(02-03-2018 10:53 PM)AndShock Wrote:  

(02-03-2018 10:45 PM)payday Wrote:  I think WSU may have swept the season. ISU isn’t the same team. Who would be your competition? Despite the occasional cat calls...I hope WSU rebounds and finishes the season strong.

Cincy fans have experienced many conference titles. Finished short in quite a few too. The titles are great. But in hoops...it’s all about making the big dance. And you get just as excited for it whether you win the conference or not. WSU has some work to do. But they’re capable.

Loyola is about what ISUr was last year. 4 teams are around 120 in KenPom which is right where Tulsa is. Tulsa went 0-2 against #148 MVC team. SMU went 0-1 against #152 MVC team. That looks like more than 1 loss to me if we were still there.

The transitive property doesn’t work like that in hoops. The aac games are tougher because the league has better athletes, the play is more physical, the travel is harder, and the teams are better overall. That means the league schedule is going to be more of a grind, as there aren’t as many games where you can just show up and out-athlete people.

I know you guys like to bring up the fact that Loyola beat Florida, and Tulsa and SMU lost to MVC teams—but those are one-off non-conference games. To wit, SMU is 2-0 against the PAC 12 (to 2 top 30 RPI teams), but they are 5-5 against the AAC. Does that tell you anything about how easy SMU would blas through a PAC 12 schedule? Nope.

What WSU is dealing with this year is adjusting to a different style of basketball with different refs, traveling further to new cities and new arenas they aren’t used to.

There is very little question in my mind you would have gone through the valley with one loss at most and won the MVC tournament this year.