Arch Madness championship game thread - Illinois St vs UNI

[Championz]

The crowd was great. ISU and UNI both had a ton more fans there than I expected on Sunday.

"St Louis is going to lose a MILLION DOLLARS with Wichita states early exit!!!"

Lot of bandwagon Bird fans helping to compensate the economic loss on Sunday being 2 hours away. Better hope they never move out of St. Louis.

[uniftw]

Uh, based on all-session ticket sales, those numbers were easily boosted by WSU.

Cool your jets.

What's funny is there wasn't really any yellow there Sunday - based on TV.

Any seat that was previously yellow was either red or purple.

[Championz]

Uh, based on all-session ticket sales, those numbers were easily boosted by WSU.

Cool your jets.

What's funny is there wasn't really any yellow there Sunday - based on TV.

Any seat that was previously yellow was either red or purple.

No s***. I'm sure most of the WSU fans left Sunday morning (me included) and either sold their tickets or went unused. Attendance is based on tickets sold and WSU's all-session sales boosted the attendance regardless of whether they played or not. It's not a hard concept to understand.

[PapaBear]

That was a great atmosphere for a championship game--LOTS of Red and Purple there! Two very worthy teams representing the Valley well on CBS!! Thinking UNI with their senior leadership can win at least 2 or 3 in the Big Dance--and young ISU can advance a couple rounds or more in the NIT. The Valley has a lot of youth on many of the teams--and looks to be moving back into a top mid-major conference next year.

[uniftw]

That was a great atmosphere for a championship game--LOTS of Red and Purple there! Two very worthy teams representing the Valley well on CBS!! Thinking UNI with their senior leadership can win at least 2 or 3 in the Big Dance--and young ISU can advance a couple rounds or more in the NIT. The Valley has a lot of youth on many of the teams--and looks to be moving back into a top mid-major conference next year.

For as much as I, or anyone, have cracked on Illinois State's basketball IQ it's worth noting how scary good they *could* be the next 2 or 3 years.

They make a lot of dumb plays...but they are almost completely freshman and sophomores. HCDM makes a lot of strange, or lack of, adjustments but he's only 39 and in his third year as a head coach.

As that team/staff matures, with that kind of athleticism/skill, they are looking at a very bright future.

[isuredbirds92]

Here's an interesting thought. If ISU wins that game, would Muller's #1 vote have been justified? Or would you only consider it justified if they were truly the best team in the conference? Because as we all know, winning the conference tourney does not necessarily mean you are the best team.

[Wufan]

Here's an interesting thought. If ISU wins that game, would Muller's #1 vote have been justified? Or would you only consider it justified if they were truly the best team in the conference? Because as we all know, winning the conference tourney does not necessarily mean you are the best team.

It would only be justified if they had finished within a game of first place or better. They were 11-7; 5 games out of SECOND PLACE.

[Rollbird5]

Here's an interesting thought. If ISU wins that game, would Muller's #1 vote have been justified? Or would you only consider it justified if they were truly the best team in the conference? Because as we all know, winning the conference tourney does not necessarily mean you are the best team.

It doesn't matter since we lost but he said he thought we'd be the best by the end and if we would've won I would say that would be justified, especially cuz we would have beat wsu and uni back to back days

[rlh04d]

Here's an interesting thought. If ISU wins that game, would Muller's #1 vote have been justified? Or would you only consider it justified if they were truly the best team in the conference? Because as we all know, winning the conference tourney does not necessarily mean you are the best team.

It wouldn't have been justified, but ... close.