2022 Arch Madness Seeding Projections

[goramblers2011]

Loyola sucks

Loyola will leave the Valley with a winning conference record against every single Valley team.

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[Mikovio]

Good luck to all our MVC fans and foes. Your jealousy is palpable but I hope the conference does well this year and for years to come!

Indeed! The A10 Tournament may not have bigger crowds but I hear the caviar eggs they serve there effortlessly separate when rolled on the roof of your mouth!

Fact check? (On the attendance, not the caviar...I'll let you know about that next year)

Looking at box scores, seems like they are pretty similar:

2018 Arch semis/final: 8,415/8,056
2018 A-10 semis/final: 8,756/7,643

2019 Arch semis/final: 7,884/8,108
2019 A-10 semis/final: 8,133/8,371

I think 2020 would have set attendance records for the A-10 with their biggest fanbase, Dayton, being ranked #2 or #3 in the country going into the tourney.

Cool! Plus I hear their championship is on CBS!

[goramblers2011]

Cool! Plus I hear their championship is on CBS!

Sure is!

[Mikovio]

That’s so awesome! I hope Sister Jean is ready for her close ups!

[NuncEstBibendum]

That’s so awesome! I hope Sister Jean is ready for her close ups!

I hope after some time has passed that you are able to come back and read your comments and realize that you sound like an idiot.

#probablynot

[Rambler63]

Do you remember the insults and trash talk Loyola had to go through when they joined the conference? You don't? Here's a taste:

https://mvcfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3068

Basically, Loyola did EVERYTHING everything they promised-- and a whole f****** lot more-- when they joined the conference, everything that most MVC fans doubted could be done. Frickin' Wichita State basically left the conference because of how much they hated Loyola as a replacement for Creighton.

And Loyola fans had to hear that bitching for years, in heavy doses. It continued after WSU left the conference because people didn't like losing to us, didn't like the city we are from, didn't like that we had scarves to help show the fcuking MVC trolls and doubters and hecklers that we did actually show up to games.

But in spite of all that bullshit, we still did everything we said we would do as a member of the conference, and we did it better than anyone could have dreamed.....

Improve bad basketball? Won the CBI in year two after joining the MVC, reached the Final Four in year five.
Improve low attendance? Nearly a full house almost every night, the highest percentage of capacity of any MVC school.
Bring in the Chicago market? As much as it's possible for any college team, and the media coverage of the MVC is unquestionably better than it was before.

And here's another thing: Loyola didn't promise to REPLACE Creighton, because we assumed that an existing MVC team would improve and take that role. But nobody did. So on Dec. 5, 2015, Loyola beat Creighton head to head, 68-65 in Chicago. Loyola lost at Creighton in the 2019 NIT. But since 2017-18, Loyola has finished ahead of Creighton in KenPom 2 out of 5 times, and finished one spot below Creighton in the year Loyola reached the Final Four. Additionally, Loyola has won six NCAA games in that span compared to Creighton's two. Creighton has never won their way past the Sweet 16 (they were an Elite 8 team in 1941, when being in the tournament at all meant you were in the Elite Eight). Loyola has had two seasons with a Sweet 16 or better in the past four.

So if you have anything bad to say about what Loyola gave to this conference, any sniping or insults or bullshit comments, you better look in the mirror. Because eight other teams had a chance to move up and become Wichita State, and they didn't... they lost non-con games they shouldn't have, they started the season 4-7 losing to Nichols State, they dropped every game of their mediocre MTEs, they lost to the bottom feeders, etc.

Loyola fans have know how much MVC folks have hated us all along. Even (er, maybe especially) when we got good, a lot of MVC people hated us more. You can make jokes about caviar, but Chicago is a blue collar town at heart. Freakin' Caterpillar left Peoria for Chicago, Boeing left Seattle for Chicago, and Miller-Coors left Milwaukee for Chicago.

You can make jokes about high-falutin' fancy ed'ja'ka'shun, but Loyola kind of cares about that. Right now, Loyola has dropped out of the US News and World Report top 100 colleges to #103, tied with Creighton, St. Louis, and UIC. Drake is at 136. The A-10 has George Washington, Fordham, UMass, and St. Louis in the top 103.

And finally, I want to say I was one of the most vociferous and leading voices to get Loyola into the MVC. I was living in Normal at the time and I admired how the conference was run. I thought maybe after Wichita State left, Loyola would be accepted as a conference member. But it wasn't really much better. At first, people liked us because we proved that the MVC could go on without WSU. Then they just started disliking us for whatever reason they could think of. Fans of other MVC teams were distant, hostile, or insulting a lot of the time-- I had hoped the midwestern kinship would come through, but people in rural and downstate areas have been almost trained to hate Chicago.

So here we are with 90% of the MVC rooting against us to create the possibility of the MVC a two-bid league this year.... Like we did last year.... Because if we're beaten Saturday and in the early rounds of Arch Madness, we're out, and the MVC is a 1-bid league. At least that's how I understand it.

See? People in this league would rather burn money in a giant bonfire than accept Loyola.

[Blers42]

That’s so awesome! I hope Sister Jean is ready for her close ups!

Sister Jean the 102 year old nun, you’re the definition of trash and your team sucks.

[Mikovio]

That’s so awesome! I hope Sister Jean is ready for her close ups!

I hope after some time has passed that you are able to come back and read your comments and realize that you sound like an idiot.

#probablynot

I realize I sound like a jealous A10 fanboi, because that’s what I am!

[Mikovio]

Do you remember the insults and trash talk Loyola had to go through when they joined the conference? You don't? Here's a taste:

https://mvcfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3068

If you read that 2013 thread you see I not only defend the selection but make the prescient prediction that Loyola can become a power in less than 10 years, and a Saluki fan agrees. The hate from Kansas was palpable, and they were gone in a few years. The current Valley membership was much more supportive.

If Loyola gets an at large, the good news is we get some money. If they don’t the good news is we’re handing off a program in worse shape to one of the Valleys competitors. Also, we’re welcoming in an intracity competitor to Loyola, so it’s in our best interest for Loyola not to succeed. Don’t be so quick to chalk everything up to “jealousy”.

[Mikovio]

That’s so awesome! I hope Sister Jean is ready for her close ups!

Sister Jean the 102 year old nun, you’re the definition of trash and your team sucks.

You’ve got me all wrong! I love Sister Jean and am just excited that given the awesome exposure in the A10 she could some day be on CBS and become a national celebrity! Only in the A10!