MVC Games Week 14

[freddycat68]

Anyway Bradley beat Drake tonight and moved into 4th. BU looks like one of 3 favorites next season, along with the 2 newcomers. Wardle needs to do the conference right next season and beat up on non-cons before the conference season.

[BCPanther]

That pretty much eliminates Drake from the regular season title.

[Salukimadness86]

Anyway Bradley beat Drake tonight and moved into 4th. BU looks like one of 3 favorites next season, along with the 2 newcomers. Wardle needs to do the conference right next season and beat up on non-cons before the conference season.

SIU beats UE 69-62 at home no less.
Bradley at SIU on Tuesday. Don't think it will be much of a game IF SIU plays like they did tonight. BU on a tear at exactly the right time.

[SalukiWorld]

The best way to figure out the Missouri Valley is how teams are doing against the top 5 teams in the league:

Northern Iowa: 3-2 (Left to play: 3)

Loyola: 2-3 (Left to play: 3)

Missouri St: 4-2 (Left to play: 2)

Drake: 2-5 (Left to play: 1)

Bradley: 4-3 (Left to play: 1)

SIU: 0-8 (Left to play: 2)

Illinois St: 2-5 (Left to play: 3)

Valpo: 1-6 (Left to play: 3)

Indiana St: 2-5 (Left to play: 3)

Evansville: 0-7 (Left to play: 3)

To me, Drake and SIU are the 2 most disappointing teams in the Valley and it's reflected here

[Kyle_Saluki_17]

The best way to figure out the Missouri Valley is how teams are doing against the top 5 teams in the league:

Northern Iowa: 3-2 (Left to play: 3)

Loyola: 2-3 (Left to play: 3)

Missouri St: 4-2 (Left to play: 2)

Drake: 2-5 (Left to play: 1)

Bradley: 4-3 (Left to play: 1)

SIU: 0-8 (Left to play: 2)

Illinois St: 2-5 (Left to play: 3)

Valpo: 1-6 (Left to play: 3)

Indiana St: 2-5 (Left to play: 3)

Evansville: 0-7 (Left to play: 3)

To me, Drake and SIU are the 2 most disappointing teams in the Valley and it's reflected here

We are all disappointed with SIU's lack of ability to beat any top teams, but a team that was picked to get 5th will get 6th. Not inspiring at all, but just wanted to put this in perspective. Drake was picked preseason #1, and is currently in 5th. They still have a decent chance of winning at the Arch though.

[tribecalledquest]

Now Drake may easily beat Bradley in the 4/5 game in STL - but that doesn't look like nearly the same team as they rolled out last year.

A lot of standing around on offense. Not much explosion. Murphy and Wilkins aren't the same players. Brodie doesn't do anything anymore. They used to play faster and that doesn't seem to be the case.

I realize Bradley is a bad matchup for them as well. That said, Devries has some work cut out for him moving forward.

[bleach]

It seems to me as though Drake has re-made their team to benefit Tucker at the expense of the team. They just don't play the same this year. Tucker is a better player than Yesefu so the team should be better but the attacking has dried up. Last year, Tank, Penn, and Murphy were constantly attacking.

[Action10]

We are all disappointed with SIU's lack of ability to beat any top teams, but a team that was picked to get 5th will get 6th. Not inspiring at all, but just wanted to put this in perspective. Drake was picked preseason #1, and is currently in 5th. They still have a decent chance of winning at the Arch though.

The chance to win in St. Louis is a major key in my mind at least. Drake has been disappointing, but they have as good a chance as anyone in St. Louis (along with Loyola, Missouri State, UNI, and now Bradley).
SIU was picked to finish 5th but was expected by most people to be a threat to go on a run at Arch Madness. Even though they will only finish one spot lower, they are in no way equipped to make a run in St. Louis. At this point, I can't see a scenario where they win a game down there. The games stay close because they control the pace of the game, but the tools to score (and beat good teams) aren't there.
I've never got a good answer on this question, but how does SIU suddenly become more explosive and athletic next year? I don't believe there are many scholarships that they will have available and rely on other teams getting worse isn't exactly a strategy for success. Think about this... If SIU stands pat and everyone else regresses next year, where does that put them? Even if they win in St. Louis, this current group is in the 15 seed range in terms of talent.

[05Racer]

Fair points Campbellproud but I have to think there was way more at play here than just basketball. The institutional considerations are too great to ignore for Loyola I think. Not only do they get to be with more private (and Jesuit) schools they also get to recruit the east coast much more heavily now for students and athletes. I think the same reasons why SLU did not want to leave the A10 are the same reasons Loyola wanted to join it. I think they had planned to add Belmont and Murray State beforehand (but I am much more confident on Belmont with that because I'm pretty sure the announcement that Belmont was coming was before Loyola announced its departure. Murray State is a bit less clear as their addition really started to heat up after Loyola announced its departure. Before that there was a lot of whining about market and academics from anything that was publicly shared and it really felt like the market based adds were being talked about quite a bit more. It's possible that this was overblown and that football was the actual holdup (as many others also suspected) but it does make sense in light of Loyola's departure that at least one future addition had to center basketball prowess at the forefront. There is no doubt that Loyola's departure paved the way for UIC but with Murray the picture is less clear. We'll never truly know but there is certainly reason to suspect that.

I'm nearly sure that Murray and Belmont would have been announced together but for football. Disclaimer: I have no insider info, just using the circumstantial evidence. Murray, the MVC, and Belmont all did a pretty awesome job keeping rumors from leaking. Still, there were rumors, but almost all of them came after the Belmont announcement, which came without much forewarning. The rumors that Murray was the next likely add persisted for weeks while people speculated what the holdup was. By the time Murray was announced in January, it surprised almost nobody.

The announcement about joining the MVC was expected by the time it was announced, but the other announcement, starting the MVFC membership application process while staying with the OVC for 2022 came completely out of the blue, so I suspect that's what was being debated internally and/or arranged with the relevant parties. There had not been any indication the MVFC was ever a possibility. Nobody on the racer nation boards believed that it was, anyway. Rumor was that Murray would stay in the OVC for football, but given the OVC's prior aversion to single sports memberships, there was discussion on our boards about going to another conference like the SoCon, going independent, or even dropping scholarship football altogether.

I expect something had to be negotiated, most likely some significant investments in our football program, which has vacillated between mediocre and bad since the 90s. I don't know what was promised or how the decision was arrived at, but I know I would have been less surprised had they announced a move to D2 football. I suspect other fans felt the same.

[RacerJoeD]

My gut (no inside info on this) was that if WIU had worked out a deal to go to the OVC by then Murray and WIU would have just swapped schedules without a year delay. Without that though it was the only way to make it work