MVC semifinals

[Vent]

I have tried to do a little research- Note that Wichita State's RPI dropped to 46 after they lost to UNI today. I cannot find a single instance where an MVC ever got an at-large bid with an RPI worse than about 40.
Missouri State failed to get a bid in 2006 with an RPI of 21- which is still the record for best RPI team not to land an at-large bid since the RPI was invented 35 years ago.
It is rare for any midmajor to get an at-large bid with an RPI below 40.

So it all comes down to how many bids go to undeserving teams that upset someone and win their conference tournaments.


By the way- Evansville pulled away and lead by as much as 30 points before settling for a 68-42 win over Indiana State-

http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400870043

This might hurt the attendance a little tomorrow, but it will be UNI vs. Evansville for the MVC Championship-

https://twitter.com/MVCsports/status/706287731970736128

I agree totally. This has to be a dagger to the heart of the people paying the bills, from an attendance standpoint. The attendance tomorrow may be embarrassing to see on national television. I also believe Wichita will only get a bid, if there are not a lot of upsets in post season conference tournaments. They did not finish very strong, in a conference that really was not that strong this season.

[braves16]

I agree totally. This has to be a dagger to the heart of the people paying the bills, from an attendance standpoint. The attendance tomorrow may be embarrassing to see on national television. I also believe Wichita will only get a bid, if there are not a lot of upsets in post season conference tournaments. They did not finish very strong, in a conference that really was not that strong this season.

WSU finished 7-3 in their last 10 games.

[tornado]

I agree totally. This has to be a dagger to the heart of the people paying the bills, from an attendance standpoint...

sure - but one redeeming factor is that the several thousands of Wichita fans who were in St. Louis all had their tickets purchased for Sunday in advance...
So, they won't sell as many hot dogs but those tickets were sold.

[tornado]

here's something interesting...Kirk Wessler has a column that I presume will be in Sunday's paper in which he "discovers" a handful of things...

-that many of the MVC's teams had weak schedules
-that the weak schedules (SOS) lead to a weakening of the league's RPI
-so, duhhh...the MVC is a lot weaker this year than any time recently
-that Wichita might get snubbed because of their weak overall Strength of Schedule
-and that it would behoove the entire Valley for teams with weak scheduling to do better - especially the teams that have repeatedly scheduled so badly like ISU in the recent past & SIU, Evansville, Missouri State, Loyola, & Drake this year.

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20160305/wessler-strength-of-schedule-weakness-for-missouri-valley?rssfeed=true&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

hmmm... all this sure sounds familiar....now where have we heard all this since last fall?



One more thing- this picture is priceless....thankfully the kid isn't flashing the haggard old obscene Wichita hand gesture towards the camera.

[Vent]

WSU finished 7-3 in their last 10 games.

In my opinion, finishing 7-3 is not a strong finish for them in the Valley.

[Vent]

sure - but one redeeming factor is that the several thousands of Wichita fans who were in St. Louis all had their tickets purchased for Sunday in advance...
So, they won't sell as many hot dogs but those tickets were sold.

Yes there were several Wichita fans that had tickets purchased for today. However, I would guess there were not as many people from Wichita hanging around the restaurants and bars last night spending money. The same applies for today. I would guess there are not as many people from Wichita eating breakfast at restaurants in St. Louis today. With Wichita losing, I believe the city of St. Louis is losing out on a lot of revenue.

[tornado]

I am proud of the strong & vocal Bradley contingent - met many people from outside Peoria who had made the trip ...

from Missouri but also from Virginia, Texas, and elsewhere...
notable was the complete absence of the small but ever vocal core of fans who barked incessantly about getting rid of JL then letting Cross/Glasser drag the program into the abyss.

[bigjimmy]

It's possible most of the Wichita fans stayed until this morning since their rooms would have paid through this morning. There are even some of their fans at the game but it sure was a lot easier getting in the arena without the throng of Shocker fans. Both Evansville and UNI crowds are noticeable bigger.

[tornado]

agree - the UE & UNI fans definitely showed up in great numbers..
let's hope that's us next year!

[GoBUBraves98]

I had all-session tickets, and I will say that even though Indiana State was being blown out early on, I was impressed with how their small crowd stayed to the end. They acted like they were asleep, but at least they stayed.