JCT wrote:
I found their board mostly respectful (a very few exceptions, given their big posting volume), insightful, and basically nice. I thought they gained a lot of respect for the progress we've made as a program, and they gave us plenty of hat tips. There are only two things that come up a lot from WSU fans that bother me in particular....
1. The idea/suggestion/claim that good scheduling is only a matter of will. As though all you have to do to put together a good schedule that happens to break positive for your RPI is simply a matter of making a few phone calls.
Their "easy-peasy, very simple scheduling philosophy" that they urge everyone to else to follow to be as super great as they are hasn't worked out well at all for them this year. They scheduled not one, but TWO really terrible MEAC teams with 300+ RPIs. They scheduled Long Beach State, who usually plays a very aggressive OOC schedule, but wasn't that good this year and lost every one of their decent games. They had a bit of bad luck when Colorado State had three starters flunk out, yet "bad luck" and "unforseen circumstances" are never an excuse they accept from others. And they misjudged how good they would be, or how good other teams would be, when their two best OOC wins were a 3-point win against Oklahoma (with an RPI in the 180s until recently climbing to the 160s) and a win over a LSU-- a middle to bottom SEC team. And remember, this is Wichita State, with 100+ consecutive home games with more than 10k attendance, so they had the resources to buy MUCH better home games than MEAC teams. Maybe they should have bought a game from a "crappy" Horizon team instead. I'm just tired of the santimonus "schedule like we do, you stupid incompetent moron!" big talk--- when they don't have issues like we have (city location, tiny attendance base, 10 other D1 programs within 90 miles, longstanding rivalries, etc.). Every game they play is sold out, so they don't have to worry about matchups for attendance, getting media attention, drawing fans from neighboring rivals to help with revenue, or building excitement around the program-- they're able to schedule teams ENTIRELY for their RPI benefit, and yet as we've seen this year, they don't always do a perfect job of it themselves.
and 2. The crazy inconsistency on whether the MVC is a decent conference or not, why or why not, who's to blame, what to do about it, etc. Most of their fans use logically insconsistent arguments and then change their minds later in the same paragraph or sentence to a 180 degree position. Like the exchange above with Catch and Shoot.... "We're easily better than everyone else in this crappy, poorly-run conference, but if we lose to UNI or Illinois State on the road or struggle at home against a team we said didn't belong in the conference, it's because this is a tough conference." "I can't wait until we don't have to play all those crappy Illinois teams anymore-- Loyola, Illinois State, Bradley, and SIU-- and we can start developing whole new conference rivalries with Temple, Tulane, South Florida, Connecticut, and East Carolina." "This is by far the worst-run conference in the country, and proof is they admitted Loyola-- who should go back to their awful, crappy Horizon League." "It was wrong to admit Loyola, I don't believe their claims about committment to compete at a higher level, they come from a bad conference, Chicago is an overrated college sports market, they have bad attendance, they're a private school, their gym is small, and they're far away from our team-- so that's why I favor Belmont, Valpo, or Denver instead."
I could really do without all that stuff.
1. Nobody says scheduling is easy. The problem is, many schools/coaches don't seem to care to try. We've often said you have to be creative and find games that should work in your favor. One of those MEAC teams I believe was a coaching relationship and the other was supposed to be pretty good by MEAC standards. LBSU is a shock to everyone. That was expected to be maybe the toughest non tournament game of our schedule and they've fallen flat. Shocker fans typically don't complain if you've attempted to schedule up. It's the Marty Simmons philosophy that other coaches seem to use that pisses us all off.
2. The conference can be tough because of style. There are a few teams that can rise up but outside of UNI there has been zero consistency from any of the other 8. I give UNI a pass for having one horrible year. But as a whole, the Valley is what it is. A collection of schools that have no common thinking. At least not where Wichita is concerned. There are a few schools that simply can't invest and therefore will never have any sort of consistency and are hoping for their flash in the pan moment to do something. There are schools completely ok with mediocrity (Evansville). There are schools that do try, but seem to fail. MSU is scared to actually invest what it would take to push them to the next level. ISUr is such a mess and will recruit anyone that can play regardless of character. That's bit them plenty. We really have no conference rivals in the MVC. I guess it just depends on which team might challenge for the top, but not really any rivals. Fans don't get very excited about any other Valley school coming to town. It is what it is. Older fans would love to reconnect with Tulsa. Trips to Houston, Dallas, Memphis, Cincinnati, Orlando, New Orleans and Tampa are a lot more exciting than going to Valley towns. They're also all easier to get to, outside of Chicago. Fans would get excited to play Tulsa, Houston, Memphis, Cinci, UConn. Tulane and UCF have hired coaches that show they're making an effort to raise the level of basketball in Dunleavy and Dawkins. There are some damn good coaches in the AAC. Who knows if anything will come of it, but you can't fault fans for dreaming of bigger and better things. Believe it or not, winning so many games by double digits and 20+ gets old and boring. We show up to watch our Shox but it'd be nice to not have so many games be over 10 minutes in.
Really, nobody says the MVC sucks as a whole, it's just fallen a long way in the last 10 to 15 years and doesn't look like it will ever get back to what it was then. We want more. Who wouldn't? Isn't the goal to compete at the highest level possible? The AAC would give us better competition and more exposure on TV and in areas we recruit.
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