Top 4

[BCPanther]

Feels like the extra travel and competition is starting to catch Belmont a little bit. They haven't beaten a Top or Middle team since January 21st.

They finish with a tough week against Indiana State and at UNI. I don't think they get either one of those.

[municup14]

Pretty strong coming from a Salukie fan bashing my beloved Aces.Your
Salukies have been hovering around the 500 mark since 2015.

How has Evansville done since 2015? Lol

UE has been horrible for a long time.My point is dont bash a bottom dweller team
if your team has been on the bottom sucking the same mud.Good luck to your
salukies in the Tournament.

[Tom Servo]

How has Evansville done since 2015? Lol

Wes Washpun took their soul and they've been dead ever since.

It wasn't necessarily that play. The beginning of the fall of the UE MBB program started with Marty bringing his son into the program and starting him practically every game for 4 years. His son was a decent player, but not MVC starter caliber, yet he player more minutes than any Aces player in history. His stat lines were weak. He didn't excel at any part of the game - not a great rebounder, not a great scorer, not a great 3-point shooter, not a PG, not a great defender.

Prior to his son, the Aces were progressing in the right direction. During his son, we saw better players playing fewer minutes, players leaving the program and players not joining the program that probably would have if the father-son issue was not there. Why go to UE and sit behind the coaches son when the coaches son was not producing on the court?

The one piece missing from the 2015-2016 team was a dynamic small forward. There was one that was 6th man of the year, but he played behind the coaches son. Instead of staying for his senior year, he left.

McCarty got the players needed to quickly turn around the program, but his priorities were in scoring with Coeds off of the court . Licklitter turned out to be a terrible hire. This year's team is the worst in program history; however, the staff is loaded with people who should be able to bring in strong MVC players. This offseason and next should prove that to be true.

I agree completely with this. I think Simmons was a good coach and up through Blake Simmons coming here - I think he really did a pretty commendable job in what was then a much tougher MVC. Once he brought in Blake Simmons it caused a lot of problems. It became the only thing fans talked about and it helped lead to guys like Sawvell transferring and guys like Mislav and Wing playing out of position and hampering their development.

Very frustrating - it all could have ended up much different. I never was high on McCarty or Lickliter, and I'm certainly not sold on Ragland. We'll have to wait and see and from what I've seen we are going to be waiting a while.

[Saluki 4 Life]

Feels like the extra travel and competition is starting to catch Belmont a little bit. They haven't beaten a Top or Middle team since January 21st.

They finish with a tough week against Indiana State and at UNI. I don't think they get either one of those.

I think they are going to win one more game this year, Thursday against Evansville in STL. Their schedule down the stretch has is just brutal. Indiana State is playing so well, and going to UNI for the last game of the season is difficult. Maybe they can get one, but I have them pegged for 0-2 to end the season.

[SalukiWorld]

Belmont can easily beat SIU in St. Louis. I’d say Belmont is very slightly better right now. I’m wondering what the impacts of playing on Thursday are. You can say it’s a bad thing because they’ll possibly be tired for Friday but a team like Belmont might benefit from a warm-up game playing in a different atmosphere in a big arena and figuring out the rims since they’re more of a shooting team.

A team like SIU though greatly benefits from the bye given how much they rely on Domask and how many minutes he plays.

[Saluki 4 Life]

Belmont can easily beat SIU in St. Louis. I’d say Belmont is very slightly better right now. I’m wondering what the impacts of playing on Thursday are. You can say it’s a bad thing because they’ll possibly be tired for Friday but a team like Belmont might benefit from a warm-up game playing in a different atmosphere in a big arena and figuring out the rims since they’re more of a shooting team.

A team like SIU though greatly benefits from the bye given how much they rely on Domask and how many minutes he plays.

I think there is a very legit argument that can be made that for the Friday game the Thursday game against Evansville may be helpful... Probably hurt as the tournament goes on. The concern is getting into a rock fight with Evansville and being pushed to the finish. Belmont, SIU or Indiana State should handle them without issue though and set up a pick em game Friday with whoever they play.

[municup14]

The conference has four teams with 20 or more wins and possibly a fifth team
can get there 20th with 1 more win.It would be nice if Drake would win out until
the Championship game and we could get 2 teams into the Tournament.

[BCPanther]

The conference has four teams with 20 or more wins and possibly a fifth team
can get there 20th with 1 more win.It would be nice if Drake would win out until
the Championship game and we could get 2 teams into the Tournament.

Drake has no shot at an at large.

[SalukiWorld]

The conference has four teams with 20 or more wins and possibly a fifth team
can get there 20th with 1 more win.It would be nice if Drake would win out until
the Championship game and we could get 2 teams into the Tournament.

Drake has no shot at an at large.

I still think there’s an outside shot if they go to Peoria on Sunday and blow out Bradley again and then win out and lose close in the MVC Final to Bradley

[Bulldog4life24]

The conference has four teams with 20 or more wins and possibly a fifth team
can get there 20th with 1 more win.It would be nice if Drake would win out until
the Championship game and we could get 2 teams into the Tournament.

Drake has no shot at an at large.

the bubble is so bad this year, I could see this happening (like 35% chance) in this specific scenario, but it would take some other bubble teams imploding for it to occur.