Missouri Valley Conference Post Season Honors

[DUShock]

Is it me or is Elgin seem less than enthused when awarding the Shocker players?

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Nearly always, yes. I can understand arguments for coaches that clearly do a tremendous job of improving a team throughout the year via their coaching (I think Lansing this year comes close to this, but his team still wasn't remotely close to the top 2 teams), or successfully manages significant hardships outside of his control (Marshall in 2013 is the closest example of this I can find). To illustrate my point, I would be less upset if Lansing had won instead of Jacobson, and I would not have been upset if McDermott had won in 2013.

Beyond those in-season expressions of superior coaching, I generally think that the best coach is the one that built the best team and guided them to a league championship.

It is perfectly fair to argue that recruiting and establishing a good team is part of the coach of the year award. However, the MVC, and college basketball in general, and college sports in general, all pretty much operate with coach of the year awards being heavily weighted in favor of coaches who exceed expectations. Basically, the recruiting portion is nearly thrown out. The ability to establish pre-season expectation is also largely ignored.

Dislike this all you want, but this is the norm for how the award is decided across college sports. In this year's MVC, UNI exceeded expectations more than anyone else. They just finished the best regular season in school history in a year where they were supposed to be merely an NCAA bubble team.

I have no problem with anyone who dislikes this standard for judging coach of the year. However, it is not fair to complain about the MVC when its voters pretty much followed the standard that all other conferences and sports follow. If you must complain, then complain about the overall standard, not the MVC specifically.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

This is NOT AT ALL how logic works.

See my previous post. In light of a world where the judgement is "who got the most out of their team?", what is illogical in my statement?

[Cdizzle]

It is perfectly fair to argue that recruiting and establishing a good team is part of the coach of the year award. However, the MVC, and college basketball in general, and college sports in general, all pretty much operate with coach of the year awards being heavily weighted in favor of coaches who exceed expectations. Basically, the recruiting portion is nearly thrown out. The ability to establish pre-season expectation is also largely ignored.

Dislike this all you want, but this is the norm for how the award is decided across college sports. In this year's MVC, UNI exceeded expectations more than anyone else. They just finished the best regular season in school history in a year where they were supposed to be merely an NCAA bubble team.

I have no problem with anyone who dislikes this standard for judging coach of the year. However, it is not fair to complain about the MVC when its voters pretty much followed the standard that all other conferences and sports follow. If you must complain, then complain about the overall standard, not the MVC specifically.

I appreciate your ruling on what I may, and may not, complain about. As always, I will be sure to take it into consideration as I go forward...

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

People are using this as an example of why the MVC is a crappy conference in comparison to many others.

If the MVC is doing exactly what everyone else is doing, how is this evidence that the MVC is a lame conference in comparison to the rest?

Its a double standard people are using just to get an opportunity to whine and moan about the conference.

[jdmee]

I just wonder how many times a team has won the Coach of the Year award, Player of the Year award, 6th Man of the Year award, Scholar Athlete of the Year award (all by different players) and didn't win the conference.

Hopefully this weekend we can win the two most important awards, Conference Champions and Tourney Champions.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I just wonder how many times a team has won the Coach of the Year award, Player of the Year award, 6th Man of the Year award, Scholar Athlete of the Year award (all by different players) and didn't win the conference.

Hopefully this weekend we can win the two most important awards, Conference Champions and Tourney Champions.

Scholar Athlete of the Year award... lol

Actually, its a good question. The SAY award part just gave me a good chuckle though.

[ShockerPrez]

Well. Hope that Jacobson doesn't bolt now that the cupboard is bare.

[1979Shocker]

I don't have a huge problem with Jacobson winning COY since he is a very good coach and had a very good season, but to the degree I have a problem it is this:

He didn't win on objective performance, obviously, since his team finished 2nd, so he won on performance relative to expectation (which is fine).

Why was this year's results a vast improvement over expectation? Because of last year's results.

What happened last year? By Jacobson's own accounting, UNI underperformed because he failed to coach defense to his normal standards.

In other words, Jacobson wins coach of the year because by his own admission his previous season of coaching was so bad that he squandered their talent and set a low bar. Marshall, on the other hand, is penalized for out performing Jacobson this year because he did such a good job last year.

On top of all that, Marshall had to replace his top assistant coach this year (whose value is pretty clear with the Bowling Green turnaround), whereas Jacobson's entire staff stayed in tact from the previous season.

Speaking of Bowling Green, when does the MAC give out their COY?

[The Mad Hatter]

Speaking of Bowling Green, when does the MAC give out their COY?

They haven't finished their regular season (Bowling Green has their last game tomorrow), so probably sometime next week, but I don't know when exactly.

EDIT: Last year the COY was given out the Wednesday of the conference tournament week (their tournament appears to start on Wednesday), so I would guess it will be on the 11th.

[LandStander]

Well. Hope that Jacobson doesn't bolt now that the cupboard is bare.

Jeppersen will still be there. Hopefully he's not the kind of coach that talks a kid into transfering to uni then bolts the next season.

[shockmonster]

It is perfectly fair to argue that recruiting and establishing a good team is part of the coach of the year award. However, the MVC, and college basketball in general, and college sports in general, all pretty much operate with coach of the year awards being heavily weighted in favor of coaches who exceed expectations. Basically, the recruiting portion is nearly thrown out. The ability to establish pre-season expectation is also largely ignored.

Dislike this all you want, but this is the norm for how the award is decided across college sports. In this year's MVC, UNI exceeded expectations more than anyone else. They just finished the best regular season in school history in a year where they were supposed to be merely an NCAA bubble team.

I have no problem with anyone who dislikes this standard for judging coach of the year. However, it is not fair to complain about the MVC when its voters pretty much followed the standard that all other conferences and sports follow. If you must complain, then complain about the overall standard, not the MVC specifically.

Totally wrong. Gregg won the league w/o the league MVP.

[tgcshock]

Is it me or is Elgin seem less than enthused when awarding the Shocker players?

When Elgin made the championship presentation on the Koch Arena floor after the win over UNI, I noticed that nobody gave him a live microphone. His lips were moving but the fans couldn't hear him. Probably best for all concerned.

[Aargh]

Jacobsen took UNI to national recognition and respect. That wasn't expected. Jacobsen did a tremendous job of providing some level of respect for the Valley.

By the standards used to judge coaches, Marshall had an average year and Jacobsen had an outstanding year. Coaches with outstanding years compared to the standards by which they are judged, tend to get awards.

I don't know how much stuff everybody else out here has going on in their life, but in the overall scheme of things, I've got a lot of things I'd sooner give a $hit about than who a bunch of sports writers picked for CoY. I'm confident that I know who's the best coach in the Valley. I don't need anybody elses's affirmation to shore up my confidwence.

[SHOXAAC]

^^ Hammer meet nail ^^