Non-conference thoughts
- Thread starter BackTheBirds
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ricohill said:
If I remember correctly, the board melted down after Belmont started 3 or 4 freshmen against us last year. Looking at their roster, looks like they are young and return pretty much everyone but the Windler kid.
ricohill
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My non-conference projections:
Belmont - Loss
Little Rock - Win
UCF - Win
Virgin Island Tournament - Loss, Win, Win
Purdue Northwest - Win
TCU - Loss
Morehead State - Win
Northern Kentucky - Win
UIC - Win
UTSA - Loss
Think we go 8-4 in non-conference.
Belmont - Loss
Little Rock - Win
UCF - Win
Virgin Island Tournament - Loss, Win, Win
Purdue Northwest - Win
TCU - Loss
Morehead State - Win
Northern Kentucky - Win
UIC - Win
UTSA - Loss
Think we go 8-4 in non-conference.
Meh, nothing to get excited about. Disappointed that we've fallen to the point that we're doing H&Hs with schools like NKU, but that's what happens when you don't move your program/dept forward. Depressing to see the potential of this university wasted like this.
Trey_Guidry4three
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ricohill said:
I say 6-6 in non conference which will include several losses we wouldn't expect and at least 1 win we will be surprised with. This is a good schedule retrospectively.... let's just hope someone like TCU or a matchup in the Virgin Island tourney have better than expected years so we can get a couple additional quality opponents.
TIMMY
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If that's the case it kinda shows the direction the MVC is headed and it ain't up.Adunk33 said:
Bird Friend
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Still better than a Jank schedule . . .
ChiRedbirdfan
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Adunk33 said:
Egad....they better be trending up as they were D2 not very long ago.
Have we reached a point where it’s not relevant to talk about the significance of non-con anymore? I think Doug Elgin took that from us by allowing the MoVal to become a low-major, one-bid, 15-seed league.
I think ISU could go 12-0 in noncon and not get an at-large if they lost 3-4 games in the Valley.
I guess we’re cheering for wins over Cincy and TCU.
Wins will come if the guards are better than last year. I think they’ll be a little better but not much.
I’ll say 6-6 in noncon. 7-11 in Valley. 13-17 overall. Hope they prove me wrong.
I think ISU could go 12-0 in noncon and not get an at-large if they lost 3-4 games in the Valley.
I guess we’re cheering for wins over Cincy and TCU.
Wins will come if the guards are better than last year. I think they’ll be a little better but not much.
I’ll say 6-6 in noncon. 7-11 in Valley. 13-17 overall. Hope they prove me wrong.
Bird Friend
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V Boy said:
Aren't we cheering for wins against all of our opponents? Just asking . . .
V Boy said:
Yes.... and, quite frankly we've reached a point where the MVC conference schedule is meaningless.
V Boy said:
There is only so much blame you can heap on Doug Elgin's shoulders. At the end of the day he just facilitates the wishes of the university presidents. Creighton and Wichita State made it be known they didn't want to go down this drain so they went a different direction, Illinois State's "leadership" is communicating their support for this decline, otherwise we'd be seeing them actively working to remedy the situation.
Bird Friend said:
I think we’re cheering for them team to get hot right before the Valley Tournament. Seems like not much else matters.
I applaud Muller for at least trying to schedule decently (unlike his predecessors), but he has never been able to recruit backcourt players who can beat the good noncon opponents. Last year I was at the ISU-UCF game and our backcourt players were completely overmatched. Not competitive.
Great at-large strategy on paper, but the strategy to recruit 6-4 and above players at the expense of going after the best players available regardless of size has been a fail.
We are no longer quicker, faster and more athletic than even the other Valley teams. We’re just bigger. And in a league where the best guards almost always win the league, Muller gets a grade of D here.
At any rate, the schedule is fine, but at this point I think the ISU home games crowd sizes will be mainly local. There’s decreasing reasons to drive down from Chicago to see home games. They just don’t lead to anything.
TheTruth said:
In some respects I don't think this is game a school like ISU can win in a state like Illinois where public universities are under a lot of pressure financially to spend wisely. ISU is probably doing ok as a university in part because it spends conservatively on athletics and it has kept up its standards academically which has maintained a healthy enrollment level. If the university went nuts on athletics and it didn't work it could probably damage the university's prospects overall.
The people who run the university in a relatively conservative town get all of this I think. They are never going to invest heavily in athletics. They are happy to be in a low-to-mid-major league and try to get their arenas two-thirds filled with mostly local fans.
My kids are 14 and 12 now. They used to want to head down to Normal with me for a game. That ship has now sailed. The program has never built any type of momentum. There are decreasing reasons to pay attention versus 10 years ago when the Valley was a legit league.
Ask yourselves, is there any real difference now between the MoVal and leagues like the MAC, Ohio Valley and Horizon? I think the gap is pretty tiny if there even is one. Valley is now measurably behind leagues like the A10, West Coast, American and Mountain West.....all of which are capable of getting 2-4 bids and all of whom have big-name programs in them. Who is the Valley's big-name program now? Loyola? Northern Iowa? Compare those to Gonzaga, St. Mary's, BYU....or VCU, Dayton and Davidson.....or UConn, Cincinnati and Wichita St.....or UNLV, San Diego St., Nevada and New Mexico.
The next important games for ISU (maybe) are six months away.....not three months. It's sad, but it's true.
V Boy said:
The issue is not really about the university investing heavily in athletics, it's about building the athletics dept, putting that dept in a position to see increased revenues and donations. Illinois State has never had anyone in charge of athletics that was able or willing to put the dept in that position and that's a shame because it was/is attainable. The amount of potential that Illinois State is leaving on the table is MINDBOGGLING.