The road to 2 NCAA bids

[Valpower]

Well, so much for that hope.

UNI gets the NIT, and hopefully Loyola can pull of an upset in the NCAA (provided they get there). Name recognition in this case helps as the run they made a few years ago will get brought up a bunch of times on national television. Always good to have the league mentioned in relation to winning and NCAA success.

It’s a foolish hope. The idea of wishing for a two-bid league based on the presumptive at-large candidate losing under the right circumstances is short-sighted. It’s best for the conference to send the team with the greatest chance of advancing in the tourney. Sometimes, that team Is one that stumbled early but peaked late. That is the reason we have tournaments. Yes, we want to reward teams that have performed well throughout the course of the season (that’s why we give advantages in the conference tourneys through seeding) but we don’t want to do it at the expense of young teams that have eclipsed the ones composed of upperclassmen and journeymen. And yes, we like to have multiple bids, but we know that doing so is a systemic (NCAA, not MVC) challenge.

UNI had the best season, but at this stage, may not be the best team. I think the MVC is generally pretty strong this year and definitely very balanced. Those who think that the tourney will produce a weak representative need to either rethink or volunteer their awesome tourney-reform plan.

[VUGrad1314]

I'm not saying (and nobody would say) that any of the top 8 of the Valley would be "weak" representatives. However when we're talking about winning tournament credits which is the only thing that matters and is the lifeblood of schools like ours especially when they're like Valpo and don't value athletics at the administrative level it's super important that the representative (whoever it is) goes on a run. It's also important for the conference at large (teams perceived to be better league perceived to be stronger more national buzz people talking about the league money flowing into the coffers interest growing in the schools among perspective students especially among the team actually doing the heavy lifting) so having a team that will (likely) go one and done no team was nearly as scary or well equipped to win in the tournament as UNI was is not good for the league or anybody especially in these critical years where we could still have a chance to re-establish ourselves as a consistent 2-3 bid league. It is partially a scheduling problem. We didn't win our opportunities but we also didn't do a good enough job creating them. We need to do whatever we need to do to get better teams on the schedule and that goes from the top on down. If we make coming for multiple bids a conference wide priority it can and will happen. We can do it if we want to we just need to work harder. We like our league depth and it is a good thing that we have it but we need to make that league depth matter and count for something. The only way to do that is to get better from 1-10.

[BCPanther]

Sorry guys. We stunk today. Real bad time for our worst game since January 2019...

[just ducky]

:D

Well, so much for that hope.

UNI gets the NIT, and hopefully Loyola can pull of an upset in the NCAA (provided they get there). Name recognition in this case helps as the run they made a few years ago will get brought up a bunch of times on national television. Always good to have the league mentioned in relation to winning and NCAA success.

It’s a foolish hope. The idea of wishing for a two-bid league based on the presumptive at-large candidate losing under the right circumstances is short-sighted. It’s best for the conference to send the team with the greatest chance of advancing in the tourney. Sometimes, that team Is one that stumbled early but peaked late. That is the reason we have tournaments. Yes, we want to reward teams that have performed well throughout the course of the season (that’s why we give advantages in the conference tourneys through seeding) but we don’t want to do it at the expense of young teams that have eclipsed the ones composed of upperclassmen and journeymen. And yes, we like to have multiple bids, but we know that doing so is a systemic (NCAA, not MVC) challenge.

UNI had the best season, but at this stage, may not be the best team. I think the MVC is generally pretty strong this year and definitely very balanced. Those who think that the tourney will produce a weak representative need to either rethink or volunteer their awesome tourney-reform plan.

I have held off talking injuries because I didn't want to jinx UNI in an way. BUT---- Have I missed something or did UNI get through the Valley season pretty much without major incident? It seems like everyone else was always somewhat shorthanded or worse.

Minimum I would love UNI to get a NIT #1 seed and win it.

[Bulldog2323]

New ESPN Bracketology from Joe Lunardi out.

UNI is LAST TEAM IN. Would have a First Four Matchup against Arizona State.
Loyola gets in as AQ, 14 seed.

If UNI & Loyola survive, they could have a 2nd round matchup at Enterprise Center ironically. Somehow I doubt the final bracket will end up that way.

Still a lot to play out.

[VUGrad1314]

Let it go. UNI has zero chance of holding onto that last spot. We are a week and a half from Selection Sunday and UNI's resume is DONE. They cannot improve it in any way. Their high water mark is right now and it will only go down from here in terms of at large consideration. The ship has sailed. If we're being honest it probably sank for good on that Loyola\ISUb road trip where they went 0-2. We just have to hope for the best from whatever team comes out of this tournament.

[Milanmiracle]

:D

Well, so much for that hope.

It’s a foolish hope. The idea of wishing for a two-bid league based on the presumptive at-large candidate losing under the right circumstances is short-sighted. It’s best for the conference to send the team with the greatest chance of advancing in the tourney. Sometimes, that team Is one that stumbled early but peaked late. That is the reason we have tournaments. Yes, we want to reward teams that have performed well throughout the course of the season (that’s why we give advantages in the conference tourneys through seeding) but we don’t want to do it at the expense of young teams that have eclipsed the ones composed of upperclassmen and journeymen. And yes, we like to have multiple bids, but we know that doing so is a systemic (NCAA, not MVC) challenge.

UNI had the best season, but at this stage, may not be the best team. I think the MVC is generally pretty strong this year and definitely very balanced. Those who think that the tourney will produce a weak representative need to either rethink or volunteer their awesome tourney-reform plan.

Well, I get having the “best team”, but there’s a cost to that. That cost is seeding. What’s going to happen now that Loyola is out of the NCAA’s? The MVC is going to send a team to the NCAA to be at very best a 14 seed (that’s what ESPN had Loyola at before they lost). Opponents matter. As of typing this ESPN has their 3 seeds as Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State and Villanova.

[VUGrad1314]

We need to challenge ourselves more in the non-con get our numbers up. Have teams that have 2-3 Q1 and 5-6 total Q1 Q2 wins to play each other and make this league depth count for something! That's the answer! That's the way forward!

[Drakey]

We need to challenge ourselves more in the non-con get our numbers up. Have teams that have 2-3 Q1 and 5-6 total Q1 Q2 wins to play each other and make this league depth count for something! That's the answer! That's the way forward!

That is also impossible. The Power 5 don't want multiple teams from the Valley. They changed the rules to make it impossible.

[VUGrad1314]

We need to challenge ourselves more in the non-con get our numbers up. Have teams that have 2-3 Q1 and 5-6 total Q1 Q2 wins to play each other and make this league depth count for something! That's the answer! That's the way forward!

That is also impossible. The Power 5 don't want multiple teams from the Valley. They changed the rules to make it impossible.

The OHIO VALLEY got two teams into the dance last year. The SOCON will likely get two if ETSU loses in the final. UNI was probably in if they made the final. Don't tell me it's impossible. That's defeatist and by the OVC example alone patently false. If you believe that you're doing exactly what the P5 wants you to do. Accept their arbitrary BS standards and move on. Like I said Do what you have to do. Uneven trades buy games but GET THOSE GAMES. Then WIN THEM. And the Committee has no choice but to let us in.