Can it get any worse for the Valley?

by **Red** » December 2nd, 2015, 10:30 am

Realtime RPI has the MVC as the 16th rated league below the Summit. Warren Nolan has us 15th below the Summit and Horizon but just above the Southern Conference.

Other than SIU who has surprised and UE who has been okay, is anyone happy with how their team is doing? This is shaping up to be the worst year I can remember.

**Sponsor**

by **Khan4Cats** » December 2nd, 2015, 10:49 am

I have been holding out hope that things would start to turn. Yesterday hurt. Was hoping for a 3-1 day with SIU getting a chance to bring us back to .500 on the year tonight, but.....

There is still time for things to improve. If WSU gets Van Vleet back this weekend they still have a chance to have a solid December. Certainly hoping for improvement from others as well, though Bradley and MSU seem destined to be who they are, for different reasons, though MSU gave a battle last night.

You did leave UNI, who has the signature win for the conference so far off the list of teams performing well and is sitting at 5-1. That is where I had hoped they would be at this point, albeit thinking the loss would have been to a different team. UNI enters their toughest stretch now though with 7 games away from Cedar Falls including road tilts at Richmond, New Mexico and Hawaii (they should take George Mason) and a 'neutral' court against Iowa State with Oklahoma as a possible tournament game if they get past Hawaii.

by **Drakey** » December 2nd, 2015, 11:18 am

No it can't get worse. This is as low as the Valley has ever been, but it should get a little better if WSU ever gets any players back and some of these younger teams get a little experience. The Valley actually has a losing OOC record at this point. I can't remember that ever happening before.

by **Play Angry** » December 2nd, 2015, 11:28 am

Eh, it's been worse (by quite a bit). Below are some lowlights from dark days past:

The MVC had losing OOC records as recently as 2001-02 and 2002-03.
The MVC's conference RPI rank was as follows (applicable season in parentheses): 21 (1991-92), 17 (1993-94), 15 (1992-93), and 14 (2002-03). Note that there were far fewer conferences in the early 90s than there are now, so on a relative basis those rankings were far more atrocious.

Just some perspective since many forget how terrible things really were for a while.

Source: MVC Media Guide.

by **uniftw** » December 2nd, 2015, 11:47 am

Are we really giving credence to RPI on December 2nd? :Bam:

by **Red** » December 2nd, 2015, 11:50 am

uniftw wrote:Are we really giving credence to RPI on December 2nd?

Okay don't use the RPI. That's just a metric. Now tell me based on what you've seen if the Valley is in trouble.

by **Cdizzle** » December 2nd, 2015, 12:18 pm

Aside from WSU sucking the big one what with all the injuries, did we really expect anything different?

UNI has probably surprised slightly on the upside to this point? Losing to CSU was disappointing, but beating #1 is never a bad thing.

Evansville has done what one could have expected, beating a bunch of 'meh' and crappy teams and losing to the good team they played.

ISUr and Loyola have surprised slightly on the downside to this point? Coaching, coaching, coaching.

ISUb has surprised slightly on the downside to this point? Personally, I was not nearly as high on them as many in the preseason. They don't have the horses, especially in the post.

Drake has been about where we might figure? Maybe one of those close games away from right where we might guess? They are trying to build, but definitely not there yet, even against a mediocre (at best) schedule so far.

SIU has surprised slightly on the upside to this point? Again, crap schedule, but at least they are racking up the W's.

MSU and Bradley suck. We knew that going in.

So, maybe 3 slight 'downside' results, and 2 slight 'upside' results? Plus a wicked terrible start for WSU? Sounds like the make of it.

WSU, Evansville and UNI are still in decent shape to make cases for the NCAAs. Would not be surprised at all to see 2 of those 3 make it.

by **Championz** » December 2nd, 2015, 2:48 pm

Given Evansville's schedule, I'm not liking their chance for an at-large, unless they go 17-1 in the Valley.

by **isumvc1** » December 2nd, 2015, 6:28 pm

From Indiana State's perspective, we have absolutely stunk it up so far this season. Whoever posted we are weak in the post is dead on. We also can't shoot worth a crap, we can't hit FT's and the future games look very bleak. If team's don't play zone against us they're crazy.

So far we have one win that could be considered OK, that was our win over Hofstra in the TG tourney. And we were lucky to win that after blowing a 17 point 2nd half lead, getting down 7, then scoring the last 8 to win.

Lowlights for the Sycs so far, not one, but TWO teams who have beaten us so far this season have exactly one win apiece against D-I competition. IUPUI and Eastern Illinois have each won one game, of course, against Indiana State.

We had Tulsa beat over thanksgiving, but unlike the Hofstra game, our collapse in the 2nd half was fulfilled and Tulsa won.

We play at Butler Saturday, I honestly think we may be lucky to score 30 points that game, we also play Valpo, St Louis, and Ball State. We do play non D-I Illinois-Springfield, and I am not 100% sure we can win that game. We'll most definitely have a losing record (again) entering MVC play, then we'll see if we can muck up the MVC again like we did last season.

by **PantherSigEp** » December 2nd, 2015, 11:37 pm

I've been very happy with UNI's performance. Yes, CSU was disappointing but they're 5-1 and if that game was replayed tomorrow I'd guess we win by double digits. We haven't seen that type of poor defense and rusty rotations since that game, plus Carlson has been a really nice boost in the post on offense and defense.

I believe I saw some stats on PN today that showed UNI is the #3 team in the nation in points per possession (~1.5? I think?) and are top 10 in 3 pt %. The offense is clicking at unimaginable levels and the defense continues to get stronger with Jake at the helm. I'm not going to make North Dakota or North Texas out to be world beaters like UNC, but putting up 90+ pts and winning by such lopsided margins in a system like Jacobson's it's hard not to believe that this is one of the most efficient offenses UNI has started a season with in a long time and will continue to perform at a high level (knock on wood).

The talent is there to get back into the NCAA's. So are the opportunities. We just need to continue to take care of business.