Expectations

[WSUbballer]

2 All-Valley players on a play-in team.

That would be a first.

[Aces1982]

I differ with Aces 1982. Roberts Stadium will be a tough place to play for the MVC visitors. I see in Conference play 7-8 game home wins for the Aces and stealing a couple of games on the road. I believe we'll go winning 5-4 OOC. Finishing in the 5or6 place in Conference with a 15-14 record for the year. See you in St Louis on Friday

WOW!!! Going 7-2 or 8-1 in conference play at home. That would be quite a feat.

[Tom Servo]

Hate to bring you back down, but comparing SIU to UE.....can't be a good thing.

That's a little harsh don't you think? Come on, at minimum it's a compliment to be compared to one of the finest academic institutions in the greater Indiana area, don't you think? I sure would feel proud to be compared to such a school.

Plus the Aces have the best pure scorer in the league (at least returning scorer) in Colt "The Assassin" Ryan (that's my new nickname for him, if Aces fans don't mind that is!).


Knowing "The Assassin" will be patrolling the Valley for 3 more years is bit of a conundrum for me. On one hand, I just know he's going to kill my team probably more often than not but on the other hand, what a pure joy it is to watch this kid compete.

LOL "The Assassin."

[dgreenwell3]

I will go ahead and put up some expectations on the Trees...
1. I think it will be a greatly different team style than the last few years with us now running the Motion Offense again...I do see us starting slow though, we don't have an easy Non-con by any stretch of the imagination but the slow start should have a fast ending...
2. When people say that we lost three starters I kind of chuckle...I think distractions wise we lost two cancers to our team and a big man who was slow, unathletic and uncoordinated...
In final...I see us finishing 4-5 in the MVC...Koang Duolony has finally taken the next step to be a solid defensive presence and offensive presence...our bench is definitely our strength..And I think Jake Kelly will finally live up to at least some of his potential...ALSO...I think Myles walker will be a HUGE addition to this team...for years we have lacked that big man that could defend the valley's big men but Walker is that bully type big man we have needed!....

[Drakey]

The beyond woeful include Drake, Evansville, Trees, SIU, and ISU Red and yes BU will lose to at least one of these schools. Beyond woeful to me is no more than 6 conf wins. Drake has a great recruiting class but they arent going to contend for anything except which Thursday night seed they get. I'm sorry, just calling it like I see it. Trees with a new coach also fall in this bunch as does a severely depleted SIU program. Evansville is well..evansville and should just go to D2 as fast as MArty can take them there. Colt's not gonna be the savior. If those four arent playing Thursday, I'll be very surprised.

What a nonsensical and meaningless definition. If every team in the Valley were to go undefeated out of conference, the bottom four would be "woeful" because they only won 6 conference games? Are the bottom dwellers in the Big East "woeful because they only win 2 or three conference games, although they might finish in the top two or three in most conferences? Even if every team in the conference had 2 or three NBA draft choices, somebody would have to come in last.

I think a teams "woefulness" would have to be determined on a national scale, maybe something like a 250+ rpi?

[45otseoj]

20 wins
Find a way to avoid Thursday
Play in some type of post-season tournament
Slow start; strong finish.
Think WSU 2 years ago without "The Screw in the Lou"

[chitown fanatic]

I think we're arguing semantics here. Woeful is just plain bad. 6-12 in conf is woeful, well below average, unacceptable, etc. 6-12 coupled with a .500 or less non-con will likely get you sub 200 in the RPI. This is also woeful. Woeful is not as bad as awful but we'll just reserve that term for sub 300 rpis, ok? Again, trees, aces,the drake, and SIU all play Thursday this year. ISU Red is a possible sub for Thursday should any of those 4 surprise. The other 5 wont play Thursday unless they lose all their starters to injury. They are just that much better and its hard to argue there is an abyss between 1-5 and 6-10 this year in the Valley. That is why I feel that as many as 4 teams wont eek out more than 6 wins as opposed to most years where 10-8 and 8-10 is what separates 4th from 8th and why the league champ and runner up will probably have 15 or 16 conf wins. It will also be the only way we get two teams dancing. 25 wins or more with no bad losses late should be enough to get the Shux and whoever else wins the tourney in the Dance. For this year, I'll take it

[WSUbballer]

Roberts Stadium will be a tough place to play for the MVC visitors. I see in Conference play 7-8 game home wins for the Aces and stealing a couple of games on the road.

Has Evansville EVER won 8 games at home in the Valley? When's the last time they won 7?

I guess it's just as easy as that.

[WSUbballer]

And yes, if you're playing on Thursday night in St. Louis, you're woeful. There's no arguing that one. Anyone who is, is either trying to justify their team's persistent play on Thursday or does not understand what the word "woeful" means.

[Unsmooth Moment]

My expectations, as a Bears fan, are to finish top 2 in the conference. My number one expectation is to win EVERY home game this year (especially the last one). Play well in the valley tournament and either A.) win it while WSU gets an at large or MSU getting an at large and having the Valley finally have 2 teams in the dance. I think if we can get into the big dance we can be anywhere from a 1st round knockout to a sweet 16 team, depending on how the freshman improve.

I truly hope the top half of the league separates from the lower half. MSU, Creighton, and WSU will have to win games on the road in order to make this happen. I think the talent is there for a special year in the Valley. Lets bring back the glory days.