Which team(s) do you trust?

[IllinoisState]

I just hope whichever team represents The Valley in the NCAA tournament is much stronger from conference play than they were at the end of December and can make a little post season noise (and maybe some $$$).

We will be under seeded and due to this we wont get far.

[Adunk33]

It is wide open.....call me crazy but the seedings will not matter in STL. In this season's conference tourney the 6th seed and 1 seed wont be that big of a difference

I generally agree with you, from a 3-10 seeding perspective. The 1 and 2 seeds get to play a team that played a tough team the night before. Usually, the Thursday team plays tough for the first half or a little more and then fatigue sets in. I do think this is the year a Thursday team makes it to Saturday because someone is going be the low man on the totem pole in regards to the tie-breakers and end up playing Thursday night as the 7 seed.

For which team I trust to make a run Loyola is still the team in my eyes. Despite getting owned by the Birds for 35 minutes (the score does not paint good picture of the game), Loyola will grow back together IF they get Williamson back. I don't trust ILST to win it all, but I trust they will make it to Sunday. I mean, look at the statistics. They have played on Sunday 6 of the last 10, right?

Two sleepers: Dana Ford's Bears. Though inconsistent, they have some very good wins. The other team: UNI. AJ Green is legit and Ben Jacobsen remains one of my favorite coaches in the MVC. All of their MVC losses have been by single digits including at 1 point loss at Illinois State, and a 1 point loss at Loyola. They also have one of the biggest point spread road wins of the MVC (despite it being against BU), a dominate win on the road is always impressive regardless who a team plays.

[Blers]

At this point I trust the home team. Both the Redbirds and Ramblers have been pretty bad on the road.

I won't really trust LU until Williamson's back, we're just too thin on the bench. I really thought he was on his way to a special season. His last five games where he was healthy and in a groove (Richmond, BC, ISU, VU, ISUb) he was fantastic.

ISUr I can't really trust just given their track record come tourney time and the Bradley game still wasn't that long ago.

Weirdly I think Drake is my pick? But I also missed their loss to ISU.

Weird weird year.

[Kyle@MOState]

I just hope whichever team represents The Valley in the NCAA tournament is much stronger from conference play than they were at the end of December and can make a little post season noise (and maybe some $$$).

We will be under seeded and due to this we wont get far.

Whoever comes out of the Valley will likely be a 14 seed at best, and I can only see two teams actually being good enough to earn that. If Loyola or Illinois State manage to cut down the nets, I can see an argument for them to be a 14 seed. If anyone else manages to eek it out, they are going to be locked in on the 15 vs 2 line. While it is not impossible to win from that line, it is very improbable. I wouldn't want to draw the team from the MVC if I were the 2 seed, but that's where we honestly belong.

[BEARZ77]

While I think the Bears are capable of beating anyone in the league, they are also capable of losing to each , and that gets amplified in a 3 -4 day tourney because of our short bench. We have horses, just not enough. We could easily implode this week at home with two of the more senior laden teams coming to JQH in SIU and ISUr. The year has been what most thought it would be; we started a little worse than we thought, but we didn't have Tulio or Ridder, then we get them but lose Wojcik and don't get T Dixon eligible. What I've enjoyed is watching Ford actually coach, make adjustments, and start to get buy in . I don't see us making a big run this year, but I think we'll be salty next year.

[isumvc1]

Most Sycamore fans trust the following

1. ISU will play on Thursday

2. ISU will lose on Thursday, putting to bed another miserable ending to another Lansing coached season. (BUT, we just have 2 more to go!)

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

the mvc is hovering around a top 10 conference despite the down year. if a sub .500 team gets into the NCAA tournament then you'll see a 15 seed. If Loyola or ISUr gets in it won't be worse than a 13 seed, which is still bad for the conference.

[achrist70]

Loyola could get a 12 and maybe an 11 just based upon last year and name recognition. Illinois State would pry be 13. Drake a 13 or 14, Southern and Missouri State 14 or 15. UNI and Valpo are a little bit interesting they both have some name recognition from recent tournaments which could raise them up a seed line or two.

[MSUDuo]

Loyola could get a 12 and maybe an 11 just based upon last year and name recognition. Illinois State would pry be 13. Drake a 13 or 14, Southern and Missouri State 14 or 15. UNI and Valpo are a little bit interesting they both have some name recognition from recent tournaments which could raise them up a seed line or two.

Going to need someone to go on a run (LUC, ISU, DU) in order to get above a 15. Or, need upsets in the lower conferences so that there are more teams below us. If chalk held and league leaders win their conference tournaments, only 6 teams would have a worse RPI than Loyola right now. That's borderline 16 seed.

And name recognition and what Loyola did last year is going to hurt them, not help them. You really think they want another mid-major Final Four run? Look what happened after WSU and GMU made their runs...

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

Imagine if Loyola got a 16 seed against Virginia and Virginia lost again.