I've been a Denver Broncos fan all of my life.  Since the Super Bowl started in 1970, the Broncos have appeared in 8 Super Bowls and won 3.  Not a bad record for 53 seasons, but who knows when or if they will ever return.   
Since I joined the faculty at Murray State in 1996, the Racers have made the NCAA tournament 11 times (out of 18 total) and advanced four times.  Eleven times in 27 years is pretty good.  Prohm made the tournament once in four years, which is pretty good as well.
What are realistic expectations moving forward?  The MVC is currently a very competitive one bid league.  Hopefully it can position itself to once again be a multi-bid league, but it's not there yet.  My guess is that we'll be fortunate to "go dancing" once every four years, like Prohm did, and that will be an achievement to be proud of.  What do others think?

My expectation is to dominate this conference like we did the OVC.  Why would we have made the jump if we didn't think that was possible?  Time will tell the next couple of years when we start trying to schedule games in November, but I certainly don't believe that any additional "cachet" was earned this year just because we now play in the MVC.  

Just got back to Atl from Arch Madness. Great tournament.  Next year, I will stay for the entire tournament regardless of Racers advancing. 

One in 4 years shouldn't be a goal, but honestly, I think I would take that level of frequency. It's a tough league with only a few teams that have not been competitive recently (Evansville, Valpo and maybe Illinois State). Fans care about basketball. Schools care too. 

Less frequent visits should translate into higher seeds (normally-I realize we have had some great seeds recently), better draws and improved probability for a deeper run. 

We joined the MVC because we needed to leave a sinking ship in the OVC. We joined it because it's a much better league with good leadership. Fans will benefit from seeing quality home games. 

But dominating this league is probably not going to happen. I hope I am wrong about that - but after going to St Louis and watching good games week in and week out, it was the right move. 

This year kinda stings because we played so well out of conference and had set us up fairly well for a good tourney seed if it came to it.  

The re-emergence of A&M would have made that win huge.  

In the OVC there was Murray State, Belmont and occasionally one other "good" team.

This year, in the MVC, there were 8 good teams and three of the other four could beat you if you didn't bring it.

The numbers would suggest that we get a tournament appearance once out of every 6 or 7 years given our past history in the OVC and our current competition level in the MVC.

Anything more frequent would be an improvement over our OVC peformance given the caliber of the competition in the MVC.

Anything less frequent and we would be achieving less than we would have in the OVC.

75 what is your outlook for the Racers first appearance in the MVC final?    Is 2024 a reasonable expectation or should fans settle in for a longer 3-4 year transition?

Quote from: MICHIANA RACER on March 05, 2023, 06:23:55 PM75 what is your outlook for the Racers first appearance in the MVC final?    Is 2024 a reasonable expectation or should fans settle in for a longer 3-4 year transition?

We had the talent this year to compete for a tournament championship, but, I don't think we matched up well with Drake so, realistically, we finished within 1 spot of where most people thought we'd end up.

Looking ahead, I honestly think we have to recruit mentally tough players that want to bring maximum effort whether they are playing 3 minutes or 30 minutes per game.

Team chemistry is critical for success because at this level, 5-6 losses in conference will put a team in position for a championship.

I think Prohm is going to have to speed up his offense a tad.  We are eating waay too much clock and settling for hurried, defended or poor shot selections late in the shot clock.

He will have to make sure his players will block out and rebound and they all must commit to playing solid defense and communicating with one another.

If he does that, and the players let the game unfold instead of forcing what's not there, I don't see any reason why, with the right transfers, we cannot compete next year.

Tempered expectations suggest a 3-5 year building up of the program to the level of expectation we are accustomed to.

Take away those 3 games where we completely lost our identity as a Racer team and we would have been right in the thick of things again.

2024 is not jumping the gun too much.  Expectations are always high at Murray State and it's not like we just made the leap from D2 to D1.

We would have run through the MVC this year if we had our team from last year IMO.  Drake and Bradley still would have been tough outs.

What concerned me about this year is we had a long decline in PPG and PPGA after the A&M win and then found ourselves again in the last 4 games.

Puzzling.

Just glad we did what had to be done to secure another winning season.

I'm looking forward to seeing what CSP can pull together for the upcoming season.

We are Racers!

You can knock us down.  You can pull the rug out from under us.  You can deplete our roster.  You can replace our coach.....

But We are Racers!

We won't stay down long.

Enjoy the calm before the storm!

Wouldn't hurt to have a few 25-year-olds as well 

Quote from: wkeown on March 04, 2023, 06:39:26 PMbut I certainly don't believe that any additional "cachet" was earned this year just because we now play in the MVC. 

Murray filled the final spot in the Myrtle Beach Invitational after being announced as an MVC member. This was responsible for Murray's only P5 OOC game (a win over a then-T25 team). 

It was also Murray's first MTE against a P5 opponent since 2012. 

I don't see Murray doing well in this league for several years, at least 6 to 7.  Hope I wrong but it's gonna be very difficult with all the transferring each year.  It's also gonna take some quality big men who can be consistent every game.  I also hope CSP can do it but I have my doubts.  Hope I'm wrong about that as well.

Quote from: Rooster on March 06, 2023, 10:58:01 PMI don't see Murray doing well in this league for several years, at least 6 to 7.  Hope I wrong but it's gonna be very difficult with all the transferring each year.  It's also gonna take some quality big men who can be consistent every game.  I also hope CSP can do it but I have my doubts.  Hope I'm wrong about that as well.

I don't understand the argument with all the transferring each year?    Isn't every team in the exact same boat with this?  Murray has tradition an expectation to compete.    We will get the talent and we will be in the mix.    Our NCAA drought will be less than it was between Prohms last one and McMahons 1st one. 3years.

Quote from: bjhracer on March 07, 2023, 06:56:13 AM

Quote from: Rooster on March 06, 2023, 10:58:01 PMI don't see Murray doing well in this league for several years, at least 6 to 7.  Hope I wrong but it's gonna be very difficult with all the transferring each year.  It's also gonna take some quality big men who can be consistent every game.  I also hope CSP can do it but I have my doubts.  Hope I'm wrong about that as well.

I don't understand the argument with all the transferring each year?    Isn't every team in the exact same boat with this?  Murray has tradition an expectation to compete.    We will get the talent and we will be in the mix.    Our NCAA drought will be less than it was between Prohms last one and McMahons 1st one. 3years.

An example of what I'm saying about transferring.  In this day and time, would Ja have been at Murray State for his second season?  Maybe, maybe not.

I would bet my house on Ja returning for 2nd season no matter what the transfer rules were. If you don't think he was being inundated with offers after his freshman season lol you weren't paying attention. He knew he was going to Association after his sophomore season by the end of his freshman season. Coming back to Murray was a no brainer plus he is one loyal dude. He was being hit left and right with tweets about how he should bolt after his freshman season and his standard reply was "I'm good". 

Quote from: smidge34 on March 07, 2023, 07:39:43 AMI would bet my house on Ja returning for 2nd season no matter what the transfer rules were. If you don't think he was being inundated with offers after his freshman season lol you weren't paying attention. He knew he was going to Association after his sophomore season by the end of his freshman season. Coming back to Murray was a no brainer plus he is one loyal dude. He was being hit left and right with tweets about how he should bolt after his freshman season and his standard reply was "I'm good".

While I agree with you on Ja, I have to also point out when Prohm bolted for ISU I believe his exact words were "I'm here for as long as Murray will have me."  A week later he was in Ames.  So sometimes words aren't worth the breath it takes to produce them or the time it takes to make a tweet.  

Completely and totally different scenarios, not worth the comparison.