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Jealous of other Exempt Tourneys for Valley Schools

C

chitown fanatic

New member
I cant help but feel a little jealousy towards Wichita for capitalizing on their sweet 16 success more than we have. While Vegas was nice, Massachusetts was a complete letdown and beyond ridiculous how poorly it was organized, lack of TV, etc. I know there were whispers that "we'd be happy" with where we're going next year, but I'd sure like to here we're going somewhere like Wichita has lined up this year and in the years to come(puerto Rico for them next year)
 
I agree on the exempt tournaments. WSU has played in the Old Spice Classic, CBE Classic, and now the Maui Invitational, all with national coverage on 'the network'. We've gotten 2 cracks at the Illini and a trip to South Padre, but no tournaments with any real national coverage.
 
To be fair, these aren't easy tourneys to crack into. Only one or two Valley schools a year get into a significant tournament, so if you're constantly picked to go 4th or 5th in your conference ;) you won't get an invitation.

Of course, it could always be worse. We could be Illinois St ;) and doing the tournaments they do.
 
I Know, but reading the comments from the tourney organizers about Wichita's great tradition and following made me laugh. They made a big deal about 300 people showing up last year when BU easily surpasses that number- heck, at Vegas last year, there were at least 500 people there, we had two charter flights alone and a helluva lot more tradition than Shucker basketball. Exposure to your program cant be understated. When you're forced to endure pay per view low quality streaming and an undesirable destination, you cant help but wonder if the effort is really being put in to land us in better tournaments. Wichita was 7th and then 2nd last year, so that really doesnt explain 4 straight marquee exempt tourneys from 2008-2011 and counting.
 
chitown fanatic said:
I Know, but reading the comments from the tourney organizers about Wichita's great tradition and following made me laugh. They made a big deal about 300 people showing up last year when BU easily surpasses that number- heck, at Vegas last year, there were at least 500 people there, we had two charter flights alone and a helluva lot more tradition than Shucker basketball. Exposure to your program cant be understated. When you're forced to endure pay per view low quality streaming and an undesirable destination, you cant help but wonder if the effort is really being put in to land us in better tournaments. Wichita was 7th and then 2nd last year, so that really doesnt explain 4 straight marquee exempt tourneys from 2008-2011 and counting.
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Yes. But the biggest qualifier ESPN looks for is "competitive guarantee" in rounding out its fields. The Maui field is generally determined a year and a half in advance. When Wichita started playing in these events, they were not just some fly-by-night Sweet 16 team.

From 2003-06, they never finished outside the top 3 in the league, won the regular season MVC title and in the early going of 2007 were in the Top 10 in the polls following their 9-0 start. And though they bottomed out during their run of tourneys...they showed tremendous promise in getting back to the top.

You want credibility, you must earn it.

To compare Wichita to Bradley in that purview is laughable. I don't care that they may have had 1 or 2 random lower finishes. Consistently, they've been better.
 
Is this where "we don't care what goes on at other programs"? Cause sometimes we care and sometimes we don't. :doubt:
 
MacabreMob said:
Is this where "we don't care what goes on at other programs"? Cause sometimes we care and sometimes we don't. :doubt:
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There is a difference between caring what goes on with other programs and caring about how your program does competitively vs. other programs.

I don't care how many fans Team X has, how many DUI's Team X has, how many cupcakes Team X has. I do care my team finishes ahead of Team X. And if another program in our league is getting competitive benefits we're not because of incompetence.
 
squirrelgotdead said:
There is a difference between caring what goes on with other programs and caring about how your program does competitively vs. other programs.

I don't care how many fans Team X has, how many DUI's Team X has, how many cupcakes Team X has. I do care my team finishes ahead of Team X. And if another program in our league is getting competitive benefits we're not because of incompetence.
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+1....(don't forget speeding tickets too)
 
squirrelgotdead said:
I don't care how many fans Team X has, how many DUI's Team X has, how many cupcakes Team X has. I do care my team finishes ahead of Team X.
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You don't think how your program is run in regards to DUIs, attendance, and schedule is important? How can you even say that? Everything, EVERYTHING is relative. If Bradley cheated, recruited thugs, let players get DUI's and didn't care about attendance then we could probably do better, but it's about a lot more than that. To understand why BU basketball is so great, you have to have something to relate it to. ILSU's win record may look gaudy at times, but they're cupcakes, part of SIU's problem now is they let their recruiting standards drop, and to understand what BU is up against recruiting you have to hear the tactics the big guys use. If you really can live in a bubble and pretend none of that affects BU or matters, great, everything will appear much simpler, but many of us believe there is a much bigger picture and there is more that affects BU's success than BU alone. So, I do care about what other teams do.
 
squirrelgotdead said:
... I don't care how many fans Team X has, how many DUI's Team X has, how many cupcakes Team X has. I do care my team finishes ahead of Team X.
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And a lot of that is driven by what I call "tornado-hate".

We could win the MVC undefeated, sweep in St Louis, get a #9 seed, lose first round in the NCAA - all while building up 30+ wins on cupcakes, having fewer fans, marred with multiple DUI's... AND THEN we'd hear how teams didn't finish as well as we did BUT they had a tougher schedule, had more fans, and no DUI's.

:roll:

It's endless.

All that and the "tornado-hate"

:lol:
 
amckillip said:
You don't think how your program is run in regards to DUIs, attendance, and schedule is important? How can you even say that? Everything, EVERYTHING is relative. If Bradley cheated, recruited thugs, let players get DUI's and didn't care about attendance then we could probably do better, but it's about a lot more than that. To understand why BU basketball is so great, you have to have something to relate it to. ILSU's win record may look gaudy at times, but they're cupcakes, part of SIU's problem now is they let their recruiting standards drop, and to understand what BU is up against recruiting you have to hear the tactics the big guys use. If you really can live in a bubble and pretend none of that affects BU or matters, great, everything will appear much simpler, but many of us believe there is a much bigger picture and there is more that affects BU's success than BU alone. So, I do care about what other teams do.
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BU HAS cheated, recruited a few that turned out to be thugs and have had players that drank underage over the years. Those are just the facts.....I think thats why MANY don't want to here about speeding tickets at ISU and drinking problems at SIU.

I don't think ISU, SIU, BU or ANY Valley team intentionally recruits lawbreakers, drunks or trouble makers. But kids do things and get in trouble. BU isn't immune to this stuff and over the years has had some problems.

Personally I don't believe for a moment that ANY Valley University has a competitive advantage or has gained a competitive advantage over BU due to the recruitment of thugs and by "allowing players to get DUI's" ( not even sure how an school allows a player to get a DUI).....over the years.

Like Squirrel said.....you want to talk on-the-court performance thats fine but if we have to say BU good ISU bad becuase they have more parking ticket scoflaws...MEH.....don't care.
 
dogsrus said:
Those are just the facts.....I think thats why MANY don't want to here about speeding tickets at ISU and drinking problems at SIU.
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Then ask your golfing pal(s) at the Urinal Jar to share that insight with ALL of it's readers. There are a ton of back-woods farmers and little old ladies in and around the Peoria area who have never heard of Bradleyfans.com, tornado, or even the internet. But they live and die on what the paper tells them to be the gospel. And if the Urinal Jar never writes about how it is just as bad if not worse elsewhere (a disservice to their 'dying' subscribers), they will never know Bradley is just as good if not better than what their readers perceive to be holy and clean programs.
 
MacabreMob said:
Then ask your golfing pal(s) at the Urinal Jar to share that insight with ALL of it's readers. There are a ton of back-woods farmers and little old ladies in and around the Peoria area who have never heard of Bradleyfans.com, tornado, or even the internet. But they live and die on what the paper tells them to be the gospel. And if the Urinal Jar never writes about how it is just as bad if not worse elsewhere (a disservice to their 'dying' subscribers), they will never know Bradley is just as good if not better than what their readers perceive to be holy and clean programs.
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No.....


Wessler-hate......its endless.
 
dogsrus said:
BU HAS cheated, recruited a few that turned out to be thugs and have had players that drank underage over the years. Those are just the facts.....I think thats why MANY don't want to here about speeding tickets at ISU and drinking problems at SIU.

I don't think ISU, SIU, BU or ANY Valley team intentionally recruits lawbreakers, drunks or trouble makers. But kids do things and get in trouble. BU isn't immune to this stuff and over the years has had some problems.

Personally I don't believe for a moment that ANY Valley University has a competitive advantage or has gained a competitive advantage over BU due to the recruitment of thugs and by "allowing players to get DUI's" ( not even sure how an school allows a player to get a DUI).....over the years.

Like Squirrel said.....you want to talk on-the-court performance thats fine but if we have to say BU good ISU bad becuase they have more parking ticket scoflaws...MEH.....don't care.
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Come on! You make us sound like we have Calvin Sampson or Bob Huggins coaching our team and recruiting a team of jack-booted thugs! I believe we have had stand-up players for the most part recruited by Les, and the few that did get in trouble have been dealt with swiftly in a stern manner. I think we are better than some of the so-called "squeakly clean" teams as was mentioned in a post above. I do agree though that very few teams are immune to this, but I don't think we have done that bad character wise, especially in comparison with other teams in this state alone.
 
Let's just face it: SIU, Creighton, Wichita St, UNI, and even Drake have had peaks in the MVC in recent years. Bradley has not. And in order to get invited to a major tournament, you need to be the 1 or 2 best teams from the Valley the year before, or projected to be 1 or 2 in the upcoming season. Bradley is always in the upper half, but since we're never 1 or 2, we'll lose out the major invites to other MVC schools (WSU) and to other top-notch mid-majors (to cite one example for this year, Old Dominion getting their invite to the Paradise Jam for being projected CAA champ this year and making the NCAA tournament last year).

Bradley only had one year where they could be in a position to get a big tourney: after 2006. We parlayed it into a neutral with Illinois, which is good. But outside of 2006, we've been outside the top 3 in the Valley the year before, and not projected to be in the top 2 the following year. You're not getting invites to major tournaments when that happens, no matter what. And even in 2007, after our Sweet 16 run, Wichita St kinda stole our thunder by doing the same thing, and winning the conference to boot.

I know the media likes to harp that mid-majors get their one true chance to boost their non-con resume against the big-boys, but it turns out you need to be elite enough to sit at the table to get those chances to begin with. Only the elite mid-majors (the ones that least need the help) get the most help with these big tourneys.
 
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