Expectations

[WSUbballer]

And yes, if you're playing on Thursday night in St. Louis, you're woeful. There's no arguing that one. Anyone who is, is either trying to justify their team's persistent play on Thursday or does not understand what the word "woeful" means.

[Unsmooth Moment]

My expectations, as a Bears fan, are to finish top 2 in the conference. My number one expectation is to win EVERY home game this year (especially the last one). Play well in the valley tournament and either A.) win it while WSU gets an at large or MSU getting an at large and having the Valley finally have 2 teams in the dance. I think if we can get into the big dance we can be anywhere from a 1st round knockout to a sweet 16 team, depending on how the freshman improve.

I truly hope the top half of the league separates from the lower half. MSU, Creighton, and WSU will have to win games on the road in order to make this happen. I think the talent is there for a special year in the Valley. Lets bring back the glory days.

[valleychamp]

My expectations, as a Bears fan, are to finish top 2 in the conference. My number one expectation is to win EVERY home game this year (especially the last one). Play well in the valley tournament and either A.) win it while WSU gets an at large or MSU getting an at large and having the Valley finally have 2 teams in the dance. I think if we can get into the big dance we can be anywhere from a 1st round knockout to a sweet 16 team, depending on how the freshman improve.

I truly hope the top half of the league separates from the lower half. MSU, Creighton, and WSU will have to win games on the road in order to make this happen. I think the talent is there for a special year in the Valley. Lets bring back the glory days.

They glory days, when MSU was the first team out of the tournament?

[DUBulldog]

And yes, if you're playing on Thursday night in St. Louis, you're woeful. There's no arguing that one. Anyone who is, is either trying to justify their team's persistent play on Thursday or does not understand what the word "woeful" means.

So, 40% of the MVC is automatically woeful every season?

I understand what you're tyring to say, but I guess my definition would be somewhat different. As Chitown said, we're talking semantics here. I've seen many 8-10 teams play on Thursday night over the years, and I think there have even been 9-9 teams in the play-in round. In my mind, a team that was probably two breaks away from finishing above .500 in the league would hardly be considered woeful. Drake's 0-18 teams in '97 and '98 were woeful. I wouldn't say the same about a team that finishes 7-11 or 8-10.

[Unsmooth Moment]

My expectations, as a Bears fan, are to finish top 2 in the conference. My number one expectation is to win EVERY home game this year (especially the last one). Play well in the valley tournament and either A.) win it while WSU gets an at large or MSU getting an at large and having the Valley finally have 2 teams in the dance. I think if we can get into the big dance we can be anywhere from a 1st round knockout to a sweet 16 team, depending on how the freshman improve.

I truly hope the top half of the league separates from the lower half. MSU, Creighton, and WSU will have to win games on the road in order to make this happen. I think the talent is there for a special year in the Valley. Lets bring back the glory days.

They glory days, when MSU was the first team out of the tournament?

actually I was referring to the year the Valley as a whole took the tourney by storm

[DUBulldog]

The other 5 wont play Thursday unless they lose all their starters to injury. They are just that much better and its hard to argue there is an abyss between 1-5 and 6-10 this year in the Valley. That is why I feel that as many as 4 teams wont eek out more than 6 wins as opposed to most years where 10-8 and 8-10 is what separates 4th from 8th and why the league champ and runner up will probably have 15 or 16 conf wins.

I agree with you that there are very clear favorites for the top 4-5 spots in the MVC this season, but I personally don't think that there's as much of an abyss between those teams and the others as you do. Time will tell.

[dgreenwell3]

Chitown, weren't you the one who said the Trees were going to be sent into the Abyss by your braves last year when we only had 8 players???? I don't think we are going to make a jump to the top of the class but I don't see us being woeful....

[Tom Servo]

Roberts Stadium will be a tough place to play for the MVC visitors. I see in Conference play 7-8 game home wins for the Aces and stealing a couple of games on the road.

Has Evansville EVER won 8 games at home in the Valley? When's the last time they won 7?

I guess it's just as easy as that.

They have never won eight at home in the MVC. They won 7 in 1994-1995, 1996-1997, and 1998-1999. They won 6 in 2008-2009 and almost every year Crews was there. I got all of this from http://statsheet.com/mcb/teams/evansville.

[sixth ace]

thank you Mr Servo. I was getting ready to do the research.

[Tom Servo]

thank you Mr Servo. I was getting ready to do the research.

No problem Sixth Ace, it's nice to see some fellow Purple Coders on here!