2025-26 Around The Valley

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TreeTop said:
I completely agree with you, almost.

As of even a week ago I would have completely agreed. But now, I'm starting to feel that Murray State is that team. The rest of the field will eat away at itself.

And...I hope I'm wrong and Murray piles up some losses.
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Murray is definitely going to be in the title race and they just might run away with it. But they have had a VERY favorable first 5 games in the valley. Their toughest on paper opponent was Bradley. Still havnt played ILSU, UNI, or Belmont which are the other top 3 programs. Basically the complete opposite of our early season schedule
 

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Watched the ESPN+ On Demand of Valpo vs Illinois State. The Ex-Crusaders led by 10-15 most of the game; however, Illinois State hit 6 or 7 straight shots to make it a game the last 4-5 minutes. But Valpo stormed back and handed the Redbirds the loss.

For Valpo, Dease and Pettigrew look to be a handful, and even Shon Tupuola, former SMWC Center, was impressive as he guarded Walker and held him in control most of the game w/o fouling. Considering how ISU Red dissected Indiana State in Normal, the Beacons will be a challenge.
 

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Both Belmont and UNI have good overall records and winning records in the MVC and both have terrible attendance tonight.

Kills me that if we had 10+ wins we’d definitely be getting 5000-6000+ at home games. We’re terrible and still get 4,500+.
 
UIC knocks off UNI at UNI. Murray is still undefeated but this is the first year in a LONG time that it seems like a bunch of bottom teams are knocking off the top half of the conference consistently.
 

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Crazy-enough, two teams (ILSU, UNI) are 4-3 in the standings, they’re currently the 4th and 5th spots. We’re two games behind.
 
Nah. The way they were playing gave me no reason to respect their effort. Now...."IF" they build on the effort from the ILSU game maybe I'll have a reason to respect them. We'll see........
 

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Huff77 said:
And...given our performance in the last two games...we might say our schedule starts to open up. Gotta find two road wins and avoid the home losses.
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yup we still have:
Valpo x2
Southern x2
UIC x2

Home UNI
Home Drake
Home Murray

Away Evansville
Away Belmont
Away Bradley

That's a pretty favorable back half of the schedule, maybe the most favorable in the league? But the MVC has shown that anybody can beat anybody and there are no off nights. We are going to have to play like we have the last 2 games, but I do think that there is a path to 5th with just how everyone is beating up on each other

But the best strategy to Arch is maybe just be on the opposite side of Murray? If they win the conference I could see an absolute load of Racer fans there
 
I'm honestly curious if this will be a 1-2 year run for Murray, or will they be able to keep up with the 7 figure NIL spending from here on out? College sports has become so volatile. We were on top of the world 2 seasons ago, but once big money starts calling everything can fall apart fast.
 
Dymotic said:
I'm honestly curious if this will be a 1-2 year run for Murray, or will they be able to keep up with the 7 figure NIL spending from here on out? College sports has become so volatile. We were on top of the world 2 seasons ago, but once big money starts calling everything can fall apart fast.
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I'm hoping this years NIL for Sycamores will become a baseline, & somehow improves (at least a little) each year.

That would be very encouraging for me as a fan.
 
Dymotic said:
I'm honestly curious if this will be a 1-2 year run for Murray, or will they be able to keep up with the 7 figure NIL spending from here on out? College sports has become so volatile. We were on top of the world 2 seasons ago, but once big money starts calling everything can fall apart fast.
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Depends how on many P5 pluck their players and how their coaching staff can identify talent and not miss in the portal.
 
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