Opening Week

[tribecalledquest]

My kneejerk reaction... going to be an unpredictable conference. Nice win Valpo.

Agreed.

[Rambler63]

Valpo should win that game at home.

Loyola finally looked good in stretches on offense (which they didn't in the scrimmage for season ticket holders and the exhibition against Indy). Krutwig was double-teamed and sometimes triple-teamed by UC Davis (coached by Jim Les). He responded by moving to the high post and dishing out a career-high 11 assists. He was 2 rebounds away from a triple-double when he was taken out of the game with 7 minutes to play.

UC Davis was picked to finish 8th of 9 teams in the Big West. A bigger test will be Friday at Furman, which was picked to finish third in the SoCon.

St. Joes was picked to finish 13th of 14 teams in the A-10, so Bradley losing at St. Joe's isn't very good. UALR, the team that beat Missouri State, plays at Illinois State on Sunday. St. Joes plays Old Dominion (the team UNi beat today) on Sunday, and they play at Loyola on Nov. 16, so we'll get some early comparisons.

[PlumStreetBum]

Valpo should win that game at home.

Thank god, finally someone holding Valpo to a Valley standard. Thank you! (I am a Valpo fan, for the record.)

Now let's see how they do against the A10 tourney champ this weekend.

[sivert]

In not sure what to make of MSU at this point? ...

Congrats to MusicCityBulldog on the Little Rock call.

[MarchArchPod]

Valpo - Great win. You beat a team that is projected to finish high in the MAC. With all of the off-season news, awesome to see a big win.

UNI - Took care of business, a little close at the end for my liking, but a win is a win, vs a quality mid-major program.

Loyola - Real Loyola came to play last night. Sorry Jim Les, tough out there.

SIU - You beat a D3 team.....at least you didn't lose?

Bradley - Bad Loss, don't care if it was on the road. Unforced turnovers, Brown needs to be better. I was so frustrated with him not taking that open look from 3 at the end of the game when it was 84-81. Hope to bounce back next time out.

Missouri State - This is a head scratcher. At least Bradley was on the road....at home, vs an inferior opponent and a 12 pt favorite....yeesh. Dana, have to coach them up.

[Red]

Misery State lost at home to UALR?

WTF?

[VUGrad1314]

Good stuff from UNI Loyola and Valpo. Valpo got punched in the mouth at the start of that game and that is a game last year's team probably would have folded and lost handily after that start. The important thing is that they FINISHED THE JOB when things got tight late. That didn't happen last year. Tough game against St Louis coming up. Would be a heck of a 2-0 start if we can get that one. Go Valpo!

[Adunk33]

I'll start by saying I didn't see a ton of the Mo State game last night. From what I did see, I think it's pretty clear (from night 1) they have the most individual talent in the league. That's great, but teams with a lot of good players who don't play as a team will lose to average talent players who play as a team. I'm sure Dana will get more out of them moving forward.

As a Redbird fan, I appreciate Mo State making Little Rock put everything on film for Sunday's game in Normal

[Kyle@MOState]

Very disappointed in the Bears. First home opener loss since 2002. No Gaige Prim and no back up point with Ford Cooper being out. Had they been in, would that have made the difference between a win and a loss? I think so, because when Tyrik Dixon was in foul trouble, it didn't look like they knew what we were even doing on inbounding the ball. The thing is, Bears shouldn't have needed them at all to beat Little Rock. They played with no urgency until the last minute of the game. Bears have the talent, and I get that it takes time to figure out the rotations, but that was completely avoidable.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

In not sure what to make of MSU at this point? ...

Congrats to MusicCityBulldog on the Little Rock call.

musiccitybulldog was the only one of 29 to pick UALR and go 80% on opening night. Only 24% picked >40%.

musiccitybulldog was also the only one to pick Loyola over #5 Florida two years ago.

Dude’s flashing his NashVegas magic so checking his preseason predictions...he has UNI/Drake/Loyola top 3 and specifically pegged MSU/Bradley overvalued.