Our good friends Wichita...

[glm38]

Curse? Maybe the AAC was a tad overrated.

[Old School MVC]

UNI-esque collapse. I’m convinced we’re a curse.

UNI collapse was probably worse, but this is a close 2nd. What a game!

[musiccitybulldog]

Nevada player Jordan Caroline came from Southern Illinois.

[AndShock]

Curse? Maybe the AAC was a tad overrated.

Wichita State was overrated. We were horrendous on defense all year and faced a bad matchup. That’s why it’s so funny to me when comparing AAC/MVC results. We miss the tournament if we were in the MVC this year. We have Marshall’s worst team in a 6 years and we get a 4 seed, the second best seed in Marshall’s tenure.

Cincy and Houston were a coin flip from making the Sweet 16. Loyola was a coin flip from getting bounced in the first round. Sometimes the bounces go your way, sometimes they don’t. Losing a coin flip doesn’t make you overrated. Virginia and UNC = overrated. I wouldn’t say Tennessee or Miami were overrated. You might.

[Rambler63]

Curse? Maybe the AAC was a tad overrated.

Wichita State was overrated. We were horrendous on defense all year and faced a bad matchup. That’s why it’s so funny to me when comparing AAC/MVC results. We miss the tournament if we were in the MVC this year. We have Marshall’s worst team in a 6 years and we get a 4 seed, the second best seed in Marshall’s tenure.

Cincy and Houston were a coin flip from making the Sweet 16. Loyola was a coin flip from getting bounced in the first round. Sometimes the bounces go your way, sometimes they don’t. Losing a coin flip doesn’t make you overrated. Virginia and UNC = overrated. I wouldn’t say Tennessee or Miami were overrated. You might.

OK, AndShock-- you're a pretty smart poster who seems to know how to translate from Shockernetese to English-- How is this "Marshall's worst team in 6 years"? It's the same team as last year, only older. All of us here were told many times that you're just going to get better and better because Player X and Player Y are only sophomores, and recruiting is fantastic and now you finally have REAL competition because nobody in the MVC tries. We've heard that 75 times from about 12 different posters.

How is it NOW Marshall's worst team? How do you miss the tournament if you're in the MVC this year? If I didn't mind going through a couple hundred posts that say WSU is so much better than the MVC to list 100 of the most persuasive, I would. But let's just say that the logic used and accepted by Shocker fans five weeks ago is COMPLETELY THE OPPOSITE of what you're saying is now accepted and obvious fact.

[glm38]

Curse? Maybe the AAC was a tad overrated.

Wichita State was overrated. We were horrendous on defense all year and faced a bad matchup. That’s why it’s so funny to me when comparing AAC/MVC results. We miss the tournament if we were in the MVC this year. We have Marshall’s worst team in a 6 years and we get a 4 seed, the second best seed in Marshall’s tenure.

Cincy and Houston were a coin flip from making the Sweet 16. Loyola was a coin flip from getting bounced in the first round. Sometimes the bounces go your way, sometimes they don’t. Losing a coin flip doesn’t make you overrated. Virginia and UNC = overrated. I wouldn’t say Tennessee or Miami were overrated. You might.

You say "coin flip" determines the fate of games. I say the better teams generally find a way to win those games. My Bears lost an unbelievable number of games this year by a slim margin. That's not because we were unlucky or I'll fated. It's because we were bad.

I'm not saying the AAC is a bad league at all. Just that it was a bit overrated. And that was proven in the big dance.

[AndShock]

Curse? Maybe the AAC was a tad overrated.

Wichita State was overrated. We were horrendous on defense all year and faced a bad matchup. That’s why it’s so funny to me when comparing AAC/MVC results. We miss the tournament if we were in the MVC this year. We have Marshall’s worst team in a 6 years and we get a 4 seed, the second best seed in Marshall’s tenure.

Cincy and Houston were a coin flip from making the Sweet 16. Loyola was a coin flip from getting bounced in the first round. Sometimes the bounces go your way, sometimes they don’t. Losing a coin flip doesn’t make you overrated. Virginia and UNC = overrated. I wouldn’t say Tennessee or Miami were overrated. You might.

OK, AndShock-- you're a pretty smart poster who seems to know how to translate from Shockernetese to English-- How is this "Marshall's worst team in 6 years"? It's the same team as last year, only older. All of us here were told many times that you're just going to get better and better because Player X and Player Y are only sophomores, and recruiting is fantastic and now you finally have REAL competition because nobody in the MVC tries. We've heard that 75 times from about 12 different posters.

How is it NOW Marshall's worst team? How do you miss the tournament if you're in the MVC this year? If I didn't mind going through a couple hundred posts that say WSU is so much better than the MVC to list 100 of the most persuasive, I would. But let's just say that the logic used and accepted by Shocker fans five weeks ago is COMPLETELY THE OPPOSITE of what you're saying is now accepted and obvious fact.

Lost Chris Jans (coach of NMSU, lost a close one to Clemson who is absolutely dismantling Auburn right now) and Greg Heiar (future HC, soon). Markis McDuffie was injured half the season and was not his normal self when he came back. Rashard Kelly took a shot at the “younger players” in his last postgame interview, possibly revealing some chemistry issues which has also been hinted at by people in the know.

I also mentioned this point a few weeks ago but I don’t think I ever got a response. Wichita State went from the #13 KenPom defense to the #109 defense with the same players. KenPom adjusts for opponents, so you have a couple different options here. Is KenPom flawed? Is the Valley so incompetent offensivley that they made a bad defense appear as an elite defense. I choose column 3:

Wichita State with Chris Jans: #13
Wichita State without Chris Jans: #109

NMSU without Chris Jans: #124
NMSU with Chris Jans: #16

[AndShock]

Curse? Maybe the AAC was a tad overrated.

Wichita State was overrated. We were horrendous on defense all year and faced a bad matchup. That’s why it’s so funny to me when comparing AAC/MVC results. We miss the tournament if we were in the MVC this year. We have Marshall’s worst team in a 6 years and we get a 4 seed, the second best seed in Marshall’s tenure.

Cincy and Houston were a coin flip from making the Sweet 16. Loyola was a coin flip from getting bounced in the first round. Sometimes the bounces go your way, sometimes they don’t. Losing a coin flip doesn’t make you overrated. Virginia and UNC = overrated. I wouldn’t say Tennessee or Miami were overrated. You might.

You say "coin flip" determines the fate of games. I say the better teams generally find a way to win those games. My Bears lost an unbelievable number of games this year by a slim margin. That's not because we were unlucky or I'll fated. It's because we were bad.

I'm not saying the AAC is a bad league at all. Just that it was a bit overrated. And that was proven in the big dance.

Overrated as compared to...? Were they the 10th best conference as opposed to the 7th? What teams would you put in front of Cincy? You don’t think Houston is a top 25 team? Wichita State was not top 10, I concede that point. These tournament results just aren’t screaming overrated to me though.

[valleyclimber]

Waaaay overrated AAC goes 2-3 and doesn't make it out of the first weekend, and this despite U Cinn getting a 2 seed, cheating WSU getting a 4 seed and Houston getting a 6 seed. That's more than a coin flip folks, that's a conference showing their true colors in the tourney.

We've listened to years about how WSU was too good for the other MVC teams, and all the other schools were just dragging them down. Soooo viola....the Shocks think they move into greener grass, and right off the bat their conference shows they don't prepare teams as well as the Valley. MVC teams are battle tested and ready when it comes tourney time.

Despite Loyola getting an 11 seed (5 lines lower than the lowest AAC seed), the Ramblers carry the MVC banner to the Sweet 16 by taking down 6 seed Miami and 3 seed Tennessee. So the truth hurts for Shocker fans. The truth is that Loyola and the Valley go 2-0 and head forward, while the waaay overrated AAC shows their true colors by laying a big fat egg even though they were gifted high seeds.

Shocker fans can spin this all they want, but the results do not lie. LOVE IT!

Keep going Loyola by taking out the Nevada Wolfpack and carrying the Valley banner even higher.

ROCK ON MVC!!

[musiccitybulldog]

Drake played in the Paradise Jam, beat Wake Forest, Drexel beat Houston in the same tourney. Drake then beat Drexel.