CSNbbs

While at first I was royally pissed off about the addition, I'm cautiously optimistic about it now. Their minor sports as a whole should be fairly competitive inside the MVC and I think men's basketball will surprise some people. I don't have all of the numbers in front of me, but they were an extremely young team last year and started out pretty solid. They had a couple of key injuries which put more pressure on the FR to play and while they lost a number of close games, it had to be a valuable experience for them.

I want to say that most of their losses were by no more than a couple of possessions and I believe 7 or so of those were one possession games. It's not uncommon for young teams to struggle winning those types of games so the fact that they were competitive and in those says a lot. I know the Horizon isn't the MVC, but I think a lot of us have been selling them short. ISU fans may disagree, but I think Porter Moser is a pretty good recruiter and not a bad coach. He's surrounded him with a staff that should be pretty strong in the Chicago area and they have strong IL and IN connections. I'm actually a little excited to see how their recruiting goes over the next couple of season.

I also won't be surprised if they're not playing on Thursday come tournament time. And if Moser can pull in a couple of strong classes the next couple of years, they could look to be an upper half team in year 2 or 3. I'll admit that they get some help with SIU being so down right now and UE and ISU losing a lot this past season, but I think they're set up to have a chance. Time will tell how far they go or how long it'll take, but I think the Presidents had a lot more info than we did and saw all of the potential. And none of this has mentioned the academic side of things or the financial support they're putting into the athletic department.

It will take them a while but they have the resources to eventually compete. They need to develop a gimmick like Evansville's art of flopping if they are going to win any games next year.

Don't sell them too short. They'll have their struggles as they're a very young team but they should finish no worse than 8th and potentially as high as 5. Personally, I have them finishing 6th this season. I had them 9th or 10th when first announced they were joining.

I'm very interested to see how things shape up this year. The only two guarantees I'll make are that Wichita finishes first, and Southern finishes last.

Doesn't their coach kind of suck?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/spor...0410.topic

Has the Chicago Tribune always had a section for the MVC? If that coverage is due to the Loyola addition that would be huge.

(07-29-2013 07:52 PM)Angrywheat=ftw= Wrote: [ -> ]Doesn't their coach kind of suck?

I wouldn't go as far as saying he sucks. He's a very good recruiter and was fired from ISU the year before they were expected to make their splash. They fired Moser and hired Jank and he didn't produce with the likes of Osiris Elridge and Champ Oguchi. And he never managed to do anything worthwhile with Carmichael and company. But this isn't about Jank.

I think Moser will improve Loyola quite a bit. His ISU teams were pretty competitive in the MVC but never quite got over the hump. He had an NCAA worthy team that would have been dancing had they not got their asses handed to them in the MVC championship game against Drake. That said, I assume he's learned a few things at his stops since then as an assistant and he seems to have really upgraded the Loyola talent the last couple of years. Most of their big contributers this season will be freshmen and sophomores along with a junior or two. I'm optimistic about Loyola and Moser. He's a good guy that as long as he's learned a few things since his previous time in the MVC, Loyola will be an upper half team in the next couple of years and should for the most part stay there. I could see them within 5 years being one of the four teams that I think can consistently fight for the title with Wichita, Bradley and ISU. Funny thing is, both Bradley and ISU have been rebuilding with new coaches as well.

You think Loyola can be an upper echelon team in 5 years? That is optimistic. There would have to be some unbelievable recruiting because I don't think their coach can just win from the chalkboard. If they start signing the big recruits, you will know they are headed in the right direction. Do they even have a fanbase? Why would a player want to play for Loyola?

Loyola has some history and should already be decently competitive. You have to remember that they've been very young and Moser had to clean house when he got there. The numbers don't look great, but they lost A LOT of close games last year. We went through that early in the 3G era as the young team has to learn to win those games. The talent level there appears to be increasing and I think Loyola finishes 6th, maybe 7th, this coming season. And remember, they're quite young. So I don't think being an upper half team within 5 years is a major stretch.

One thing they have going for them is the wealth of talent in the Chicago area. It's a very good school from an academic standpoint which doesn't hurt either. And their newer leadership is committed to investing and promoting their sports programs which is a big change from the previous leadership. That's why Loyola was in such poor shape.

I do think Loyola has some work to do to compete and be better than us and Bradley in the next few years. ISU should be fairly good in a couple as well. But after that, I don't see what would be a major hold on them getting into the 4th or 5th spots in the MVC. UNI is a solid program but they are what they are. ISUb should be good this year, but I don't know about their long term health. Especially if/when Lansing leaves. SIU sucks. Evansville plays hard and is well coached but lacks talent. MSU won't invest to keep a good program. Drake is Drake.

The Gentile only holds around 5k which I admit is pretty small by our standards, but I suspect it will be mostly full most of the time which will be a heck of a lot better than what Drake, Evansville or Indiana State provide with larger arenas that are mostly empty. Even if they draw fewer people, it'll have a more positive impact on a recruit than a lot of big, empty space.