Cigarboy sucks!

Recruting is fine. We have two freshmen redshirting and have 3 coming in. The person the most likely take Odum torch is redshirt freshmen Brenton scott, twin brother of Bryson Scott @ Purdue. And Khristian Smith will take over for Arop, Smith has been our 6th man aka "Silent assasin".

Why were you expecting to be blown away? The MVC is known for taking down top or ranked programs but beat each other up in conference. That has always been the MVC.

Not necessarily blown away...I guess I was expecting a noticeable difference between LU and the rest of the MVC. After all, that's all we've heard from our MVC brethren...that we are a noticeably worse team.

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Cigarboy sucks!

And yet the fan poll on that other board picked us 7th.

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MBB Scholarship Chart