What is Going On?

[pawball]

Valley looking weak. Evansville, Bradley, Missouri St pump up the conference? Strange brew brewin'.

[jsaluki080]

Hard to say much this early on but I have to admit we’re not off to a great start though. We may be back to double digits for conference ranking

[VUGrad1314]

Among midmajor leagues only CUSA looks really good right now. Let's revisit the Valley's position in 3-4 days when SIU UNI and Valpo among others have a chance at some big wins. The A10 and MWC have some really bad losses on their resume too. Even the AAC is off to a slow start.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

AAC (favorite just lost to FAU), A10 (losses to Lafayette, Longwood, Houston Baptist, American, Siena, Bucknell, Stony Brook), MWC (losses to Idaho State, Southern Utah, Loyola Maramount, Texas State, Santa Barbara) asking the very same question.

The simple answers are Loyola’s non-Kaifes newcomers aren’t up to speed and Krutwig’s weight loss might have sacrificed defense, ISUr’s best player doesn’t have the leadership of a Paris Lee or Clayton Custer and the by-product shows on team D, UNI needs help down low and isn’t athletic enough for a 5-guard UTA, and ISUb will be short on the talent stick until Neese and Williams inject some life.

Bradley, despite not having a loss, needs to find ways to create offense. The two who’ve impressed to-date are SIU and MSU, plus UE’s bounceback at Xavier. Big one for the Salukis tonight.

[BEARZ77]

What's happening is that the parity in college basketball is trickling down; just as most of us believe if given the chance we can compete with many except perhaps the elite P-5s , now the better low mids are showing if given opportunity they can compete with the next level above them. What is most eye catching is that some of these "upsets" have been on the home courts of the perceived higher level schools. Of course in the end all that will really happen is those losses will be used to further limit at large opportunities for our level because while a P-5 + team will have a large number of top level games to off set any such losses, we won't.

[Adunk33]

SIU can join the "what is going on," party. They are looking pretty bad against No.25 Buffalo. Overall it's been a really sloppy game. Both teams just keep throwing the ball out of bounds or turning it over. Lower shooting % on both sides too. Also, very poorly officiated. Seems the Saluki's go with Bartley and Pippen.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

[usmcsaluki]

SIU can join the "what is going on," party. They are looking pretty bad against No.25 Buffalo. Overall it's been a really sloppy game. Both teams just keep throwing the ball out of bounds or turning it over. Lower shooting % on both sides too. Also, very poorly officiated. Seems the Saluki's go with Bartley and Pippen.

Fletcher missed the game, but still not a good showing.

[Purple35]

Mainly I think the Valley has, as a group, taken on some pretty tough meat in the first weak, as opposed to grinding down a bunch of SWAC road kill and wannabe second-division dwellers from "the East."

Truthfully, from most of the mid-major ball I've watched over the last 3 years, the whole of the product is sloppy, predictable and without any creativity at all. Turnovers to college ball now are like strikeouts to MLB hitters -- just part of the game.

The officiating is at best marginally efficient.

A better conference showing would come from coaching and recruiting players who have a decent idea how to play basketball. Driving the lane and flinging one up at the glass hoping for a foul is not an offense.

[mvfcfan]

MVC currently ranked 23rd on RealTimeRPI.