2023-24 Around The Valley

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Bradley and Evansville both in the top 6 in RPI as of this posting. The metric doesn't really seem to like us too much yet as we're 100th.

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Missouri State only up 8 with about 11 to go. I can have a feeling the "fire dana" thread just got bumped
 
Belmont with an OT win over Penn (Penn beat a 6-1 Villanova team for the line loss)

Missouri states pulls away and wins easily

Aces throttle SEMO again

Valor beats southern

Valley is 4-0 so far today with a couple more to go
 

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Huff77 said:
My favorite ref crew is Des Moines tonight.
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I would prefer lady bird to not make her way over for our game on Tuesday. I remember her blowing her whistle several times in the 2nd half of last years SIU home game and not one of them in our favor.

I’m looking forward to taking them back behind the shed this week.
 
Drake hangs on to win by 6

Bradley up 51-44 on Vermont in the second half. Would be a nice win for the Braves.
 
I’m going to Bradley game next Saturday…should be fun! Bradley def looks the part. They’ve beat some good teams
 

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I have zero idea how good teams are or aren't anymore after watching a ton of hoops this week. Watched UIC/GW a little bit ago and expected GW to walk away but UIC just took them to the woodshed. I've also watched several MMs dominate HMs and either the transfer portal has brought parity or there is something else going on.
 
Side note: Northern Illinois aka NIU is 5-1 with a game coming against Northwestern before us. Probably going to be tough out at their place.
 
Jason Svoboda said:
I have zero idea how good teams are or aren't anymore after watching a ton of hoops this week. Watched UIC/GW a little bit ago and expected GW to walk away but UIC just took them to the woodshed. I've also watched several MMs dominate HMs and either the transfer portal has brought parity or there is something else going on.
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I think college football is a different beast, but as far as college bball goes the transfer portal seems to have leveled the playing field. The rich will always be rich and get the top recruits but I think instead of having that 4 or 3 star recruit be their 10-13th man and ride the bench they are more likely to transfer somewhere immediate playing time is available. So now, instead of a school like UIC or Evansville having a long, slow, rebuild they have a hyper-influx of talent because they can guarantee starter role/minutes to someone that would normally be getting 5 MPG at a higher level, hence leveling the playing field.

You are always going to have transfer ups that are looking for a ticket to the NCAA tournament or championship type team like Key, Domask, Jones, Reeves, etc. But I'm willing to bet guys 9-13 on P6 rosters are not nearly as good as they once were because they are now scattered around on MM rosters getting starter minutes.

I know Schertz said in the off-season it was extremely difficult to find a center in the portal (he never really did) because he already has Avila and it's tough to sell being a back-up to a sophomore.


A lot can happen and can happen quick but it will be interesting to see if we even land a transfer this off-season. I know we are currently 1 over the limit, but on paper our starting 5 is back next year; that's a tough sell.
 
2 games on top today

12:00 Belmont takes on a bad 0-5 Lafayette team. Lafayette lost to Pepperdine by 20

7:00 UIC takes on a real good UNCG team. UNCG has a win vs top 25 Arkansas. Will be interesting to see how this one turns out. Would be one of the Valleys best wins of the flames pull it out
 

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treeman said:
2 games on top today

12:00 Belmont takes on a bad 0-5 Lafayette team. Lafayette lost to Pepperdine by 20

7:00 UIC takes on a real good UNCG team. UNCG has a win vs top 25 Arkansas. Will be interesting to see how this one turns out. Would be one of the Valleys best wins of the flames pull it out
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I’m interested to see how UIC plays against Greensboro. UNCG is a top-100 team and would be most likely a top-5 team in the Valley. While UIC has taken care of business admirably and they’ve looked fairly balanced and impressive, they haven’t faced a murderers row of teams just yet. Other than Cincinnati, which UIC lost to, this is their toughest opponent.
 
treeman said:
I think college football is a different beast, but as far as college bball goes the transfer portal seems to have leveled the playing field. The rich will always be rich and get the top recruits but I think instead of having that 4 or 3 star recruit be their 10-13th man and ride the bench they are more likely to transfer somewhere immediate playing time is available. So now, instead of a school like UIC or Evansville having a long, slow, rebuild they have a hyper-influx of talent because they can guarantee starter role/minutes to someone that would normally be getting 5 MPG at a higher level, hence leveling the playing field.

You are always going to have transfer ups that are looking for a ticket to the NCAA tournament or championship type team like Key, Domask, Jones, Reeves, etc. But I'm willing to bet guys 9-13 on P6 rosters are not nearly as good as they once were because they are now scattered around on MM rosters getting starter minutes.

I know Schertz said in the off-season it was extremely difficult to find a center in the portal (he never really did) because he already has Avila and it's tough to sell being a back-up to a sophomore.


A lot can happen and can happen quick but it will be interesting to see if we even land a transfer this off-season. I know we are currently 1 over the limit, but on paper our starting 5 is back next year; that's a tough sell.
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Not expecting too much activity in the portal this year for us. I assume all of the players that have transferred once already will be less likely to enter the portal. We have no idea how many will leave here; but, if we have a good year I wouldn't expect too many unless someone is unable to compete with the top 8 and the freshmen.
With the three that we have signed, does anyone else think we are too big and short on playmaking guards? Larry could retire and doesn't that leave us with no pure PG?
 
opening night for the rest of the valley: All games starting at 8

Evansville @ Missouri State: I know MSU is down some starters but should be an interesting game to see how Evansville looks against an athletic team

Bradley @ Murry State: Trap game for Bradley? No doubt they saw what we did last night and might be looking forward to saturdays match-up.

Belmont @ Northern Iowa: Belmont has looked like a near bottom team (cant believe i'm typing that) and UNI has had a tough schedule. This one will probably leave us with more questions than answers.

Drake @ Valpo: Valpo has shown signs of life. But if Drake is who they think they are, they should handle the beacons easily. One of the posters on their board said "you could not have drawn up a more difficult start for valley play." :rolleyes: Going against the unanimous last place team is a hand no one wants to be delt :LOL:
 
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