Games of Interest: Nov. 7th - 13th

[RoyalShock]

Indiana St. lost a good coach and hired a budget replacement.

I know it's still early, but I'm getting a real bad feeling about this conference. Not just for this year, but for the foreseeable future.

[SHOXAAC]

One way to look at what makes a strong conference is to evaluate the targeted bottom half. My prediction of the bottom half of the Valley is Bradley, Drake, Evansville, SIU & Indiana State. These sisters are weaker than weak. It will hurt the Valley overall. At this point the MVC is 16-8, which is underachieving. IMO the top three, will be WSU, Creighton & MSU (in that order). I hope in addition to the Shox, one or both make the dance. The noncon will make or break that mission.

[ShockTalk]

Indiana St. lost a good coach and hired a budget replacement.

I know it's still early, but I'm getting a real bad feeling about this conference. Not just for this year, but for the foreseeable future.

Give the man a ceeegar! First it was the fall of baseball, now maybe men's basketball. :mad:

[GoShockers89]

We have to got to get out of this quicksand pit of a conference. It is looking like we may very well only have three or four top 100 RPI teams in the league this season- it is going to be depressing to watch our RPI slowly erode in conference play, even if we can manage to win 80% of the games.

Those of us with resources need to get out while we still can. Pipedream, I know.

[Speed]

We have to got to get out of this quicksand pit of a conference. It is looking like we may very well only have three or four top 100 RPI teams in the league this season- it is going to be depressing to watch our RPI slowly erode in conference play, even if we can manage to win 80% of the games.

Those of us with resources need to get out while we still can. Pipedream, I know.

I've been checking this topic. Over the past hour & just waiting for the 1st anti Valley post after tonight's results.

The post game show last night mentioned the Valley was no longer a mid-major conference. I initially took that as a step forward for the MVC. I've heard the saying about assumptions.

[ShockTalk]

We have to got to get out of this quicksand pit of a conference. It is looking like we may very well only have three or four top 100 RPI teams in the league this season- it is going to be depressing to watch our RPI slowly erode in conference play, even if we can manage to win 80% of the games.

Those of us with resources need to get out while we still can. Pipedream, I know.

I've been checking this topic. Over the past hour & just waiting for the 1st anti Valley post after tonight's results.

The post game show last night mentioned the Valley was no longer a mid-major conference. I initially took that as a step forward for the MVC. I've heard the saying about assumptions.

I heard something like that, too, from Kennedy I believe. I have no idea what he meant by that. ESPN has already coined a new phrase of "Quasi Mid Major" to describe the MWC, Atl-10, and C-USA. They had the Valley pegged as #11, behind the BCS, the above 3, and CAA. I fear there may be others soon.

[Aargh]

The bottom half of the MVC is pathetic this year.

Before we get too excited about that, we have to remember that in the '90's WSU was one of the absolute dregs that was dragging the conference down.

Evansville escaped with a W in a buy game??? InSU is in deep. We can only hope that Lansing figures it out before he drags the entire program further down the charts than they already were.

Gonzaga and Butler have done OK being in conferences filled with weak sisters, so that's not necessarily a problem. It's just that WSU can't afford to lose a game against any of the weak sisters.

Win the games you're supposed to win, take a few risks in scheduling and do OK in some exempt tournaments and the rest will take care of itself.

[Speed]

Yep the good thing is that the league is winnable. Does that make the automatic bid automatic, ...hope so.

[AndShock]

I think even if we were dominating the Valley every year, I'd still like to see us try to get to a better conference. I'm to the point where I understand it's not going to happen, but I still like to think about it. FWIW, Butler and Gonzaga play in front of 6000-7000 fans. Butler averaged 6800 and Gonzaga's capacity is 6000.

[MSUBear42]

One way to look at what makes a strong conference is to evaluate the targeted bottom half. My prediction of the bottom half of the Valley is Bradley, Drake, Evansville, SIU & Indiana State. These sisters are weaker than weak. It will hurt the Valley overall. At this point the MVC is 16-8, which is underachieving. IMO the top three, will be WSU, Creighton & MSU (in that order). I hope in addition to the Shox, one or both make the dance. The noncon will make or break that mission.

What has CU done to prove they will be improved this year?

[SubGod22]

One way to look at what makes a strong conference is to evaluate the targeted bottom half. My prediction of the bottom half of the Valley is Bradley, Drake, Evansville, SIU & Indiana State. These sisters are weaker than weak. It will hurt the Valley overall. At this point the MVC is 16-8, which is underachieving. IMO the top three, will be WSU, Creighton & MSU (in that order). I hope in addition to the Shox, one or both make the dance. The noncon will make or break that mission.

What has CU done to prove they will be improved this year?

I agree with our Bear friend. CU may get better when whatshisface is eligible, but at this point they have NOT looked good at all. We may have to hope for UNI to get it together if we want three teams.

[HockeyShock]

What has CU done to prove they will be improved this year?

Well, they did hire a better coach. ;-)

(Sorry, had to get one last zing in on Dana.)

:clap: :wsu_posters: :yahoo: :clap:

[Maggie]

One way to look at what makes a strong conference is to evaluate the targeted bottom half. My prediction of the bottom half of the Valley is Bradley, Drake, Evansville, SIU & Indiana State. These sisters are weaker than weak. It will hurt the Valley overall. At this point the MVC is 16-8, which is underachieving. IMO the top three, will be WSU, Creighton & MSU (in that order). I hope in addition to the Shox, one or both make the dance. The noncon will make or break that mission.

What has CU done to prove they will be improved this year?

I agree with our Bear friend. CU may get better when whatshisface is eligible, but at this point they have NOT looked good at all. We may have to hope for UNI to get it together if we want three teams.

Based on the non-con performance, getting three teams (two at-large bids) in the NCAA tournament appears to be a pipe dream. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, I was optimistic about the MVC as a conference. That optimism is slowly fading. I agree with Royal, we (WSU) should be concerned about the viability of the MVC going forward.

I used to care a lot more about the performance of other MVC teams in the non-con – I am less invested in their success now. WSU needs to take care of its own business because the conference looks more like a ball and chain not a benefit.

[SubGod22]

One way to look at what makes a strong conference is to evaluate the targeted bottom half. My prediction of the bottom half of the Valley is Bradley, Drake, Evansville, SIU & Indiana State. These sisters are weaker than weak. It will hurt the Valley overall. At this point the MVC is 16-8, which is underachieving. IMO the top three, will be WSU, Creighton & MSU (in that order). I hope in addition to the Shox, one or both make the dance. The noncon will make or break that mission.

What has CU done to prove they will be improved this year?

I agree with our Bear friend. CU may get better when whatshisface is eligible, but at this point they have NOT looked good at all. We may have to hope for UNI to get it together if we want three teams.

Based on the non-con performance, getting three teams (two at-large bids) in the NCAA tournament appears to be a pipe dream. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, I was optimistic about the MVC as a conference. That optimism is slowly fading. I agree with Royal, we (WSU) should be concerned about the viability of the MVC going forward.

I used to care a lot more about the performance of other MVC teams in the non-con – I am less invested in their success now. WSU needs to take care of its own business because the conference looks more like a ball and chain not a benefit.

I don't disagree. Just saying if we're hoping for three we need three that will seperate from the rest of what is appearing to be a weak conference. I would bet on UNI before CU at this point. MSU will be good. On a bad night they still hung with Tennessee. As long as we win the conference and lose 4 or less games we're good to go. I wouldn't mind seeing MSU right behind us. But we need to take care of our business and take care of whoever steps on the court with us.

[SB Shock]

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