2022-23 Out of Conference Schedules.

[BEARZ77]

I’m not talking about any season other than the one upcoming. The Aces have a really bad roster. That’s not Ragland’s fault. I’m sure he’s very good but John Wooden wouldn’t get this team past 11th.

Your assessment of the Aces roster is based on what?

You look at the same things you do for every team, every year. We all know that there are always surprises in how players perform , both good and bad, against their prospect evaluations; but overall you can make fairly accurate assumptions. When you're grabbing guys late who have mostly not been in demand by programs at or above your level, it generally means for a weak roster.

I think the thing I tend to laugh at a lot, and Evansville fans are by no means unique in this, but when fans try to portray each new coach as having more commitment, a better sense of the program and what's needed etc. Soon we'll hear about how players say practices are harder, better organized, that there's a better sense of togetherness and family , yada yada . It's ok, everyone always wants to believe these things , else you couldn't get excited about the coming season, but don't get too defensive when veteran basketball fans who have lived through such changes more than a few times and watched other programs do it 100's of times, don't buy in to the rhetoric.

[BCPanther]

I’m not talking about any season other than the one upcoming. The Aces have a really bad roster. That’s not Ragland’s fault. I’m sure he’s very good but John Wooden wouldn’t get this team past 11th.

Your assessment of the Aces roster is based on what?

You look at the same things you do for every team, every year. We all know that there are always surprises in how players perform , both good and bad, against their prospect evaluations; but overall you can make fairly accurate assumptions. When you're grabbing guys late who have mostly not been in demand by programs at or above your level, it generally means for a weak roster.

I think the thing I tend to laugh at a lot, and Evansville fans are by no means unique in this, but when fans try to portray each new coach as having more commitment, a better sense of the program and what's needed etc. Soon we'll hear about how players say practices are harder, better organized, that there's a better sense of togetherness and family , yada yada . It's ok, everyone always wants to believe these things , else you couldn't get excited about the coming season, but don't get too defensive when veteran basketball fans who have lived through such changes more than a few times and watched other programs do it 100's of times, don't buy in to the rhetoric.

This isn't real. You didn't mention 'playing fast' or 'culture'...

[Purple35]

I’m not talking about any season other than the one upcoming. The Aces have a really bad roster. That’s not Ragland’s fault. I’m sure he’s very good but John Wooden wouldn’t get this team past 11th.

Your assessment of the Aces roster is based on what?

You look at the same things you do for every team, every year. We all know that there are always surprises in how players perform , both good and bad, against their prospect evaluations; but overall you can make fairly accurate assumptions. When you're grabbing guys late who have mostly not been in demand by programs at or above your level, it generally means for a weak roster.

I think the thing I tend to laugh at a lot, and Evansville fans are by no means unique in this, but when fans try to portray each new coach as having more commitment, a better sense of the program and what's needed etc. Soon we'll hear about how players say practices are harder, better organized, that there's a better sense of togetherness and family , yada yada . It's ok, everyone always wants to believe these things , else you couldn't get excited about the coming season, but don't get too defensive when veteran basketball fans who have lived through such changes more than a few times and watched other programs do it 100's of times, don't buy in to the rhetoric.

There is plenty here that makes sense and it's fairly easy to fall into that trap. I haven't done that to any extent although I can safely compare initial reaction to the Ragland hire as being miles ahead of the legacy that Lickliter left behind.
This is less about the program itself than the community's perception of it. The notion that Evansville will be patient isn't out of bounds. Patient, meaning, they are willing to go a 3-year cycle to get back to at least relevance. When you win fewer than 10 conference games in 4 years, it's easy to become disillusioned and easy to follow the Pied Piper who promises to fix it.
Hell, anybody can fix that.
As for the roster, there isn't a lot of 'there' there yet but there is a full compliment of people who at least claim to have college qualifications. When you see a roster full of walk-ons and kids who can't even suit up because of 'back' injuries or some form of disciplinary or academic problems, or broken fingers that never healed, it's no stretch to think that ANY roster is better than that.
So yeah, optimism is the watchword. I think the Aces will compete better, and by that -- a 5-point loss at home becomes a 5-point win at times. That doesn't get you to ''11th place" but it does mean you have a shot at getting 3,000 people in the gym to watch.
You start there.

[30ASaluki]

Drake has a home-and-home with SLU. 2022 in St Louis, 2023 in Des Moines

Their third MVC foe this year.

[BEARZ77]

There is plenty here that makes sense and it's fairly easy to fall into that trap. I haven't done that to any extent although I can safely compare initial reaction to the Ragland hire as being miles ahead of the legacy that Lickliter left behind.
This is less about the program itself than the community's perception of it. The notion that Evansville will be patient isn't out of bounds. Patient, meaning, they are willing to go a 3-year cycle to get back to at least relevance. When you win fewer than 10 conference games in 4 years, it's easy to become disillusioned and easy to follow the Pied Piper who promises to fix it.
Hell, anybody can fix that.
As for the roster, there isn't a lot of 'there' there yet but there is a full compliment of people who at least claim to have college qualifications. When you see a roster full of walk-ons and kids who can't even suit up because of 'back' injuries or some form of disciplinary or academic problems, or broken fingers that never healed, it's no stretch to think that ANY roster is better than that.
So yeah, optimism is the watchword. I think the Aces will compete better, and by that -- a 5-point loss at home becomes a 5-point win at times. That doesn't get you to ''11th place" but it does mean you have a shot at getting 3,000 people in the gym to watch.
You start there.

I think everyone wants to see Evansville return as a quality program, but also realizes that usually doesn't happen quickly. Kinda like your WBB program; they were greatly improved last year under a 1st year coach , but only went from 6-18/ 2-16 , to 8-22/2-16. Anyone watching knew they were improved, but it just isn't easy to change the course in 1-2 recruiting cycles , even with the portal, because as has been pointed out, everyone else is trying to improve as well. I would say if your WBB program made it to .500 ths year, that would be a huge 2 year move upward , but would still probably leave them lower half of the 12 team MVC, so that's kinda what your MBB program is looking at as far as it probably taking 3-4 years. But, stranger things have happened .

[tribecalledquest]

There is plenty here that makes sense and it's fairly easy to fall into that trap. I haven't done that to any extent although I can safely compare initial reaction to the Ragland hire as being miles ahead of the legacy that Lickliter left behind.
This is less about the program itself than the community's perception of it. The notion that Evansville will be patient isn't out of bounds. Patient, meaning, they are willing to go a 3-year cycle to get back to at least relevance. When you win fewer than 10 conference games in 4 years, it's easy to become disillusioned and easy to follow the Pied Piper who promises to fix it.
Hell, anybody can fix that.
As for the roster, there isn't a lot of 'there' there yet but there is a full compliment of people who at least claim to have college qualifications. When you see a roster full of walk-ons and kids who can't even suit up because of 'back' injuries or some form of disciplinary or academic problems, or broken fingers that never healed, it's no stretch to think that ANY roster is better than that.
So yeah, optimism is the watchword. I think the Aces will compete better, and by that -- a 5-point loss at home becomes a 5-point win at times. That doesn't get you to ''11th place" but it does mean you have a shot at getting 3,000 people in the gym to watch.
You start there.

I think everyone wants to see Evansville return as a quality program, but also realizes that usually doesn't happen quickly. Kinda like your WBB program; they were greatly improved last year under a 1st year coach , but only went from 6-18/ 2-16 , to 8-22/2-16. Anyone watching knew they were improved, but it just isn't easy to change the course in 1-2 recruiting cycles , even with the portal, because as has been pointed out, everyone else is trying to improve as well. I would say if your WBB program made it to .500 ths year, that would be a huge 2 year move upward , but would still probably leave them lower half of the 12 team MVC, so that's kinda what your MBB program is looking at as far as it probably taking 3-4 years. But, stranger things have happened .

That's all I've said.

This season will be ugly for Evansville. Ok. Fine. That's part of changing coaches late in the game, in 2022, with the transfer portal, and when you already had a crappy, last place roster.

That's not a shocking statement.

The future of Evansville basketball is a different topic. Hopefully Ragland gets it going. It's going to take a while.

[sivert]

UNI has signed a 2 for 1 with Northern Illinois

Nov 26 this year in Cedar Falls

Next year in DeKalb and 2024 in Cedar Falls.

UNI only has one left to get and I'll be pretty surprised if it's not a non-DI.

Educated guess that the two league games pre-Christmas are Nov 30 and Dec 3.

Are we paying for this?

[E-Villan]

There is plenty here that makes sense and it's fairly easy to fall into that trap. I haven't done that to any extent although I can safely compare initial reaction to the Ragland hire as being miles ahead of the legacy that Lickliter left behind.
This is less about the program itself than the community's perception of it. The notion that Evansville will be patient isn't out of bounds. Patient, meaning, they are willing to go a 3-year cycle to get back to at least relevance. When you win fewer than 10 conference games in 4 years, it's easy to become disillusioned and easy to follow the Pied Piper who promises to fix it.
Hell, anybody can fix that.
As for the roster, there isn't a lot of 'there' there yet but there is a full compliment of people who at least claim to have college qualifications. When you see a roster full of walk-ons and kids who can't even suit up because of 'back' injuries or some form of disciplinary or academic problems, or broken fingers that never healed, it's no stretch to think that ANY roster is better than that.
So yeah, optimism is the watchword. I think the Aces will compete better, and by that -- a 5-point loss at home becomes a 5-point win at times. That doesn't get you to ''11th place" but it does mean you have a shot at getting 3,000 people in the gym to watch.
You start there.

I think everyone wants to see Evansville return as a quality program, but also realizes that usually doesn't happen quickly. Kinda like your WBB program; they were greatly improved last year under a 1st year coach , but only went from 6-18/ 2-16 , to 8-22/2-16. Anyone watching knew they were improved, but it just isn't easy to change the course in 1-2 recruiting cycles , even with the portal, because as has been pointed out, everyone else is trying to improve as well. I would say if your WBB program made it to .500 ths year, that would be a huge 2 year move upward , but would still probably leave them lower half of the 12 team MVC, so that's kinda what your MBB program is looking at as far as it probably taking 3-4 years. But, stranger things have happened .

That's all I've said.

This season will be ugly for Evansville. Ok. Fine. That's part of changing coaches late in the game, in 2022, with the transfer portal, and when you already had a crappy, last place roster.

That's not a shocking statement.

The future of Evansville basketball is a different topic. Hopefully Ragland gets it going. It's going to take a while.

It's not shocking, and you are absolutely correct. The defending last place team will be the predicted last place team until proven otherwise. I disagree that it will be ugly due to changing coaches late in the game, rather due to the state of the program it was allowed to fall into under the previous administration. It was going to be ugly without a change.

What I don't see is the cause for the condescending snark by a poster because a fan or two made the crazy bold prediction we wouldn't finish dead last. Is aiming for 11th really out of touch pie in the sky? Given the changes, I certainly understand the optimism. For the first time in 20 years, we have a team from the president through the AD and now head coach that are publicly committed to restoring the program. If someone wants me to outline the stark contrasts between AD Spencer and Lickliter to AD Ziggy and Ragland, I will be happy to. Trust me, the optimism bump isn't just the typical head coach change.

We may finish last this year, but here is what I am comfortable predicting for this season.

Attendance will be up.
Atmosphere will be greatly improved.
Less shot clock violations.
Less 40+ point blowout losses.
Visibility and accountability from coaching staff and AD.

It's going to take awhile, but I am glad we started the trip now instead of next year.

[tribecalledquest]

UNI has signed a 2 for 1 with Northern Illinois

Nov 26 this year in Cedar Falls

Next year in DeKalb and 2024 in Cedar Falls.

UNI only has one left to get and I'll be pretty surprised if it's not a non-DI.

Educated guess that the two league games pre-Christmas are Nov 30 and Dec 3.

Are we paying for this?

Generally you pay some to get the two home games. Not as much as a traditional buy game. In the 40K range.

[BCPanther]

UNI has signed a 2 for 1 with Northern Illinois

Nov 26 this year in Cedar Falls

Next year in DeKalb and 2024 in Cedar Falls.

UNI only has one left to get and I'll be pretty surprised if it's not a non-DI.

Educated guess that the two league games pre-Christmas are Nov 30 and Dec 3.

Are we paying for this?

We are not. They owed us a game from the COVID year on a previous deal and we just extended it for two more years.