Earlier this week, the Western Athletic Conference shook when it announced a formula to seed conference tournaments based on NET and team overall records.
In other words, the meeting schedule does not automatically determine the top seed for the meeting tournament. This is part of a plan to win the best seeds for league champions in NCAA tournaments.
When asked if the Missouri Valley Conference would consider a similar plan in the future on Thursday morning, Commissioner Jeff Jackson shattered that idea.
“We are very confident in playing at the conference. This should be the bar we should use to determine our best seeds,” he said. “From two different perspectives, I don’t think we need to look at it.
“We are one of the top 10 conferences in the country, but we acknowledge to WAC that we are proactive and proactive in that approach.”
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On paper, Jackson’s reasoning seems correct so far. If you add Belmont, Murray State, and UIC instead of Loyola, you’ll have an MVC12 school. In a normal year, you are more likely to have multiple bids. Belmont and Murray State Universities have been worth as often as in the last decade.
But when will the next meeting reorganization occur two years later? Remember that the Southeastern Conference welcomes Oklahoma and Texas, and Big Ten welcomes UCLA and USC.
And it is guaranteed that there will be much more movement before that. If you really think that the money in Phil Knight’s shoes can keep you behind with the weakened Pac-12 in Oregon, well, there are hundreds of millions of swooshing sounds that you might say otherwise. It’s also hard to see a scenario where other conferences don’t want to add the Washington and Seattle TV markets to the mix.
This means that even the top 10 meetings like MVC can have a hard time getting big bids. One thing everyone knows about TV league meetings is that they don’t share well with mid-sized majors. And the system is set up where they don’t need to.
However, at this point, Valley seems to be a good fit for this year’s multi-bid league. The Drake and rebuilt Murray State programs should be good. SIU is also suitable when the four additions from the portal have what is projected onto the paper on the floor.
“We have to do everything we can to avoid a one-time meeting,” said Ryan Pedon, a first-year coach in Illinois. “Our top team is at the top of the high-major team. We don’t know the whole land, but we know we’re adding three good programs to a good meeting.”
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Not only are there three new schools in the valley, but there are also three new coaches. While Steve Prohm returned to Murray State Racers for his second stint, Pedon took over the ISU literally minutes after being removed from Archmadness.
Evansville also hired a new bench boss at the Davidra Grand, which it took over in late May. When Pedon was asked to explain the first day of his work, he said he “drank from a fire hose” in an attempt to create a roster and coaching. staff.
The same is true for promes, but there is one important caveat. He has previously won a victory in Moray and still knows the origin of the land in western Kentucky. Simply put, don’t expect the reconstructed racer to experience the pain of growing up in the new league.
“I don’t think we need to change much,” Prome said when asked about his approach to coaching at the new conference. “We need to be in Moray.”
Ford High On Benson
Missouri State University coach Danaford played a high school ball in Egypt and was the highest scorer in school history until Christian Traxler defeated him a few years ago. So he knows about the hoops in southern Illinois.
Ford went up to Mount Vernon this year to grab a 6-8 NJ Benson for his team. Benson was the Southern Illinois Sun Player of the Year in 2021-22, averaging 21.9 points per game and nearly 11 rebounds, leading Rams to 22 wins.
Asked about Benson on Thursday morning, Ford is bullish about his future.
“NJ will be a really good basketball player because he has the instinct to protect the basket and can finish around the rim well,” Ford said. “He is undoubtedly a person of sufficient size and athletic ability to serve as a freshman, but many depend on his learning curve.”
