Rambler63 wrote:ptownbraves wrote:The biggest win in Peoria in over a decade.
Really? What about beating #19 UNI on Feb 13, 2010?
Less than five years ago, a lot of Bradley people thought that adding Loyola to the league was a catastrophic mistake. Just last Spring, a roundtable of eight MVC beat writers had a consensus more or less that adding Loyola was a failed experiment, an unfortunate mistake, or the best of some bad options.
Now it's the biggest win in Peoria in over a decade? Or as Dave Reynolds, PJS Bradley beat writer and firm Loyola skeptic wrote this morning, "one of their biggest regular-season wins in, oh, a decade or two."
I'd like to see just ONE of the newspaper columnists who used a barrel of ink to denigrate Loyola for a couple of years write a ONE SENTENCE mea culpa. It won't make up for how crappy they made Loyola fans feel for several years, but it would be a nice peace-making gesture.
For whatever it's worth, which is probably nothing, here's one from a Valpo fan: when Loyola was chosen over Valpo to replace Creighton in 2013, I was absolutely livid. I couldn't believe that the MVC had taken what I perceived as a consistently noncompetitive program with no discernible commitment to basketball for what seemed like nothing more than market; while Valpo, which had consistently beaten Loyola; and was at the time fresh off two consecutive HL titles and one berth each in the Tournament and the NIT, was left on the outside looking in. Then, Loyola won the CBI, and I began to take notice. I could see the talent coming in and knew that their commitment was clearly up from where it was in the HL. Their record also became steadily better overall. Still, this year was the" prove it" year that I needed in order to be fully convinced. Then they beat Florida on the road for what might have been the conference's best nonconference win this year, and I knew the hype was real and that Loyola had turned the corner as a program. The standings speak volumes: Loyola can compete in the MVC, and the relative youth of most of their best and most promising players suggest that they've got staying power. If that's not a creditable add, I don't know what one is. The only knock on them right now is low attendance at home games, but I'm sure a couple more successful competitive years will help with that. Hopefully, Valpo follows suit and gets competitive in the MVC soon.
