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VUGrad1314 wrote:One bid... Again... Sigh... It's not like we just had a final 4 team or anything and it's not like a bunch of teams aren't about to get a lot better in this conference. Come on Joe. Do better. 11 bids for the ACC? Are you serious? We beat two ACC teams who were in the field this year. Maybe more. I might be missing some.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... acketology

THEY DON'T CARE!!! It isn't about fairness or putting the best teams in.

Who's "they"? It's just one guy's opinion in the offseason. No reason to get worked up. If we have multiple undefeated teams heading into conference play I'm sure Lunardi's board will look better.

While I think and hope we have several teams that can make the jump to at large contention, none of them even made the NIT this year, so it's kind of a leap to expect Lunardi to put them in his bracketology.

Who's "they"? It's just one guy's opinion in the offseason.

It is still "they." The committee (and the NCAA). Lunardi is trying to predict what the committee will do. Not predict the teams he thinks will be the best.

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He's predicting the teams he thinks will be the best through the lens of the committee. Since we don't know the records/RPI/Kenpoms of the teams he's leaving out -- ie the foundation -- we don't know if he's predicting a screwjob. He could just think every Valley team except for Loyola loses 20 games.

Now that spring recruiting is pretty much wrapped:
1. Loyola
2. Illinois St.
3. SIU
4. Bradley
5. Valparaiso
6. Indiana St.
7. UNI
8. Missouri St.
9. Drake
10. Evansville

I actually think each of the top eight teams have reason to feel pretty good about the 2018-19 season and the other two schools made nice coaching hires. I’m pleasantly surprised at how the Valley is regrouping without Wichita, albeit still dismayed about the direction in Carbondale, especiallly after this year’s large senior class departs.

1. SIU--and they return Cook, McGill, J. Beane, D. Beane for 2019-20--must recruit transfer Big for that year
2. Il state--will be solid Again
3. Loyola---will play hard as usual, recruiting going rather slow for a Final Four team
4. VU---lots of quality transfers
5. BU---may finish higher/but if not this year then when?
6.UNI--Big Men? But nice Frosh PG
7.Ind State--nice floor coach, now he should go out and get someone to coach
8. MSU--nice recruiter/ how does he do as floor coach?
9. DU
10. EU

1. Loyola
2. Illinois State
3. Missouri State
4. Bradley
5. Northern Iowa
6. Southern Illinois
7. Indiana State
8. Valpo
9. Drake
10. Evansville

Still a little early as Bears are trying to fill one last key piece [ experienced post depth] with a grad transfer. If they get their main target, then they will contend for the upper half to third. Don't know how quickly all the pieces can fit , a lot of moving parts and a new staff, but the pieces will be there and they will be tough late I'm pretty sure. Next few weeks hopefully answer that final question. But with 3 top 75 jucos, a pair of 6'10 kids who've played against 20+ year old competition in Europe, a couple redshirts [ one of which was a 4 star recruit] this roster has turned over quickly and in a good way. I don't see this being a Thursday team even w/o the experienced post help. But I think most of the Valley will and that's ok.

BEARZ77 wrote:Still a little early as Bears are trying to fill one last key piece [ experienced post depth] with a grad transfer. If they get their main target, then they will contend for the upper half to third. Don't know how quickly all the pieces can fit , a lot of moving parts and a new staff, but the pieces will be there and they will be tough late I'm pretty sure. Next few weeks hopefully answer that final question. But with 3 top 75 jucos, a pair of 6'10 kids who've played against 20+ year old competition in Europe, a couple redshirts [ one of which was a 4 star recruit] this roster has turned over quickly and in a good way. I don't see this being a Thursday team even w/o the experienced post help. But I think most of the Valley will and that's ok.

There is no way to know accurately what the bears will be. most likely bad, however. niko's year at drake is an outlier. that doesn't usually happen in a first year. plus, im not sold on ford as a coach. you can give him all the accolades you want but until he produces, which he never has, it means nothing. i know, blasphemy coming from an ISUr fan. there will be a learning curve. they have to get cohesive. I'd say 2019-20 is a better bet for MSU.

Jsnhbe1Birds wrote:There is no way to know accurately what the bears will be. most likely bad, however. niko's year at drake is an outlier. that doesn't usually happen in a first year. plus, im not sold on ford as a coach. you can give him all the accolades you want but until he produces, which he never has, it means nothing. i know, blasphemy coming from an ISUr fan. there will be a learning curve. they have to get cohesive. I'd say 2019-20 is a better bet for MSU.

I certainly understand that sentiment and honestly believe it will be the concensus going into 2018. We're playing with house money this year, just not having Lusk is gonna carry us fans a long way. But at the same time talent wins, and the talent in this league is never that far apart . We are starting to look more like the kind of team Bears fans want; even when Lusk had talent it often was a bit of an odd mix. We are becoming a pretty long team, right now we only have 1 player less than 6'4 and our two recruits for 2019 are 6'4 and 6'7. We need some beef, but are trying to address that for this year with a grad transfer, and then will also add some for the long haul in the 2019 class.

But this is a year for us to see what a Ford team looks like on the court and philosophically on the defense and offensive ends. I think it was important he brought in very well regarded assistants not from his past staff , so that the mix has alot of options of experience to draw upon. Even good coaches like Marshall and Zo took a couple years to get things ironed out in this league, so patience for a year or two is usually the right mind set.