RPI & NET

[Stryker]

I can’t recall the MVC as a conference, having a lower NET ranking. Having six teams in the MVC that can’t crack into the top 200 is appalling. As a conference we are now behind the WCC, American, C-USA, WAC, A-10, Ivy (yes even the Ivy League) and Sun Belt. We are barely ahead of the Big West that is home to Jim Les’, Cal-Davis.

The conference is definitely in a sad state. Even BU, one of the top teams in the league, does not have a roster that passes the eye test against a power team imo. For instance, the 07-08' BU team would, in my opinion, stomp all over the current BU team, despite their 17 losses that year. The quality of players across the league has fallen over the past decade imo.

Valparaiso, UIC, Loyola (I know they are gone now) outside of 5-6 yrs, and Evansville are just terrible programs historically. Belmont and Murray St. are good programs but 15 years ago I would not have wanted them in the MVC as they were small conference schools, not really even mid-major. The MVC has lost Wichita, Creighton, Loyola (That I wasn't happy with joining the MVC in the first place, I think we got lucky they caught lightning in a bottle), and those solid teams got replaced with programs that are far, far worse. Combine this with historically mid-strong programs like BU, SIU, MoState etc being relatively down over the last decade, and here we are, the 15th best conference. The MVC should be a top 10 conference year to year imo. It is not that now.

I think the conference can improve and be decent in the future. Drake seems to be on a positive trend overall over the years, and ISUblue has been solid as well. There is no reason to think BU, SIU, MoState, & UNI will diminish anytime soon. Belmont, Murray St, and ISU should be better in the future as well. So there is hope the conference will continue to get stronger. I think the MVC will improve from here.

It is also hard dealing with the transfer and NIL rules. Once things normalize a bit on those fronts I think the MVC schools will gain some ground again as well.

[Bball31]

I hope Bradley can keep the program where it is now, if not improve it. Because of football, conference realignment is occurring more and more. It may not be long until schools like ISU-Red, MOST, SIU and UNI are courted by or seek to join conferences such as C-USA or the Sun Belt for football reasons. Right now none of their programs would be embarrassed in those leagues. When or if that time ever comes, we need to be sure our BU program is strong enough to have good options. Winning as we are this year can do that.

[LittleBrave]

The conference is definitely in a sad state. Even BU, one of the top teams in the league, does not have a roster that passes the eye test against a power team imo. For instance, the 07-08' BU team would, in my opinion, stomp all over the current BU team, despite their 17 losses that year. The quality of players across the league has fallen over the past decade imo.

I feel that this year's team is just as good as the '07-08 team, and quite a bit better than the 2019-'20 team that was pretty good.
We are deeper, have better inside play on defense and offense, better coached (IMO). Heck - Ja'Shon Henry, who has had a great career, comes off the bench!

I didn't have the luxury of seeing even 1/4 of the games in '08 though...but I've watched the majority of the Braves games in the past 6-7 seasons to believe this is the best team we've had in that span.
And we're comparing 3 sophomore guards this year who haven't reached their peak to 2-3 seniors on that team.

I'm not sure anyone could argue that year's team is up there with the 1996 team, or the 2006 Sweet 16 team, but they are one of the better teams all around in the past 20 seasons for the program.

Agree with you Stryker that the quality of the teams for sure has declined in the league, and the middle pack teams this year (Mo St., UNI, Murray) are not really that much of a threat to win Arch Madness with the frontrunners Drake and Bradley not as strong as past Valley champs IMO. BUT both teams are DANGEROUS and would hate to be a power-house and have to play them in the NCAA tournament!

[Da Coach]

Bradley's NET stayed at #63 for a few days, but yesterday's games resulted in Bradley dropping down to #66.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net-rankings

Drake- #72
Indiana St.- #92
Belmont- #118
SIU- #122
Missouri St.- #157
UNI- #210
Murray St.- #214
Illinois State- #271
Valparaiso- #281
UIC- #290
Evansville- #346

[Da Coach]

Bradley's NET stayed at #63 for a few days, but yesterday's games resulted in Bradley dropping down to #66.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net-rankings

Drake- #72
Indiana St.- #92
Belmont- #118
SIU- #122
Missouri St.- #157
UNI- #210
Murray St.- #214
Illinois State- #271
Valparaiso- #281
UIC- #290
Evansville- #346

Bradley's NET is down to #62 this morning-

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net-rankings

NET for MVC teams as of 2/20/23
Bradley #62
Drake- #72
Indiana St.- #93
Belmont- #119
SIU- #124
Missouri St.- #157
UNI- #210
Murray St.- #213
Illinois State- #271
Valparaiso- #282
UIC- #289
Evansville- #346

[Stryker]

Hadn't paid too much attention to NET this season, but man, half the MVC teams have a NET above #200. No wonder the conference is #15. Have to think UNI, Murray St. and ISU will improve on their numbers soon.

[BradleyBiz]

Just curious - do you think MVC leadership is putting any pressure on Evansville to turn it around in basketball? They have not been competitive in years and even the women's team has been at the bottom of the conference several years recently (I understand BU women's is there this year). This year in MBB especially, UE is ranked as one of the 20 worst D1 programs and is really dragging down the entire conference (especially without LUC offsetting it with a high NET ranking).

Do you think the MVC would ever ask Evansville to leave the conference if they remain this uncompetitive in the two major revenue sports? Or is that something that just does not happen unless there are disciplinary issues or a lack of institutional control?

[BUfan14]

What’s shocking to me is as of the last week or so Evansville was number two in the conference in home attendance, and number one among teams that were in the conference last year. Imagine if they were good? They are horrible and have been bad for years and it’s that good still? I want to know what they do to get people to games.

[Mikovio]

They shocked the world a few years ago beating #1 Kentucky and then their coach became embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal. If that didn’t happen who knows.

[BradleyBiz]

What’s shocking to me is as of the last week or so Evansville was number two in the conference in home attendance, and number one among teams that were in the conference last year. Imagine if they were good? They are horrible and have been bad for years and it’s that good still? I want to know what they do to get people to games.

I think they sold a lot of season tickets (probably at a discount) with the coaching change. They have 4400 or so listed as the attendance for nearly every game, but most games only have half that number actually show up.

[Stryker]

I think they sold a lot of season tickets (probably at a discount) with the coaching change. They have 4400 or so listed as the attendance for nearly every game, but most games only have half that number actually show up.

That's probably most of it, but it is also Indiana in the winter in a city with not much to do...I guess that argument could be made for the cities most of the MVC teams are located in, but I think Evansville may be the worst.

[Old Coach]

Just curious - do you think MVC leadership is putting any pressure on Evansville to turn it around in basketball? They have not been competitive in years and even the women's team has been at the bottom of the conference several years recently (I understand BU women's is there this year). This year in MBB especially, UE is ranked as one of the 20 worst D1 programs and is really dragging down the entire conference (especially without LUC offsetting it with a high NET ranking).

Do you think the MVC would ever ask Evansville to leave the conference if they remain this uncompetitive in the two major revenue sports? Or is that something that just does not happen unless there are disciplinary issues or a lack of institutional control?

I think you have to do more than be bad to run the risk of being kicked out of the league. Their men's soccer team finished 3rd in the fall, and the baseball team was picked 3rd in the pre-season poll. Granted, these sports aren't as important as basketball, but they are showing the ability to be competitive in other sports. The other thing that Evansville has to be cognizant of is not just their standing in the MVC, but also in their own city. With USI now competing at the D-I level, Evansville runs the risk of becoming even loss popular in their own town.

[Da Coach]

I think you have to do more than be bad to run the risk of being kicked out of the league. Their men's soccer team finished 3rd in the fall, and the baseball team was picked 3rd in the pre-season poll. Granted, these sports aren't as important as basketball, but they are showing the ability to be competitive in other sports. The other thing that Evansville has to be cognizant of is not just their standing in the MVC, but also in their own city. With USI now competing at the D-I level, Evansville runs the risk of becoming even loss popular in their own town.

University of Southern Indiana is already looking like a better team than cross-town Evansville. It is their first season as a D1, and they are a member of the Ohio Valley Conference (USI and Lindenwood were added to replace Murray State and Belmont). It will take a couple years to recruit better players, but they have a great history in Division II (National Champion in 1995, and 4 Final Fours), and they have not embarrassed themselves this season. They are 8-8 in the Summit (15-14 overall) and tied for 6th place out of 10 teams.
OVC Standings- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ngs/_/group/20

More impressively, they are 2-0 against the MVC (Evansville is 1-17), having easily beaten Southern Illinois in November, 71-53-

https://usiscreamingeagles.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2022-2023/southern-illinois-university/boxscore/10768

And they beat Indiana State in December, 88-85 in OT-

https://usiscreamingeagles.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2022-2023/indiana-state-university/boxscore/10650

They lost close games at Missouri (97-91) and at Notre Dame (82-70), and also have losses to Western Illinois, Chicago State, IPFW, SIUE, and EIU.
They are averaging a home attendance of 2,385, which is better than UIC, Valpo, and Belmont, and is better than Loyola was averaging when they joined the MVC.

[Da Coach]

A blogger who does NIT Bracketology-

https://thebarkingcrow.com/nit-bracketology/

He has both Drake and Bradley in the brackets. Bradley is designated as an auto-bid team (assumed to win MVC but will get an automatic NIT bid if loses tournament).

[Bball31]

A blogger who does NIT Bracketology-

https://thebarkingcrow.com/nit-bracketology/

He has both Drake and Bradley in the brackets. Bradley is designated as an auto-bid team (assumed to win MVC but will get an automatic NIT bid if loses tournament).

It is nice to see Bradley in the conversation for a post season tournament appearance. That is the result of winning over 20 games before the league season is over and being in first place heading into the final week. Having played well over the entire season, makes our chances of playing well in St.Louis much better. I prefer this much more, than finishing third, fourth or fifth and hoping we get lucky over a three day period in St.Louis. Multiple seasons like this, will bring back attendance and enhance recruiting.