Hopes for the Season

[bradley_townie]

Bradley:
- Avoid a sluggish start to the season
- Be in a position to win the league by the final week of the season
- Win at least two games in St. Louis
- Rienk Mast gets 1st team honors, Malevy Leons wins DPOY
- Ja'Shon Henry stays healthy

MVC:
- No teams finish below 300 in KenPom
- Two bids + to the NCAA
- Increased Arch Madness attendance

[TheDrake]

For Drake:

Avoid season-ending injuries to 3+ starters.

[Salukimadness86]

For the Salukis, take the next step in the process and advance to either the NIT or NCAA tournament. No CBI, CIT, or the IDC Invitational. Offense needs to pick up the tempo. Defense will be there.

For the MVC, receive multiple invites to the both the NIT and NCAA, win games, and advance...

[purple&orange]

Evansvillle
- Double digit victories
- Not finishing last in the league
- Upgrades in recruiting
- Re-engage the community with improved attendance
- Tough at home in MVC play, competitive on the road


MVC
- 3+ teams in NCAAs/NIT
- Win at least one game in the NCAAs
- Stay healthy
- Not having a talent drain in the portal at the end of the season

Two weeks from tonight it begins. I'm optimistic the changes since the end of the season will benefit the Evansville program and begin the process of a rebuild, both with Coach Ragland as well as the change in administration.

Granted to this point it is all talk but the roster appears to have gotten more athletic with an emphasis on pushing the ball and a desire to go rebound the ball offensively. Stylistically it should be a vastly different Aces attack. As for the administration side, I've gotten multiple phone calls, emails from the department about tickets, other events and the AD's right hand man has been quite engaging in the community. They have been very up front, very visible and quite frankly after the previous ADs have taken the support for granted it's refreshing to see them grind and try to get the energy, passion back in the fanbase.

I don't anticipate the Aces to be knocking on the door of the top tier come year 1 of the Ragland regime. I look at this to be the foundation setting year, getting the Aces back on the road to respectability and being competitive night in and night out.

[hot nuts]

Illinois State - Beat Bradley
MVC - Make new friends at Arch Madness!

[SalukiWorld]

Salukis need to get past Friday in St Louis for the first time since Mullins was hired (just 1 win against a dead Bradley team on Thursday in 3 years).

I don't know how realistic the NIT is with their out of conference schedule unless they finish 2nd in the conference.

If this becomes a 3rd straight underachieving year, I think Mullins is on the hot seat next year in the 2nd to last year of his contract. That being said, I think they're going to meet expectations and hopefully pass them.

[IllinoisState]

Illinois State - Beat Bradley
MVC - Make new friends at Arch Madness!

2-30 incoming.

[KCfan]

Any chance the Valley is not a one bid league this year?

[hot nuts]

Any chance the Valley is not a one bid league this year?

Yes...of course. We've had high expectations as a conference and underperformed... we can just as easily overperform. Just takes 2 of the 12 teams to put things together and stay healthy.

[SalukiWorld]

Any chance the Valley is not a one bid league this year?

Drake kills it in the regular season and loses on Sunday