Are You Waking Up To the Valley Yet?

In Other Words, What Jay Bilas Doesn’t Know

(St. Louis, MO) – It only took the national sports networks three or four NCAA Tournament victories to see what we in ‘Valley Country’ already knew. The Missouri Valley Conference has really good teams, incredible human interest stories, outstanding coaches, nice facilities, an amazing league office, and awesome traditions!

Thanks for waking up and smelling the coffee!

For all the writers and TV commentators that are now falling all over themselves to know the latest about Loyola, Sr. Jean and Porter Moser (AND THEY SHOULD), we’re glad you’re noticing. We know you left our league for dead after Creighton’s 2014 exit to the Big East.

Oh, but wait, Wichita State was still great, setting records, going to a Final Four and sending players to the NBA, so you only thought the MVC was ‘mostly dead’. But when the Shockers left, now you were convinced the St. Louis-based league, the second oldest conference in America, was on a ventilator and had been given last rites.

As Mark Twain famously said ‘the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.’ So, welcome back! During this magical Ramblers run to the Final Four, the Loyola sports information staff, headed by the brilliant Bill Behrns, is fielding 300 to 400 daily media requests. Apparently Commissioner Doug Elgin’s dream of a midwest conference that could play a national schedule and earn a seat at the ‘big kid table’ is more than just a dream.

So what did the Valley do this year BEFORE you noticed?

The league earned the eighth best RPI among college conferences, just behind Wichita State’s American Athletic Conference and in front of the Mountain West (2 teams in the tournament), Atlantic 10 (3 teams in the bracket), Conference USA, etc. Valley teams were ninth in the vaunted KenPom.com rankings, again in front of the Atlantic 10, West Coast Conference and Conference USA.

Valley teams are a combined 87-45 in non-conference games. Three teams placed in the RPI’s top 100. Conference squads achieved victories over Wake Forest, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, NC State, Mississippi, Tulsa and SMU from the ‘power 7’ (American, ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) leagues. Loyola’s March Madness resume includes wins over Miami (ACC), Tennessee (SEC), Nevada (Mountain West) and Kansas State (Big 12).

So you wanted human interest stories? Well Sr. Jean has been working her magic at Loyola since they were in the Horizon League and our friend Mark (@enthusiadams) Adams has been telling her story for well over a year, and his picture with her is his Twitter profile picture. Or how about Southern Illinois honoring a former all-american women’s player (Jackie Stiles from Missouri State) who’s battling cancer (See our story ‘Special Moments in a Long Season‘ about both of those stories)?

Or how about Drake’s Reed Timmer. A four-year STUDENT-Athelete that set the school’s all-time scoring record while carrying a grade-point average of 3.47 in the doctorate of Pharmacy program!

Did you consider that during 2016-17 season when Fort Wayne and Indiana State pulled off upsets of top 25 teams, the leading scorers in those games were twin brothers? Brenton Scott from the Valley’s Indiana State and Bryson of the Mastodons are mirror images of one another and stunned the basketball world all in one, two-week span (Indiana State stopping Butler and Fort Wayne taking out Indiana). By-the-way, the twins completed their college eligibility with a combined 3,379 points (Brenton – 1,810 and Bryson 1,569). Isn’t that an interesting note? How about on senior day, two different Valley players proposed to their girl friends during the senior presentations? Is that interesting enough? Or is it more important to cover the latest scandal at Louisville, or Grayson Allen’s flagrant foul?

Or what about play-by-play broadcasters at Bradley, Southern Illinois and Missouri State that have all been behind the mic for more than 35 years, are in numerous halls-of-fame and are graduates from their institutions?

Can they coach in this league? Bruce Weber, Matt Painter, Gregg Marshall, Greg McDermott and Cuonzo Martin all coached teams into this year’s tournament, with Weber and Painter making it to the Sweet Sixteen. They are all former head coaches in the Valley.

Since 2011 the Valley has THE BEST postseason (NCAA, NIT, CIT, CBI) percentage (.644) of all Division 1 conferences .

As Loyola becomes the second MVC school in the Final Four since 2013, league teams have accumulated the fourth best winning percentage in the NCAA Tournament (.643) since 2012.

Despite not playing near as many home games as the ‘money conferences’, this season only two conferences had a better home winning percentage than the Valley (.768). Loyola is the fifth different MVC program (and eighth time overall) since 2002 to reach the Sweet Sixteen. The others are Bradley, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois (twice) and Wichita State (three times).

Individual performances have been equally special. Nationally, Missouri State’s Alize Johnson was the eighth best producer of double-doubles (20), while Indiana State’s Jordan Barnes was third best at three-pointers per game (3.77).  Illinois State’s Milik Yarbrough was the only player nationally to average at least 16.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. THE ONLY ONE! Timmer finished his career, just shy of 2,000 points (1,980).

Since 2013 the Valley has produced more Final Four teams than the Pac-12, American, A-10 and West Coast Conferences, that are supposed to be better leagues. They have produced the same amount of Final Four teams as the Big 12 despite receiving just nine bids to the NCAA Tournament in those six years. The Pac-12 has received 29 bids, the Big 12 has had 39 invitations and the American 15.

Listen, I’m not saying the Missouri Valley Conference is the best conference in America! What I am saying to the very busy national media, that only seems to care which Tobacco Road team is going to Final Four, or how John Calipari’s ‘one-and-done’ players are going fare at the next level, is PAY ATTENTION to this league that produces NBA players, Final Four teams, great coaches, interesting story-lines and yes, some very good basketball.

Do Good