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The athletic experience, student body experience, training, etc. are all experiences that shape quality young people into quality leaders of tomorrow.

Yeah, so all the other students have to subsidize this? And is this missing on all the other levels that don't spend $13 million on a building to stretch in?

Yeah. And why do econ and business majors have to subsidize history and music majors?

James Madison released its schedule today. Nov. 23 at the Arc.

Murray State, Nov. 8.

I think you need to compare links again.

Bevo averaged 50.1 (adjusted to 48.3 in NCAA record books because the NCAA didn't count some games) and 46.5 ppg in 2 seasons at Rio Grande. He scored 113 in a game against Hillsdale, the NCAA record until last year. Rio Grande played a freaky schedule that included lots of small schools but also Villanova (lost 93-92 in OT), Providence (won), North Carolina State (lost), and Wake Forest (won).

3 year deal for McCallum, guaranteed. http://blogs.sacbee.com/sports/kings/archives/2013/07/kings-sign-ray-mccallum.html

They'd bolt for the Horizon in an instant, with or without these losses to the A-Sun. We just have to make the offer.

Oakland opens the 2013-14 season with North Carolina, UCLA, Cal, and Gonzaga, all on the road, of course. They'll probably also play at Michigan State.

According to Panther U, Belmont, Evansville, and Loyola are in the Horizon, and UIC is in the MVC. Who cares what his take is?

Sources?

Broekhoff, McCallum, Perry, Minnerath, Van Wijk.
POY Broekhoff.

Totally off the mark.  But only 1300+ attended senior night there?  So sad.  If I were looking to invite a school into my league, that kind of environment would turn me off and I'd look for a school that was more gung-ho.

That was their worst attendance of the season - winter weather; rain and sleet in the morning and afternoon forming a layer of ice, topped with 5-8" snow. Based on their typical draw for big games you would have anticipated 3000-3500 or so.

Quote from: vuweathernerd on Today at 09:04:29 AM this doesn't honestly bode well for our chances at going dancing - detroit seems to thrive when they play us at our place. yeah, it's nice to be able to say we're the two-time defending conference regular season champs, but perhaps we'd have been better off with the tourney at calihan, where they won't have as much of a crowd to feed off of. (and yes, i'm fully aware that there's still almost 2 weeks and several games between now and that possibly happening - but let's face it, the odds are exactly that.)   Yes I would rather play them in Detroit in front of 500 as opposed to a full crowd at the ARC.  Detroit fans will admit that the Titans react like the Fab 5 and feed off the crowd.  Kind of like an "And 1" team.    I would like Detroit to play Green Bay in the semi. 

You are kidding, right? First, a conference tournament final in Detroit would draw minimum 4000 fans (they drew over 4800 for UIC - UIC -  this year; over 5600 for St. John's last year, routinely over 4000 when Butler was in the league. They can draw a crowd for a big game.); second, you're just friggin kidding, right? You'd rather play at Detroit than in the ARC? You like the idea of a road trip to Detroit? You've seen the numbers on home/road winning percentages in NCAA ball? You like Valpo 9-5 on the road vs. Detroit 13-2 at home over Detroit 6-8 on the road vs. Valpo 14-2 at the ARC?

I am truly stunned that Dayton didn't make the list as well. Must be 21.

We'll always have Green Bay.

Detroit to C-7? Don't see it happening. The Horizon is a nice place - Butler's loss aside, it's been very stable. The budding Valpo-Detroit rivalry is great, and while losing Butler was a big PR hit, lots of people are beginning to notice that the Horizon didn't fall a bit in conference rankings. After all, Detroit and Valpo were 5-0 against Butler last year. I'd like to see the league add Belmont and Evansville, as has been rumored. That would give the league a better core of academically rigorous, smaller, private schools to go with UD, Valpo, and Loyola. Then who knows. If Creighton goes C-7, Wichita State will be desperately trying to get an invite to the Mountain West. And if that happens other MVC teams (I'm thinking Bradley) might be very interested in the Horizon.

Here's a little preview I've whipped up for the occasion, it's essentially a repackaging of highlights from Youtube. Be nice, I only have windows movie maker to work with on this computer.

Very nice.

[they were trying to get Jason 1,000 points.]

A blogger on their website justified the large minutes for the starters in the 30 point blowout; as they were trying to get Jason 1,000 points.

Really??  Was this the kids final game??  How friggin weak.  I hope the are exhausted on Saturday.

At home, dummy. They wanted him to hit 1000 points at home. Their next two games are on the road.

From last night's play by play:
9:34   43-70   Ben Boggs missed Three Point Jumper.
       
9:12       43-75   Jordan Coleman made Three Point Jumper. Assisted by Erik Buggs.

8:33       43-75   LaVonte Dority missed Three Point Jumper.

6:19       47-82   LaVonte Dority made Three Point Jumper. Assisted by Bobby Capobianco.

2:58       55-84   Ben Boggs missed Three Point Jumper.

1:34       57-86   Bobby Capobianco missed Three Point Jumper.

0:59       58-86   LaVonte Dority missed Dunk.

0:19       61-86   Will Bogan missed Three Point Jumper.

0:00   End Game

Not counting put backs, two-thirds of Valpo's shots in the last 10 minutes were 3 pointers or dunks. Good to see the dogs were called off once the game was in hand.

Not sure why ESPN would do this to Valpo, but not much you can do other than beat them handily and prove a point.

Valpo got the best opponent available. Valpo - #8 home team RPI; EKU #6 Road team RPI. Not gonna get Creighton, can't get Detroit, NDSU assigned to Akron (more deserving than Valpo). I suppose they could have sent SDSU to Valpo, but at that point you have to consider that Belmont and Indiana State have a bigger gripe than Valpo. Ohio U is probably a bit more attractive opponent (though not as good for the RPI as Eastern Kentucky), but even if that's your criteria rather than RPI, Belmont and Indiana State deserve them more just as they would deserve SDSU more. I'm glad its EKU and not Stephen F. Austin or Northwestern State.

Interesting numbers, though not much different, I think, than most people would rank the players - confirms what we know, more than revealing much new. Ryan is clearly POY; McCallum, Averkamp, Eargle, and Perry would fill out my first team. Van Wijk, despite his high PER, is on the second team - he may be efficient, but each of the other 5 spend substantially more time on the court, and that has value, too. If I'm choosing big men, I like Kevin a lot but I'd go with Eargle and Averkamp, who can stay in the game an extra 7 to 10 minutes.

The Horizon is unquestionably not as good a league without Butler, gets less national attention, and every team is deprived of one of its best home draws. I suppose some people may not miss Butler, but I don't see how anyone could suggest that the loss of Butler doesn't hurt the Horizon and, frankly, all of the programs remaining in the Horizon.

Brown's top-line stats are superficially OK (11.9 points, 6.8 rebounds) but anybody watching games or looking more deeply into the stats knows he's no first teamer at this point. But I probably wouldn't go with KVW either.


I'd say:
Broekhoff (POY)
McCallum
Perry
Averkamp
Damian Eargle of Youngstown

On thing Evansville does have is significantly higher per game attendance than any current Horizon team. Murray State would be a great addition but seems unlikely because of football.

The guy who scored with 8 seconds left was a freshman named Dos Santos, and those were his first ever points not counting a couple against one of their NAIA opponents. In fact, it was the first game the kid has played in against a Division I opponent. You're going to blame Ray McCallum for clearing his bench? You're going to begrudge some 18 year old kid getting fired up and taking the ball to the hoop in his excitement?


That is the definition of classless, alright, but maybe not how you meant it.

re Detroit/Oakland: teams that consider themselves higher rarely welcome in the lower rated team from the area. DePaul for years wouldn't join the MCC (as the Horizon was then known) because they didn't want to be in the conference with Loyola. With a few exceptions based on history that long predates modern recruiting and scheduling (think the Big 5 in Philly, or some of the New York City schools) it's not done. UIC joined the Horizon as part of the big package merge that preserved the conference's auto bid - very different circumstances.

But usually the better schools won't even play the perceived lesser school unless the lesser school is no threat at all, or until changing circumstances absolutely force them too because the lesser school has become on par with the better school. So Marquette doesn't want to face Milwaukee, Dayton won't play Wright State, Big 10 schools won't play their non-Big 10 in-state rivals, Georgetown doesn't play GW, and so on.

Also, as to Detroit/Oakland, there is bad blood unrelated to the competitive situation. They used to play, back when Oakland was an easy D-II and later low-major win for Detroit, but stopped because of various allegations of bad faith, etc. Detroit may soon find itself forced to play Oakland, but not yet, and WH is right about how they perceive their interest and how they must act accordingly.

All that said, I'll bet Oakland is in.