Around the Valley

[swellafelon]

I see that Drake point guard Roman Penn has recovered from his leg injury and is back in the starting lineup, scoring 15 points yesterday in their win over Illinois State.

[Dansen]

AJ Green out for UNI tonight with covid

[goramblers2011]

AJ Green out for UNI tonight with covid

Valpo choked away a 7 point lead with a minute left...going to OT. Noah Carter with 33 points for the Panthers but just helped off the court with what looks like nasty cramps. Panthers up early in OT.

Interestingly, Bradley is up 5 on the road @Drake at half. Salukis only up 1 point at home vs ISUb. Missouri State up 10 at half vs the Redbirds.

[goramblers2011]

AJ Green out for UNI tonight with covid

Valpo choked away a 7 point lead with a minute left...going to OT. Noah Carter with 33 points for the Panthers but just helped off the court with what looks like nasty cramps. Panthers up early in OT.

Interestingly, Bradley is up 5 on the road @Drake at half. Salukis only up 1 point at home vs ISUb. Missouri State up 10 at half vs the Redbirds.

Beacons pull it off. That puts us two losses clear of UNI in the loss column. Tough loss for the Panthers on the road without AJ...but I'll take it.

[RamblinTank22]

I was rooting for UNI. I think the teams we need to worry about losing to the most are UNI, MO State, and Drake. We can't have them fall and become a "bad loss" Similarly, if they can get high enough to be a "quality" win, it'll help us too

[WestCoastFan]

Valpo choked away a 7 point lead with a minute left.

And before that UNI tried to give the game away. The Panthers had a 9 minute stretch in the 2nd half where they only made one basket. I definitely think they would've won if Green played.

[Mertz2003]

I was rooting for UNI. I think the teams we need to worry about losing to the most are UNI, MO State, and Drake. We can't have them fall and become a "bad loss" Similarly, if they can get high enough to be a "quality" win, it'll help us too

Yeah, I'm not at all worried about our place in the conference standings. We should be rooting for the higher ranked team to win every game in conference play for the reasons you mentioned.

[goramblers2011]

Well, then it doesn't help the cause that Drake dropped a home game to Bradley.

Bad losses by Drake & UNI tonight.

[SammyD]

Folks, why are we sweating teams that should be of no concern. Going into the season I would agree that the Ramblers should be concerned with the top 4,but as the season has played out those others have proved themselves not on the Ramblers level. The Valley will canabalize itself leaving Loyola as the only viable option for the NCAAs and for any post season tourneys for that matter. This season will be exciting as the Ramblers roll! Let's get Ramblin! Go Ramblers

[goramblers2011]

Folks, why are we sweating teams that should be of no concern. Going into the season I would agree that the Ramblers should be concerned with the top 4,but as the season has played out those others have proved themselves not on the Ramblers level. The Valley will canabalize itself leaving Loyola as the only viable option for the NCAAs and for any post season tourneys for that matter. This season will be exciting as the Ramblers roll! Let's get Ramblin! Go Ramblers

Let's not forget that we were very close to losing back-to-back home games vs Bradley & Valpo, two likely bottom half Valley teams. While I think we are the best team in the conference, it's likely we take a couple losses over the course of the Valley season, unfortunately. If we can limit it to three or fewer losses, we should still be in OK shape for an at-large...depending on the quality of those losses. And the quality of those losses depends on teams like UNI & Drake not losing to bottom half Valley teams (assuming the losses are to other teams in the top 4).