Valley of the Shocks

[1972Shocker]

In the late 1950's and 1960's the MVC was known as the Valley of Death because of the very high level of men's basketball played in the conference and the plethora of All-Americans that played in the conference.

But over the last 5 years this has become the MVC has become the Valley of the Shocks. And not just because of the great success of the men's program.

Nice article by Bob Lutz talking about the success of both the men's and women's programs. The men have ruled before but the women never have until recent years. Very cool to have both teams be so strong at the same time.

http://www.kansas.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/bob-lutz/article12328649.html

Hopefully, the women can win both of their remaining 2 games this weekend on the road to wrap up a combined regular season of 34-2 between the Shocker guys and gals who rarely cross paths during the season.

:wsu_posters:

[lemuel777]

Can someone explain that even though the women took #8 Tennessee down to the wire, why they are not in the Top 25?

[1972Shocker]

Can someone explain that even though the women took #8 Tennessee down to the wire, why they are not in the Top 25?

The big difference between the MVC Men and the MVC Women is that the Men are the 10th rated conference in the country. The Women are the 19th rated conference in the country.

At the end of the non-conference season both the Shocker Women and the Sycamore Women had RPI's in the Top 30. The Sycamores have not played well in Valley play and have fallen off to 157 in the RPI. The Shocker Women are 15-1 in conference play but there RPI is now 43rd.

The parity that exists in the Men's game just doesn't exist in the Women's game and their is a huge gap between the top teams and the next level of teams. Just look at the RPI's of the bottom 4 teams in the Valley. http://warrennolan.com/basketballw/2...issouri Valley

That's 8 games plus probably 1 in the Valley Tournament that kills the SOS and RPI of the better teams in the conference. The Shocks probably have to win their final 2 games of the regulars season and get to the Championship game of the Valley Tournament to have a shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

That is one place Bob Lutz is wrong in his article. The Lady Shocks are not a lock to make the NCAA Tournament this year.

Tennessee was just 1 game. A quality loss for sure but probably offset by a bad loss at Eastern Washington. But the bottom line is the bottom of the Valley is simply an RPI killer.

[jocoshock]

Life in the valley of death

The Missouri Valley Conference plays the best basketball in the country, and teams that wander its way can expect nothing but trouble

http://www.si.com/vault/1963/01/21/604766/life-in-the-valley-of-death#comments

Apologies in advance if thread goes off topic, but getting back to this is what being a Shocker is all about..

[1972Shocker]

Apologies in advance if thread goes off topic, but getting back to this is what being a Shocker is all about..

No apology needed in my estimation. I think it is totally related and a great find.

It also points out how some things have changed drastically. I got a chuckle about how he talks about the Valley being so spread out among 7 states. Good thing that's not happening in conference now as realignment has really tightened that up.

Then he talks about the league not be accurately named. Of course now we have the 14-team Big 10 and the 10 team Big 12 and the anything but Big East and Conference USA.

In any case, good find and thanks for sharing.