Dan Muller is my hero

[WSpringsBird]

scheduling is hard - that's nothing new - I found 2 dozen times we discussed that very thing in some thread over the past decade...
but my point is - why just use that argument now...?
we've known this fact for eons...you just gotta try to get the job done...
why do they have only the 5th strongest non-conference schedule in the MVC? They knew this was a special year with the best shot at having a solid team..


Note ISU's NON-CONFERENCE Strength of Schedule was 150 but their overall SOS was 123...
so it actually got BETTER playing the Valley opponents they are trying to blame..
If there's something about their schedule to blame it is their NON-CONFERENCE schedule - the part they are entirely 100% responsible for.

Minor point: The various sites differ as to ISU's strength of schedule for the conference season. For example, ESPN.com says it is 161. Intuitively, it doesn't make sense to me that ISU's conference strength of schedule could be better than 123, given that eight of the nine teams they played in the MVC have RPIs between 145 and 314, and only two had winning Division 1 records.

But anyway, in terms of blaming the Valley opponents, I have listened to a number of Muller's recent interviews. I haven't heard him blame other MVC teams. In fact, he is complimentary of them. I have heard many of the bracketologists say that the MVC's weakness kept them from putting ISU in their brackets, among them Jay Bilas, Jerry Palm, and Joe Lunardi. The committee wants to see top 100 wins. As Palm pointed out, not that long ago we could have expected four or five MVC teams to be ranked in the top 100. Now we have two. If Wichita leaves the conference, next year we might have zero.

As for ISU's non-conference schedule, it was ranked in the top 50 in early 2017. You can look historical information on RealtimeRPI. Several of the teams faltered in conference play. For example, St. Joe's, which almost made the Sweet 16 last year, lost its two best players to injury. New Mexico underperformed. Murray State has declined since ISU set up the series with them. As Coach Wardle pointed out, you often set up these games a year or two in advance. Sometimes the opponents don't turn out to be as good as you'd hoped. By contrast, last year ISU got incredibly lucky with some of its matchups and had the seventh-rated non-conference strength of schedule in the nation. In general, Muller as scheduled as aggressively as he can--a welcome change from the Jankovich years. I believe ISU's non-conference schedule will be very strong next year, unless we catch bad breaks again. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll have the team to capitalize on that.

If the conference had been better or ISU had been luckier with its non-conference schedule, I can't say we would have gotten an at-large bid. We just don't know how that would have played out. I do know, though, that if there are only three MVC teams with winning records against D-1 opponents--and one of them is apparently about to leave us--no matter how good the non-conference scheduling is, we are going to be a one-bid league most years. I'd like to see all of the MVC teams--not just ISU--have better chances than that.

[tornado]

I find it sickening that ANY MVC fans would have a problem with Dan Muller calling out the BS that is scheduling

but isn't that what you just did when you trashed Loyola and blamed their weakness for why the Valley is so bad?

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=825121659&postcount=1

Anyway, he may be creating a huge, unnecessary distraction...and maybe setting himself and his team up for quite an embarrassment.
It's a little bit like spending all the time complaining about the refs and forgetting to coach your own team...
This is what the Wichita people have been doing - endlessly complaining about the weakness of their schedule and now they want to leave the MVC,
so Muller is doing the same thing?
They are the #1 seed, should be heavily favored but can you not see how the pressure goes up 10-fold now on his own team...
just how foolish are they going to look if they get the best seed, play a home game if they lose to a far lesser opponent?

[WSpringsBird]

but isn't that what you just did when you trashed Loyola and blamed their weakness for why the Valley is so bad?

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=825121659&postcount=1

Anyway, he may be creating a huge, unnecessary distraction...and maybe setting himself and his team up for quite an embarrassment.
It's a little bit like spending all the time complaining about the refs and forgetting to coach your own team...
This is what the Wichita people have been doing - endlessly complaining about the weakness of their schedule and now they want to leave the MVC,
so Muller is doing the same thing?
They are the #1 seed, should be heavily favored but can you not see how the pressure goes up 10-fold now on his own team...
just how foolish are they going to look if they get the best seed, play a home game if they lose to a far lesser opponent?

There's a long history of higher-seeded NIT teams losing in the first round. We've already seen Cal and Clemson lose this year. This is usually attributed to the disappointment of missing the NCAA tourney. I'm not sure how ISU will respond, but given how a couple of the players reacted to the pressure of the MVC championship game, I have concerns.

[tornado]

I want them to win and make a run so there's no doubt about the MVC teams being worthy

BU made such a run in 1982 and it was glorious!!
Just maybe some other MVC benefitted as a result down the road..

[pfcmsh]

Me Too

I want them to win and make a run so there's no doubt about the MVC teams being worthy

BU made such a run in 1982 and it was glorious!!
Just maybe some other MVC benefitted as a result down the road..

ISU deserved to be in the NCAA. I hate what happened to them. I am going to root for them because they are a Valley team. I feel we should all get behind them as I would want them to be behind us if history repeats. I will be rooting for Wichita State too. Do I like everything about either school? No, but they still deserve my support because they play in the Valley.

[bradleyfan124]

I want them to win and make a run so there's no doubt about the MVC teams being worthy

BU made such a run in 1982 and it was glorious!!
Just maybe some other MVC benefitted as a result down the road..

I remember 1982. The NCAA punished Versace and Bradley for Versace criticizing referees. So they kept them from the tournament. They were hoping they would lose in the NIT. I remember they played up the Syracuse game as The Big East vs the Big Mouth. Versace stuck it to them. He won!!!!!!

[Da Coach]

I remember 1982. The NCAA punished Versace and Bradley for Versace criticizing referees. So they kept them from the tournament. They were hoping they would lose in the NIT. I remember they played up the Syracuse game as The Big East vs the Big Mouth. Versace stuck it to them. He won!!!!!!

For criticizing referees?
Bradley got screwed, but I never heard that it was about criticism of referees.

[bradleyfan124]

For criticizing referees?
Bradley got screwed, but I never heard that it was about criticism of referees.

Wasn't there a game that year they were playing a team in Hawaii or California and they refereeing was so bad that after the game Versace grabbed one of the referees whistles and threw it into the stands

[Da Coach]

Yes, it was a referee named Lary Yamashita, a well known official who did games on the West coast for many years. He called a completely phantom foul in the Rainbow Tournament in Hawaii on a Bradley player who was not within 10 feet of the player, and it cost Bradley the game. Versace charged the official grabbed his whistle, and threw it into the crowd. But I had never heard the theory that the NCAA tournament snub was possibly payback for that.

[tornado]

it was well known that Dave Gavitt, the head of the NCAA Selection Committee was not a fan of Dick Versace and probably exerted his bias...
Bradley got left out when Boston College was given an at large bid.

[Da Coach]

it was well known that Dave Gavitt, the head of the NCAA Selection Committee was not a fan of Dick Versace and probably exerted his bias...
Bradley got left out when Boston College was given an at large bid.

A bit more history-
Dave Gavitt was the chairman of the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee in 1982 which selected Boston College as an at-large team for the NCAA Tournament over Bradley despite Bradley having a clearly better case.
Gavitt was also the Commissioner of the Big East Conference at that time, and Boston College was a member of the Big East. He helped engineer Boston College getting into the NCAA Tournament at Bradley's expense.
Boston College was the 4th place team in the Big East with a conference record of 8-6, and at that time it was rare for any conference to get 4 teams in the NCAA. Bradley won the MVC that year with a 13-3 record, and finished that season 26-10.

[tornado]

...

And you probably saw that Ole Miss responded to Muller's tweet.

http://www.redcuprebellion.com/2017/...er-torrey-ward

well, Dan Muller's Twitter rant about scheduling has finally paid off...

Ole Miss will come to Redbird Arena to play the Redbirds on December 8

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/ole/sports/m-baskbl/auto_storywide/13330100.jpeg

[Mikovio]

Ole Miss came to Bradley a couple years ago so it's not clear to me that public rant was necessary.

[PurpleAceFan]

Ole Miss came to Bradley a couple years ago so it's not clear to me that public rant was necessary.

Regardless, ISUr has a home schedule for next year that is looking pretty strong with San Diego State, Mississippi, BYU, and Florida Gulf Coast all coming to Redbird Arena. Good for them to have some name-value schools at home. Certainly better than my Aces have had recently, although hopefully Coach Walter will change that. Here's hoping Bradley also gets some better teams on the home schedule soon. Been pretty rough the past few years.

[tornado]

yeah- no denying they are putting together a year with a very strong home schedule...
ISU will probably have to go back to Ole Miss & BYU the following year and have a lot of other tough road games but Muller is banking everything on this season then jump to one of the open major-conference coaching openings next spring...
but there's two big steps left -
first - gotta hope those guys are Top-75, and no guarantee any of them will be - FGCU (they lose a massive amount of their production) & Ole Miss will be rebuilding under new coaches..
..then they need to win those games at home vs. the Quadrant-1 teams - a loss will not help them much

Their non-conference slate was ranked #20 this past year and they didn't even get an NIT bid