VCU had no shot today with BYU.

A10 conference has a lot of self-improvement work to do.

Not to make excuses for VCU, but they had a quick turnaround (Sunday afternoon to Thursday afternoon) and had to play BYU in Denver at altitude. I think it's a lot closer at a more true neutral site. Plus, BYU is good, and their financial commitment to basketball is impressive even for the power conferences. Their coach was a legitimate NBA head coaching candidate when he was the top assistant last year with Phoenix, and they have the #1 recruit coming into the country.

"RAMBLOR: I would rather be Loyola than Drake right now, not even a second thought"

This is aging as well as my negative post about Valentine being able to win games as the new coach a few years ago.

Yea I thought the altitude sickness could have been a thing once the game ended. Shulga especially looked very winded and weak. Russell was never in it either. Didn't think it could be something but it does add up.

They had a damn good year.

And now we've got zero tournament representatives left

I mean, congrats on them for finally getting out of the first round. When it happened, the announcers still couldn't help but start talking about Loyola's runs.

I don't think we would have made the tourney the past three years even if we stayed in the Valley. 22-23--we weren't good. 23-24--would have had just as good of chance in the Valley, but I don't think we were better than Drake or ISUb. And Bradley beat us in the NIT. 24-25--we aren't as good as Drake is this year. Would have been in the top 3/4 alongside Bradley and UNI. I think we are slightly better than both this year but behind Drake.

Also a good point. With the double-bye, it's not like our path in the conference tourney was THAT much harder than it would have been in the MVC. And once in the big dance, every team is at least as good as VCU or Drake. I want to be good enough to beat really good teams, not good enough to squeak into the tournament.

When I think of the whole A10 vs. MVC debate, at the end of the day the A10 raises the ceiling of our program considerably. That's how we get the talent to make deep tourney runs again (I think we're knocking on the door), and become a program like Dayton or VCU that is consistent contender.

The Valley was great....but the A10 is just better...there is more money, more competition, more national tv games. If Loyola wants to become relevant, we need money...and people in the seats. None of the fans on the season ticket side are going to show up for games against UIC, Missouri State, Evansville, etc on Tuesday nights to watch. The only two games in the A10 I think are 100% winnable at home are Fordham and LaSalle...everyone else in the A10 is going to be a game. Back in the Valley we had maybe one sellout a year against Northern Iowa or Drake....now in the A10 we are selling out a few games and damn near selling out a good number of games....throw in the games on USA, CBSsports, and ESPN2 and it just gets better and better.

Zero disrespect to the Valley....it was great and I loved the defense-forward style of play. The A10 is just better....and better for the other sports as well.