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Post by mrose on Jul 22, 2015 18:31:27 GMT -5
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Post by Indy Raider on Aug 14, 2015 20:12:02 GMT -5
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Post by mrose on Aug 17, 2015 13:37:21 GMT -5
Oakland, at #92, is predicted to finish in second place in the Horizon League and they're expected to give Valpo a challenge for the regular season title. So, based on Collegesportsmadness, only 3 HL programs in the top 144. More than likely most other prognosticators have similar assessments of the HL. Sad.
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Post by Raider4Life on Aug 17, 2015 14:20:19 GMT -5
Oakland, at #92, is predicted to finish in second place in the Horizon League and they're expected to give Valpo a challenge for the regular season title. So, based on Collegesportsmadness, only 3 HL programs in the top 144. More than likely most other prognosticators have similar assessments of the HL. Sad. Were you expecting them to pick more than 3? That is as many as they usually pick for the HL. |
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Post by wolf41 on Aug 18, 2015 12:46:07 GMT -5
Obviously Oakland knows what they are doing given their overall success. I think WSU has a pretty solid program. VB has been weak, but I hope to see an upturn this year. Baseball and softball are going strong. Women's basketball is on a strong surge every year. It won't be long before our staff moves to a major program. The jury is out on the men's team. I suspect we'll be ranked in the bottom 100 in the pre-season mags, or slightly higher. I'm hopeful we will be better than that by the end of the season. The two soccer programs look to be strong this season.
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Post by mrose on Aug 21, 2015 12:03:10 GMT -5
Raider4life, I wasn't expecting anymore HL teams to be in the top 144 this year--or next. Milwaukee is barely in. Oakland at #92 is thought to be a contender for the league title. No telling where CSM will pick Valpo, but I would be surprised if they're picked in top 60.
This is reflective of the league as a whole. In my opinion the level of the league is trending down. I wouldn't be surprised, in a couple of years, the HL is no longer a consistent top 15 league, but more so a top 20 league. In other words, in the bottom half of D I conferences.
When in the HL Butler's strength more than countered the weakness of the bottom 3 teams. No program was going to fill the void of Butler, but it was thought a few programs might step-up and be consistent top 100 programs. That hasn't happened. In reality, Butler was the high-tide that lifted all the other HL boats.
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Post by wolf41 on Aug 24, 2015 10:24:58 GMT -5
I would agree that the men's basketball programs have been on the decline. I hope that will pass and we will see improvement, but the key word there is "hope." I think the opposite is true for women's basketball. WSU has joined GB as an annual competitor and some other teams are becoming better, or so it seems to me as I attend almost all the women's games. But the men's teams have a long way to go. The loss of Butler was a major blow to the HL. Too bad the HL didn't try to improve itself when Butler and others had some stronger programs.too bad we didn't try to add IS, Evansville, W. Ky., Belmont at that time. But that is all hindsight.
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Post by Big D on Aug 24, 2015 12:49:02 GMT -5
.too bad we didn't try to add IS, Evansville, W. Ky., Belmont at that time. But that is all hindsight. We have been trying to add Belmont and Evansville for years now. It takes 2 to tango. |
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Post by mrose on Sept 8, 2015 17:02:52 GMT -5
Valpo tops in the Horizon League...coming in at #67. www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/11884Haven't seen their schedule (know they play at Rhode Island in Tip-Off Marathon on ESPN networks). Sounds like they have a good returning team and if they played their cards right hopefully put together a schedule that could put them in At-Large territory come March. That would be nice for the HL. |
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Post by Black PantherU on Sept 26, 2015 16:48:41 GMT -5
Should be noted that Austin Arians, who would have been our leading returning scorer last year but chose to redshirt the APR ban season, was not included in the original preview for our team. He's still not in the preview, but after a bunch of our fans derided the College Sports Madness twitter account, he appeared in the projected starting five. I doubt it would have changed the rankings at all, but who knows.
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