Welcome to Fan Stop Central!
Fan Stop Central is your one-stop-shop for sporting news headlines, sports blog insights, team information and gear, gear, gear.
Welcome to Fan Stop Central!
Fan Stop Central is your one-stop-shop for sporting news headlines, sports blog insights, team information and gear, gear, gear.
It’s a sad day for the Missouri Valley Conference. Last night (Selection Sunday) we find the MVC shut-out of the at-large bids, receiving only the automatic bid for the conference tournament championship.
With Drake exploding the way they did this year, only Illinois State remained the only other real conference contender to make it to the big dance … but, a combination of committee members and other conference tournament upsets left Illinois State on the outside.
Watch for Drake to make a big splash in this tournament. They rolled through the regular season and the conference tournament … of course, the rest of the Valley was WAY, WAY, WAY down this year. Didn’t seem to have that dominant force as in recent past.
Let’s look to next year as teams re-tool. Some (as in Missouri State’s case) are moving on with a different head man. Some are building on their first season with a new coach. Some will see an overhaul of players as a large graduating class moves on to begin the next phase of their life/career.
… from MVC-Sports.com …
For the third time in the past four years, The Valley has half of its membership in post-season. Bradley (CBI), Creighton (NIT), Drake (NCAA), Illinois State (NIT), and Southern Illinois (NIT) represent the MVC. The five bids are the second-most in league history (trailing six post-season bids in 2006). The league also had five bids in 2005.
For the fifth-straight year, eighth time in the past 10 years, and the 14th time in the league’s history, The Valley has at least four postseason bids. In 2006, the league set records with four NCAA tourney teams, and six post-season bids.
Bradley was invited to the 1st NIT (1938), 1st NCAA Tournament (1939), 1st National Campus Tournament (1951), 1st Commissioner’s Cup Classic (1974), and now the 1st College Basketball Invitational (2008). Bradley turned down the 1939 NCAA bid in favor of the NIT. Drake won the Commissioner’s Cup in 1975, in what was the final year of that tourney.
Taking a look back through the Missouri State men’s basketball over the past decade, I’ve noticed that when the national media gets involved in talking about the program and their non-existent NCAA post-season appearances, they always like to throw out a statement like this:
“… their RPI is good, but they were still not selected. Just goes to show you how little the RPI is factored into decisions, and how the RPI shouldn’t be counted on as a determining factor …”
Then, the same national media who have been spewing this garbage turns around and says the opposite when one of their Little Buddies is taking major fire, and in obvious peril of getting the axe … like now:
“… don’t know why Hinson is under so much heat from the fans. Just look at his teams’ finishing RPIs during his tenure. What else does he have to do? …”
What?! In years past you were saying “… RPI doesn’t matter …” but now you’re defending keeping a job by saying “… but, look at the RPI …”???? Seriously, you don’t think that’s a bit two-faced, double-tongued or hypocritical?
The two weeks that span the time between the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500 have to be the absolute worst time of the year for sports fans. It’s just brutal. No football. No great basketball - college or pro (not that there’s a lot of NBA following here). No great golf … and when you’ve got 6 inches of snow on the ground, it makes it kind of tough to get hyped about it. No baseball.
Here’s what we’ve got:
And a lot of waiting around for Spring Training to hit, Daytona 500 to kick-off NASCAR, and March Madness to captivate us all.
Reality has hit Missouri State University men’s basketball coach Barry Hinson that this could be the end of his time at the helm of the program - a possibility that becomes stronger with each defeat.
The decibel of discontent about the Bears basketball program is rising in the community, and Hinson knows it. His team is 11-12 overall and 4-7 in the Missouri Valley Conference this season.
Here are a few stats compiled by Bears fans @ Bear Nation in support of removing Hinson from his position:
Record against conference NCAA Tournament teams:
2006-7 (SIU, CU): 0-5
2005-6 (WSU, SIU, UNI, BU): 3-6
2004-5 (CU, UNI, SIU): 3-3
2003-4 (SIU, UNI): 2-4
2002-3 (CU, SIU): 0-5
Total after five years: 8-26
Hinson took over a program that had (under the previous coach) had finished 4th, 2nd, 3rd, and 2nd in the Valley, with one NIT and one NCAA Sweet 16.
7 NCAA’s and 5 NIT’s before Hinson, and 0 NCAA’s and 4 NIT’s in the 8 years Hinson has been at the helm. (9 this year and going nowhere barring an absolute miracle)
6 of the 10 Valley teams have been ranked the last 3 years … not MO ST
If Drake and IL State make the NCAA that will be 8 of 10 teams in the Valley that have made the NCAA since Barry became coach … University of Evansville and Missouri State the only two teams out.
7 of the 9 Valley teams have beaten us at home during the Hinson era.
Do what you will, think what you will with these stats. The fact that sentiment for and success of the program has decidedly declined over the past nine years should be the driving factor in Hinson’s departure.
When was the last time the Bears were difference-makers on a national level? Granted two seasons ago the Bears were admittedly snubbed by the NCAA selection committee when they garnered an RPI of 21. That said, they also didn’t display a spark of aggressiveness throughout the season that, if present, would have pushed them into the Top 25 Polls, possibly won a Valley championship, and possibly found a berth in the Big Dance.
However, that has been the one shinny nugget of Hinson’s tenure and run at a post season appearance … and that tarnished quickly.
Sure there have been NIT appearances, but seriously, the NIT is like a tournament of the annual B-teams - or the Fun Run for those not good enough to make the big times.
Nine years of lowered expectations equals time to move along … and in Hinson’s case, move down.
