Tough noncon season for the MVC. Hopefully we can get some humans for Drake, Illinois State, Missouri State, Western Kentucky & Bradley next year. And our new human coaches will begin to get better.

yeah, we'll be fine in a couple seasons... just the darkness before the dawn

Yeah Mizzou, I forget this is only year #2 for you.

Yep, we're just gettin started. DI you gota work up from the very bottom... DIII and DII a good coach can pick a program with past success and a good prestige and keep right on winning.... here it's baby steps for a few seasons

hey, bob, the NAC is playing "out of control" this season. Your dream of a dominant D3 conference has been realized.

Yep, very impressive.... I'm always watching..LOL

Time to go back and look at my predictions.

In the North, I had the top 2 correct, as well as the 6th place team. I was really surprised by Evansville going 8-8 and coming in 3rd. Never underestimate the value of a human coach.

In the South, I got everything wrong except for me, NIU and Gardner Webb. Somehow Missouri State won 7 games when I picked them to finish 0-16. Despite getting outrebounded by 7 and committing 3 more TOs per game than their opponents, Missouri State found a lot of ways to win, although they did win several OT and buzzer beaters.

Western Kentucky was my dissapointing team in the South. I had them 10-6 and they went 6-10. Basically they shot terrible. Too many players shooting under 40% for them to have a winning record.

Overall, I consider success if I am within 2 of the correct win total, so I was 8 for 12. Not very good, but I'll see if I can do better next season.

My:

Mo. Valley Majik 8-Ball predictions and thoughts.

The future looks bright from here to me.

#1 Indiana St. they look to me to be solid and balanced for the next couple seasons, with a class of 5 then after that. Emy has his boys moving along very nicely and as the conference gets better it should only help his RPI drop to where he actually deserves. Looks like NT for the next 3 seasons would be my go-out-on-a-limb guess.

#2. N. Iowa I'm gonna put JC here over my Bluejay squad since he seems to be the class of the south still for a season or 2 yet. He got his 5 frosh into the fold a season before mine and should stay a season ahead of us in IQ's for awhile. He only grads one and a W/O so he should just get tougher for a season or two still. Again, the overall Valley improvement should help him drop his RPI to a steady sub-50 and be a NT contender for the next few.

#3. Creighton We could easily be passed here as we will have a very loose grip on #3, I would think as we graduate 5 kids. They're not the best DI players around, but most of em start so we have to have a drop-off I would think. We went 16-0 last season as I inherited a couple very nice players and got lucky as well in a few games... this season we have dropped some, and are just not quite on the top 2's level it seems,, next season we could/should drop a little again,,, but with a good recruiting class,,, we hope to be a force going forward in the Valley beginning the following season.

I think I'll do these in groups of 3.... That was the ez 3.... now the next 3 I hope are the 3 human coached. They will take some more serious looking,,,, and the 6 sims will be a much bigger project.

#4. Looks like Evansville "should" fall in here again next season,,, but they don't lose much and passing Creighton may be on the agenda. It will also prove interesting to see who takes the helm of the Sycamores, and how well they drive the "Caddy" that Emy is leaving behind.

#5. I'm gonna reach and say the project out in Kansas is running well enough to put Wich. St here. They only lose depth since they played alot of frosh this season.... and they beat GW both passes this year so they should handle that challenge as well next season.

#6. Gardner Webb grads alot of players, but will have several upperclassmen still so they should turn in a respectable showing against the noobs who are rebuilding sim-messes and the still sim-controlled teams.

Well, time to recruit new coaches....Lots of openings next year, hope to see you come join a solid conference. The MVC has a pretty decent baseline prestige, higher than most of the entry level D1 conferences, so check us out if you are willing to commit to a rebuilding process.

#7-#12 will depend heavily upon who takes these teams and whether they build with youth for the future... or play for today. Several of these teams are really not that bad and with a human coach may well contend for 3-4th in the conference with some luck.

#7. SIU... It looks like SIU is poised to make a move into the top half of the conference if Floyd can get to the helm this season. If not... one senior will not allow simmie to do alot, but next season they will grad 4 and be perfectly set for someone to come in and begin to improve them quickly.

#8. Western KY. gets my vote,,, They should have 6 seniors, and if a human lands the job... they also could be trouble.

#9. Bradley.... the super-class is comming to the Valley and they will be juniors next season... look for them to be fun for anyone to take over and be an immediate threat for an upset... maybe not in the top 3-4 in the conference,,, but a pain to play none-the-less.

Cellar-Dwellars

#10. Ill. St. Look for Sinatra to turn this team into a contender quickly,,, They should have 5 seniors or so next season... and replace 8 players in his first 2 seasons... that should be a core for the future.

#11. Mizzery St. This team overachieved this season... I don't see that happening next season... however with 4 grads... Elmo should be able to bring in some help quickly

#12. Drake... this team just took 5 frosh, and unless a human takes over and cleans em up, they should be an anchor on the conference for a couple more seasons.

Well, there is my quick look at what I see comming into the Valley next season. My best guess/hope is that humans will come in and make these predictions be anything but right.

The really interesting thing to watch, since I think we could have at least 4 new coaches... is which ones build for 3-4 seasons down the road,,, and who trys to win ASAP.

Since I usually try to build a power house and fall short, my strategy will be to try to tank the team. For me that can only lead to success.

Wow, it seems it takes alot more to get to the Valley than I realized... It's gonna take a few more seasons to fill this conference than I thought.

Yeah, the MVC is one of the better conferences baseline wise....I think its the big 6, then A10 and then CUSA/MVC/West Coast & Mtn West are all pretty close as to who is #8-11.

We might have to start recruiting from the 'D' level D1 conferences like the Big South, Southern, Southland, etc.

After next year, I'll probably move to a low-D1 thing, then aim at either the Valley or the Harvard job.