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Fun read Sir.
Not sure about the non-rivalry but here are my thoughts.
Historically I do not feel that ILST was perceived as quite the 'threat' of say a BU, INST, or TU. More recently that threat has come from say CU or SIU. We may be developing a similar mindset with MoST. The UNI thing will be short lived and we will look at them not much differently than DU (I know, the Lloyd years were different). EU is, well, EU.
Also, we may 'like' ILST because of the Gene Smithson connection, no, not really.
Finally, we like 'em because they're just normal folks. :roll:“Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much.”
John Wayne -
Nice read.
I know we've batted around "what is a rivalry" and came up with varied results. Some here call sCUm a rivalry. I don't for many reasons. One is, for me you'd have to add the word bitter in front of rivalry and even then, it doesn't work for me. Sure, I want to beat their heads in, but locality (which is important to a rivalry) has nothing to do with it. They've never done well in the MVC All-Sports either because they don't participate in enough sports or just do lousy in most of them or a combination. Yet they throw all their money/efforts in a few sports and go "look how great we are". I know one shouldn't judge a fan base on the minority, but I find them pompous and obnoxious. I could be totally off here, but having $1 beer night an hour before a "big" game and then sticking a Jesuit priest at the end of your bench, looks odd to me.
I think to have a quality sports rivalry it needs: close regional location, quality programs, and a healthy respect for each other. I think we had that with Tulsa. For me, Mo St meets it the closest now. If Ill St was located as close as these schools, they'd defintely be a good rival.Comment
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I see what you did there. ;-)Originally posted by 19SHOCKER76Comment
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CU will always be a rival to me, and SWOMO never will be. I've always felt like SWOMO is our little brother, even if they beat us, my mindset probably won't ever change.
As far as Illinois State goes, I think our friendship just stems from both fanbases being a decent size in St. Louis, and the schools are the only ones left to be "friends" with. I don't particularly like CU, SWOMO, SIU, or UNI or their fans. Indiana State, Evansville, and Drake might have nice and respectful fans but there's 15 people from each school in St. Louis. That doesn't make it very easy to build a bond.. I feel like we have a decent relationship with Bradley too, don't know if I'm off there or not.Comment
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Originally posted by AndShock
SWOMO has been our biggest rival for several years in my book. But that is probably because I follow baseball more than I do basketball.
But the reality is we don't have a true bitter hated rival like we had with Tulsa.Comment
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Hey guys -- great to see you supporting a fellow Examiner.
Examiner.com contacted me and I'm going to be returning as the Missouri Valley Basketball Examiner, working with guys like Sean and others from around the league to continue to promote the Shox and everyone else. I'm pretty excited -- I appreciated very much the support from Shox Nation when I was the Bradley Examiner.
Good luck this weekend!Visit the site with the most in-depth coverage of the Missouri Valley -- http://www.examiner.com/missouri-val...al/joseph-book
Follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/mvcexaminerjoeComment
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Awesome! I'll subscribe.Originally posted by electricmayhemComment
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I remember last year at Arch Madness, we were waiting in line for student section tickets for the Illinois state v.s Wichita state game and the guys that were in front of their line were down to earth/classy fans. We talked and drank for a couple of hours while waiting, they brought up how they wished they had baseball facilities and fans like we do and talked about trying to make a trip down for a 3 game series before they graduate. After we won the game they saw us on the way out and they walked over with a congrats. The next day they were back at the arena cheering on the Shockers.
They definitely earned respect from our group and got a few new Redbird Fans that weekend.Shox-4-LifeComment
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Actually I think all of o the Illinois schools as threats b/c of the massive amount of Div 1 talent in Illinois (mostly in Chicago).
If you look at the rosters for the good Creighton and UNI teams, you see how many good players they have from the upper midwest.
Yes, we have Texas, which is great, but it isn't the same as in-state talent.
I would add Bradley to the list of friendly rivals.Comment
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I will always feel love for Ill State to what they did to sCUm after the 1.9 incident.Comment
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