Based on Matt Hackman's (@mjhackman on Twitter) MVC tournament predictions, this would be the schedule for the first 2 days of the Valley Tournament:
Thursday, March 2nd
Game 1: #8 Murray St. vs. #9 Illinois St., noon
Game 2: #5 Belmont vs. #12 Evansville, 2:30 p.m.
Game 3: #7 Northern Iowa vs. #10 Illinois-Chicago, 6 p.m.
Game 4: #6 Missouri St. vs #11 Valparaiso, 8:30 p.m.
Friday, March 3rd
Game 5: #1 SIU vs. Game 1 winner, noon
Game 6: #4 Drake vs. Game 2 winner, 2:30 p.m.
Game 7: #2 Indiana St. vs. Game 3 winner, 6 p.m.
Game 8: #3 Bradley vs. Game 4 winner, 8:30 p.m.
CBS Sports Jerry Palm has #4 TCU vs #13. SIU in Albany first round game Midwest bracket. Could lead to a SIU vs SIUe Midwest final
Well, been a long time since we were mentioned this early.
Lunardi has SIU as a #13 in Orlando against TCU. Winner would get Illinois or Liberty
Lunardi has SIU as a #13 in Orlando against TCU. Winner would get Illinois or Liberty
When you look at the bid breakdown numbers...Big 10 gets 10 teams, 10 fucking teams. I'm not even advocating for the MVC to get 2 teams in, there is absolutely no reason a conference should get over 70% of their teams in the tournament. I realize there is a lot of season left to be played and that may sort itself out, but this is why some are begging for an expansion.
I think the bubble is really weak this year, especially among mid-majors. There’s a few good mid-majors like Charleston and Florida Atlantic but a lot of teams in the SIU range that have no shot at an at-large. You hope it’s just a fluke year and not a gap starting caused by NIL.
yeah...the deck keeps getting stacked against the mid-majors and the smalls. 10 teams from one conference seems redundant. Expansion would be worth a look, though I am not sure it is a cure all. There will always be teams on the outside looking in, crying about fairness, scheduling, etc. Power conferences will always call the shots.
Have we even been featured in any bracketology since the 2008 NIT season?
I think the bubble is really weak this year, especially among mid-majors. There’s a few good mid-majors like Charleston and Florida Atlantic but a lot of teams in the SIU range that have no shot at an at-large. You hope it’s just a fluke year and not a gap starting caused by NIL.
I mean this is a self fulfilling prophecy based on the metrics used for the NET. Very few mid-majors get a crack at the big boys consistently (just go through the net and look for the Quad 1 records for the mid-majors...and count the number of games). If they do, it's neutral site MTEs and occasionally something like SIU got with the 2 for 1 with OSU. Mid-majors can't get games against perceived Quad 1 teams consistently and therefore get pushed really far down in the rankings and you end up with 10 Big 10 teams in the tournament field. The big conference teams don't even need to win at a decent clip in conference to get the nod over any mid-major. The margin for error is so razor thin for MM, if you aren't on the week you have your game against the big boys, your done. If you have an off week in conference and lose a couple games, your done.
There are so many things that could be done to help even the playing field (if your conference record isn't at least .500 you're not eligible, force teams from the big 5 conferences to schedule games with the top mid-majors, etc.)but I'm not hashing that out here, at least not right now. Just an airing of grievances I suppose.
I have said from as far back as the 90's that no team should get in with a conference record less than .500 (except auto-bids of course).
That being said, it's waaaaaaaaaay too early to be talking about SIU getting in the NCAA. There is still so much work to be done. SIU needs to remain hot and continue to get better as the season progresses so that we are playing our best basketball in March. Win in Saint Louis and we won't have to worry about any of the above.
Amen, amen, and amen.
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CBS Sports Jerry Palm has #4 TCU vs #13. SIU in Albany first round game Midwest bracket. Could lead to a SIU vs SIUe Midwest final
Lunardi has us as a 13 seed vs TCU in Orlando in the west bracket
I think the bubble is really weak this year, especially among mid-majors. There’s a few good mid-majors like Charleston and Florida Atlantic but a lot of teams in the SIU range that have no shot at an at-large. You hope it’s just a fluke year and not a gap starting caused by NIL.
I mean this is a self fulfilling prophecy based on the metrics used for the NET. Very few mid-majors get a crack at the big boys consistently (just go through the net and look for the Quad 1 records for the mid-majors...and count the number of games). If they do, it's neutral site MTEs and occasionally something like SIU got with the 2 for 1 with OSU. Mid-majors can't get games against perceived Quad 1 teams consistently and therefore get pushed really far down in the rankings and you end up with 10 Big 10 teams in the tournament field. The big conference teams don't even need to win at a decent clip in conference to get the nod over any mid-major. The margin for error is so razor thin for MM, if you aren't on the week you have your game against the big boys, your done. If you have an off week in conference and lose a couple games, your done.
There are so many things that could be done to help even the playing field (if your conference record isn't at least .500 you're not eligible, force teams from the big 5 conferences to schedule games with the top mid-majors, etc.)but I'm not hashing that out here, at least not right now. Just an airing of grievances I suppose.
The Big 10 only gets 10 in if two of Indiana, Maryland, or Ohio St. get left out. Don't be surprised if they get 11 or 12. That league is tough. Minnie is easily the worst team and they beat Ohio St. in Columbus.
No doubt the bigs don't want to play mid-majors if they're any good...and for sure don't want to play at the mid-major's place. I have absolutely no doubt if the Power 5s were required to play at 3 or 4 mid-majors every year, they would lose a good number of those games.
Weber bitched about it when he coached here. Then when he became the Ill. coach, he pulled the same BS and refused to play us!
