Annual Missouri Valley bashing thread

What I want is for Evansville to bring back the jerseys with sleeves. Those were fucking awesome.

 

Part of the system was telling teams to stop playing St. Mary-of-the-Woods and play some actual half-decent Division I-A teams. And beat them. However, the system also works by not having too many games against the top, top teams. Having a few are OK, but too many and you're just a loser if you don't win 'em all.

That said, the more Wisconsin wins, the better Missouri State looks, and the better the conference RPI gets.

Anyway, part two IS the parity the league has. If everybody goes in with a winning record -- and a strong one at that -- then at least four teams can get enough conference wins to get to 20 wins, even if the conference record isn't spectacular. For an example of how a lack of parity can kill a conference, George Washington's run through the A-10 last year was great for itself, but killed the chance to get more than two or three bids for the conference overall.

Actually, the way the MVC schedules isn't all that different than the way big schools schedule.

 

A St.-Mary-of-the-Woods reference. Woo Hoo!

 

I'm envious of the people who have that great "second" tier of major-college basketball -- the MVCs, the WCCs, etc. The TV exposure isn't quite enough. There are a lot of spots around the country where the perception is that you have the super-conferences ... and then nothing. And those thinking that way miss so much.

I KNOW that people down our way are pretty clueless about the Evansvilles and SIUs of the world. They have no idea that this is a ticket worth something.

 

You wanna explain the MVC? It's called this: Few, if any, of them have any kind of inside game. Translated: Whoever gets the 3-buckets to drop, wins.

Watch any MVC game you want, and it's always three guys zipping it around behind the arc, trying to create a 3-point opportunity. That's the way you win anymore. That's the 3-point line.

Imagine if, say, a 20-yard touchdown were worth 8 points. Teams would cease to run the football.

 

Evansville is 9-2 at home.
Illinois State is 9-3 at home.
That's a combined 18-5. That means they win 78 percent of the time at home. So some good teams are going to get chewed up in that. And since the only good teams that will go to Evansville are in the Valley, only good Valley teams are vulnerable.
Virginia Tech, by the way, lost a road game to Marshall, which is 5-3 at home. The Hokies also lost on a neutral court to Western Michigan, which went out the next night and lost by 25 to West Virginia.
Straw man?

 

Great point.

Edit: Here's another reason the MVC is successful ... no league in the country keeps more players for four years longer than the Valley does. Patrick O'Bryant was an aberration last season, most schools can develop teams the old-fashioned way by progressing players along for four (or five) years.

 

Oddly enough, I think you sort of undercut your argument of MVC-as-major-conference by bringing this point up. The fact the MVC is more successful than bigger conferences at keeping players four years is that they're not attracting as many of the players that would seriously consider bailing before their senior year. I'm willing to bet the freshmen centers of the MVC will be on campus longer than Greg Oden, for example.

And really, most of the lower-level leagues probably do about as well in keeping its players for four years. I bet the Ivy and Patriot has a higher retention rate than the MVC, but guess who I'm taking in the MVC-Ivy Challenge?

 

It's simplistic to say the Valley makes more 3s and that's why they win. Bradley ranks fourth in the country in 3s made per game, and no other Valley team is in the top 50.

I know it's hard for people to admit, but the Valley is just a solid, solid basketball conference top to bottom.

 

This might be a bit simplistic, but maybe it's true ... do polished big men gravitate toward the power conferences, and the mid-majors tend to reel in more 6-11 projects?

 

Since when is bailing to the NBA the standard of how good a league is? I don't buy that at all.

And I should have stated my point better, no league with more talent keeps its players for four years more consistently than the MVC.

 

Of course it's a standard. If the NBA wants more of your players, you've generally got better players.