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Post by jayj79 on Sept 24, 2022 23:15:24 GMT -5
So the MVC didn't really make much noise in the non-conference season.
A few decent wins, like Illinois State beating Illinois, but no super noteworthy wins.
Looking like it might be a one-bid league as far as the NCAA tournament goes, but I'm not sure there are even any front-runners as to who that one bid might be.
And perhaps some conference teams could make some noise in the NIVC like they did last year.
Anyhow, currently in the (unofficial) RPI rankings, there are 4 teams in the 70-100 range (Valpo, UNI, UIC, Drake) with Illinois State a little ways out of that grouping, but then the other 7 teams are all sub-230.
With the first weekend of conference play in the books, I found it interesting that all 3 of the conference newcomers (UIC, Belmont, and Murray State) all went 0-2, despite all of them playing their matches at home. Perhaps not all that shocking for Belmont and Murray, but a little surprising for UIC.
UNI, SIU, Missouri State, and Evansville all started off 2-0. With UNI knocking off what had been the 2 teams with the best RPI (Valpo, who had gone 12-0 in nonconference play, and UIC) both on the road; and Evansville knocking off conference preseason favorite and defending MVC champ Illinois State.
Will be interesting to see how the rest of the conference season plays out.
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Post by definitelymaybe on Sept 26, 2022 21:24:46 GMT -5
Solid league for sure. In terms of non power 5, where would the Valley rank?
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Post by cardinalvolleyball on Sept 27, 2022 14:03:25 GMT -5
Solid league for sure. In terms of non power 5, where would the Valley rank? My guess is WAC (San Diego, byu) Mountain West Big west AAC Everyone else |
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trojansc
Legend
All-VolleyTalk 1st Team (2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017), All-VolleyTalk 2nd Team (2016), 2021, 2019 Fantasy League Champion, 2020 Fantasy League Runner Up, 2022 2nd Runner Up
Posts: 31,543 
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Post by trojansc on Sept 27, 2022 14:09:16 GMT -5
Solid league for sure. In terms of non power 5, where would the Valley rank? My guess is WAC (San Diego, byu) Mountain West Big west AAC Everyone else No sure about being high on the Mountain West. AAC higher, UCF and Houston are good. SMU is decent. |
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Post by jayj79 on Oct 2, 2022 15:07:08 GMT -5
I do find it amusing that after the first 4 games of conference play, the team that was picked 6th in the preseason conference poll is undefeated (including road wins over the #3, #5, and #7 picks), and the team picked 9th is 3-1; with everyone else having at least 2 losses (the #1 pick has losses to #2 and #5; while the #2 pick has losses to #10 and #11).
Of course, there is still alot of season to play
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Post by volleyballer8992 on Oct 3, 2022 7:31:29 GMT -5
Solid league for sure. In terms of non power 5, where would the Valley rank? My guess is WAC (San Diego, byu) Mountain West Big west AAC Everyone else First off San Diego and BYU are in the WCC not the WAC. WCC, AAC, Mountain West, I would think CUSA has as many quality teams in their league as the Big West (2 top 25 teams in Rice and WKU). MVC is very down this year. |
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Post by jaypak on Oct 3, 2022 13:14:47 GMT -5
My guess is WAC (San Diego, byu) Mountain West Big west AAC Everyone else First off San Diego and BYU are in the WCC not the WAC. WCC, AAC, Mountain West, I would think CUSA has as many quality teams in their league as the Big West (2 top 25 teams in Rice and WKU). MVC is very down this year. Big East is unquestionably better than the Big West and the WAC. C-USA is better too. Even the MAC might be better than the BW and WAC, but that's debatable. MVC is #19 on Figstats RPI. |
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Post by jayj79 on Oct 3, 2022 14:42:31 GMT -5
in the past, the MVC often had 1-3 teams strong teams at the top that had pulled off a couple "big wins" against top teams in the nonconference action.
That wasn't really the case this year.
Then there were a few teams that did alright against mid to low competition; followed by the lower third-to-half of the conference that had RPIs in the 200-300 range.
Without those top teams getting quality wins, the conference RPI as a whole gets weighed down by those lower ones. So it will probably be a one-bid league.
If UNI got hot and ran the table or something in conference play, they might get a sniff at the bubble. But I don't know if even that would be enough
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Post by jayj79 on Oct 4, 2022 22:09:41 GMT -5
Strange seeing Illinois State off to a 1-4 start in MVC play (losing to Evansville, Valpo, UIC, and Bradley) after having a decent non-conference slate.
I have to wonder if they've had some injuries or something.
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Post by bucky415 on Oct 5, 2022 5:55:23 GMT -5
Heck yeah! Always good when Bradley beats ISU in anything! I hope they have not had injuries!
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comic
Sophomore
Posts: 142
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Post by comic on Oct 5, 2022 7:16:11 GMT -5
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Post by jayj79 on Oct 8, 2022 22:34:59 GMT -5
I'm once again convinced that at times I'm bad luck for the team that I follow.
First off, a couple weeks ago I was watching the video stream of UNI at Valpo and UNI was down 1 set to 2 and trailing badly 13-20 in the 4th set (and playing poorly), so I turned it off... only to find out later that the pulled off an improbable comeback winning the 4th set 27-25 and the 5th 15-9
Then tonight, I was at the UNI home match against Illinois State. UNI struggled quite a bit in the first set, especially on serve receive (and with too many service errors); losing that set 21-25. And the 2nd set started off much the same, with Illinois State leading 20-13, I had had enough and left to come home.
once again, as soon as I left, UNI turned it around winning that 2nd set 25-23, and following that up with wins in the 3rd and 4th set to win the match (and remain undefeated in conference play: 6-0)
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Post by avid 2.0 on Oct 8, 2022 22:40:01 GMT -5
whats up with Bradley?
too soon with a new coach? miss hannah thompson too much?
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Post by jayj79 on Oct 8, 2022 23:01:51 GMT -5
whats up with Bradley? too soon with a new coach? miss hannah thompson too much? I don't know enough about the technical aspect of play to really evaluate that. They seemed to struggle quite a bit with UNI's block last night, with the Panthers setting a season high for team blocks, holding Bradley to hitting .036 for the match. |
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Post by jaypak on Oct 9, 2022 8:31:57 GMT -5
Noticed that KBB’s oldest daughter (2024) committed to UNI. KBB has always had much respect for Coach Petersen. Will be interesting to see if Creighton and UNI continue playing each other every year, with the Creighton/USC/Kentucky/UNI tournament rotation having concluded.
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