Arch Madness – Three Days of Building

Quarterfinal Day = Program Building

(St. Louis, MO) – The second day of Arch Madness may be my favorite tournament day. Eight of the teams are involved and it begins three days of building momentum, excitement and drama. For roughly ten hours there is nothing but high level basketball and character building challenges.

For Missouri Valley Conference coaches there is more. While they are hoping to win games and keep their seasons alive, they are also spending three days of building their programs. Each Valley coach tells us about what they are building, establishing and pursuing.

These three days of building are about building a legacy, creating memories and establishing culture.

Program Builders

While seven teams are gunning for Northern Iowa this weekend, all eight coaches are seeing this tournament as a way to move their individual programs forward. Seven of the remaining eight teams have winning records and all of them are ranked in the top 180 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. This is a league on the rise, with multiple teams truly on the rise.

The only sub .500 team is Missouri State. After being picked to win the Valley race, the Bears (15-16, 9-9) finished tied for sixth. They have won five of their last eight games. Coach Dana Ford’s team has the talent to do great damage to the higher seeded teams.

The second year coach says he likes what he sees in his team.

 

 

First year coach Bryan Mullins’ Southern Illinois (16-15, 10-8) team battles defending champion Bradley. The Braves (20-11, 11-7) have accumulated three straight 20-win seasons and have improved their Valley standing every year.

Mullins says Wardle has done a great job of building a program identity of toughness and knowing how to win games.

 

 

Wardle’s squad has battled injuries and are finally healthy enough to be the team he has been building for five years. Star Elijah Childs seems to be 100 percent healthy and Wardle says his team is energized and believes they still have a lot to achieve.

 

 

Those two teams square off at 2:30 p.m.

Moser’s ‘Rambler Revolution

Second seeded Loyola (21-10, 13-5) failed to earn their third straight regular season title. That bothers the ever-positive coach Porter Moser, but he believes his team and program is still ascending. While they failed to win the title, they actually won one more league game than the previous season.

The former Creighton Bluejay says he is proud of his team and what they’ve accomplished. For Moser, three days of building, means being great for three days.

 

 

After taking the 2018 team to the Final Four, many people expected Moser to move on to greener pastures, but the Chicago native says he’s at Loyola Chicago because he loves what they are building. The LUC administration has improved facilities and even in what some call a ‘rebuilding year’ the Ramblers have won 21 games. Moser loves being the Loyola Chicago head coach.

 

 

Northern Iowa (25-5, 14-4) are the regular season champions and ‘Coach of the Year’ Ben Jacobson wants three days of building a great resume for the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, but all eight MVC teams are looking for something special out of this weekend.

Already Drake and Valparaiso have won games. In just his second year, in Des Moines Darian DeVries has collected 43 wins. During Matt Lottich’s introduction the Valley his team has improved their win total every season.

Eight teams are looking for three days of building.

Do Good