Evansville isn't the only small thinker in my mind. Missouri State has no desire to retain a successful coach. I'm not sure what Drake can accomplish. UNI is solid, but I think they're essentially at their ceiling. They'll have to occasional at-large year and be consistent, but I'm not sure they can do more than they are. I don't know how dedicated Indiana State really is. I think Illinios State is probably too focused on football and just not sure they'll turn things around on the court. Muller seems to be doing his best to get them into trouble. SIU is in a rough spot after Lowery ruined their program.

I wasn't a fan of Loyola at all, but I do see the potential for success long term. I think they need to get rid of Moser though as he's proven to be a less than stellar coach. If they're committed to spending money to build up basketball I'll give them some time to see what they can accomplish.

With that said, I'd have rather gone after Murray, ORU and maybe Milwaukee/Green Bay. I know Milwaukee has had some financial issues and if they're beyond that, I'd be open to considering them. I also liked the thought of Denver. It's another private that's investing in basketball, but I've heard that the MVC wanted them to add baseball/softball as a condition for entering and they didn't want to. I do think if we do expand, or replace someone that leaves, we'll get another school that keeps the geography as tight as possible as travel costs seem to be more important than making the conference better.

I'm starting to warm up to the idea of NDSU and/or SDSU. They're newer to DI but have had some solid success and could probably improve with better conference affiliation. I doubt they're ever allowed in though. If the conference ever goes to 12, I'd expect ORU to get in. They make too much sense for the MVC. Valpo would probably get the nod as well although I'm personally less excited about them.

IF Missouri State ever does leave for football, like their fans have been claiming for the past 5 years, I think ORU gets the nod due to proximity to WSU for travel partner reasons. And if there were a way to do it, I'd like to bring New Mexico State in for everything but football. I believe they play football in the Sun Belt and everything else in the WAC. But they'd never get the votes needed due to distance.

And back to small thinkers, I think Elgin is one of them. He's done some good for the conference, but I think we'd do well to get some new blood there.