Next NCAA At Large

[ShockerFever]

Remember when we left the Valley, SIU's Barry Hinson stated that WSU was getting "too big for its britches". What were the reasons for the decision to leave? Guessing it had a lot to do with trying to keep coach Marshall, and Creighton's departure for the Big East but there were other factors...care to clue me in?

Given the stronger basketball recruiting pools for a number of AAC schools, most years, talentwise, WSU will probably be a middle of the pack team in the conference. I'm posting this because personally I liked the old MVC, partly because WSU was one of the old cornerstones of the Missouri Valley, and also because WSU under Marshall had the capability of winning the thing every year.

It wasn't Hinson who said that. It was SIU's AD. And considering SIU might not survive D-1 status through the next 15 years, I could care less what the dolt said. He probably shouldve been concerned with his own school.

And blaming this on conference move is the dumbest thing EVER. One down year in the last 10 and every decision we make now is stupid and it's time to overreact and panic.

I can't wait til KU has down year or doesn't win the Big 12. It'll happen. And make sure you call for wholesale changes of your school too when the time comes.

[N Crestway]

And how do you think I am blaming this years performance on the move to the AAC? Only implying the obvious that year's team would have more wins in the MVC. Physically, the AAC is a meat grinder... there are at least a couple of programs that can consistently out recruit WSU. Will the conference move be a great thing going out 3, 4, or 10 years? I'm skeptical.
[KU just got wholesale changes to its athletic program because it's football program was a national embarrassment...been down that path already]

[ShockerFever]

The MVC became a bunch of (some formerly) teacher's colleges who came into D1 for basketball fairly recently. When the prominent schools (Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati) left, they were replaced with schools that were in their first few years in D1.

Bardo has said there was a lot more than basketball involved with the desire to move. He's trying to grow enrollment and it was his opinion that would be easier to do if WSU was associated with schools like Temple, Cincinnati, Houston than with schools like Illinois State, Indiana State and Evansville.

Grant, Heiar, Jans, Baker, VanVleet. Marshall owes those 5 guys about $1.5 to $2 mill a year between them the way things look right now. Without those 5 guys, the Shox lost to a 13 seed with an NBA stud and 4 Sr's on the floor. Then we have this year. Underachieving one year is an anomaly, but follow that up with dropping to the bottom of the league standings and it has the appearance of the start of a pattern.

More complete overreaction and complete dysfunction.

[FadedCrown]

Yes our team underachieved last year, but that year was odd. Usually if you remove a team's leading scorer for 10 games and then render him useless for the rest, that team's offense should take a hit. Our's didn't, our defense did. Was it due to lackadaisical play from seniors? Maybe. Was it from the better athletes and new gameplans we had to come up with for the American? Maybe as well. It was just an odd year all around. And we did play like we were missing arguably our best player in a couple games. California in Maui, blew a lead against Notre Dame, just got outplayed against Oklahoma, won by just 9 against Arkansas St. and so on.

[Topshock]

There you go bringing up last year. This year just kind of is what it is. Last year makes me angry. I could go on and on but lets just say the personnel that we had on the team were not used correctly.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

This is what happens to a fanbase when the team plays in a shitty conference for years and beats shitty teams by 20+ points every night until it becomes a monotonous expectation. When adversity as a fan comes you don't know how to handle it. I'm starting to think the players and coaches forgot how to handle adversity. Instead, we learned how to be afraid we'd drop 30 spots in the RPI if we had an off night in conference play. We forgot how to dig deep and bounce back from a losing streak. We forgot how to put our big boy pants on and play with enough intensity to beat teams with big athletic players.

We did well in the postseason in spite of the MVC, not because of it.

The adversity this team is experiencing now is good. Embrace it. It will make the entire program better in the years ahead.

We're 8-10 and struggling with a NET ranking of 111, but there is only ONE (ONE!!!) MVC team ranked ahead of us (Loyola at 97). Perspective.

I thought Cold was full of **** saying we lost our edge. But now I think he was right--if he meant the fanbase had lost its edge. We're a bunch of spoiled pantywaist quitters if we can't stomach an 8-10 season with a motley crew of freshmen and transfers who've never played together before.

Guys, seriously, drink a few beers during the games and enjoy the growing pains.

[Kung Wu]

What he shed *hic* shed -- urrr, said.

[proshox]

I was never concerned about this season. It is the future that looks problematic. HCGM openly talked about blowing up the roster for the second straight year.... it doesn’t take long for the shine to wear off in college basketball. We are going from national Media story to what... i will let you tell me what we are like if this continues for 2-3 years....