Way too early, knee-jerk re-ranking

[mvfcfan]

SMU is really bad, as in 4-0 bad? I thought SMU looked pretty decent and I think Evansville will be fine. They do need to crash the boards more though when a shot goes up. SMU hit the boards hard and that is why they won.

[MNPanthers]

This thread is nonsensical. There is no reason to doubt the preseason predictions at this point. Yeah, BU lost to St. Joe's and Loyola beat St. Joe's, but those were away and home, respectively, and BU hasn't lost at home to a team like Coppin State. UE won a great game at UK, but then lost at home to a bad SMU team. MSU has been up and down, but still has the most talented team in the Valley. UNI barely got by some outfit called Northern Colorado and ISUr has a long way to go before they establish themselves as a contender. In 2 weeks we'll have a better idea, but as of now it's still MSU, BU, DU, LU, and UNI as the teams to beat, UE and ISUr as promising teams with more to prove, and ISUb, VU, and SIU needing to win a LOT before joining the conversation.

Call me crazy but I think in game evidence is a lot more compelling than off-season speculation, and subjective terms like how "talented" you perceive a team to be (and it's insanity to still be considering LU an upper tier team right now).

The pecking order will continue to change obviously but early results matter.

[tribecalledquest]

Knee-jerk or whiplash? Shots just weren’t falling.

Shots were not falling for a reason. The SMU defense and rebounding handcuffed much of what the Aces wanted to do. Several Valley teams have defensive personnel similar enough to SMU that Evansville will see a bunch of teams switching everywhere, mixed with bits of true zone. I'll try to watch this one again tomorrow to see what I might have misinterpreted.

Evansville is better than I thought. No doubt. They also aren't going to be flying all around the court scoring tons of points at a fast pace like fans here talked about. Truth is somewhere in the middle.

I don't trust Cunliffe as far as I can throw him.

[ACECARD]

Knee-jerk or whiplash? Shots just weren’t falling.

Shots were not falling for a reason. The SMU defense and rebounding handcuffed much of what the Aces wanted to do. Several Valley teams have defensive personnel similar enough to SMU that Evansville will see a bunch of teams switching everywhere, mixed with bits of true zone. I'll try to watch this one again tomorrow to see what I might have misinterpreted.

Evansville is better than I thought. No doubt. They also aren't going to be flying all around the court scoring tons of points at a fast pace like fans here talked about. Truth is somewhere in the middle.

I don't trust Cunliffe as far as I can throw him.

Sam does seem to have a perception that he is somewhat better than he really is. He needs to slow down, let the game come to him, and be some more of a team player. He has the physical tools, but needs to get his head on right.

[Snuvvy_D]

Knee-jerk or whiplash? Shots just weren’t falling.

Shots were not falling for a reason. The SMU defense and rebounding handcuffed much of what the Aces wanted to do. Several Valley teams have defensive personnel similar enough to SMU that Evansville will see a bunch of teams switching everywhere, mixed with bits of true zone. I'll try to watch this one again tomorrow to see what I might have misinterpreted.

Evansville is better than I thought. No doubt. They also aren't going to be flying all around the court scoring tons of points at a fast pace like fans here talked about. Truth is somewhere in the middle.

I don't trust Cunliffe as far as I can throw him.

I can agree to this. So far, Williams has been solid, Sam still needs to prove himself, and UE was exposed on the boards last night.

But those on here calling a 2 pt loss at home to SMU a bad loss are either very biased, didn't watch the game, or don't understand college basketball. That is a very solid SMU team, with a ton of length and athleticism. I would wager at least 8 valley teams would lose to them on any given night, and 5 or 6 would get waxed by them

[ahunte1]

It's not exactly a bad loss, but it's a huge missed opportunity.

[Snuvvy_D]

It's not exactly a bad loss, but it's a huge missed opportunity.

+1

[sixth ace]

It's not exactly a bad loss, but it's a huge missed opportunity.

+1

More of a missed opportunity

[municup14]

There is a reason why Sam doesn't start,and hes on his 3rd school

[Mikovio]

I saw the game. Bradley beat SMU pretty easily last year. They're a decent team with great length but the Aces were caught flat footed on so many SMU missed layups leading to second chance points it's not even funny. Need to learn to box out and crash the boards and until then they'll struggle with more veteran well coached teams.