Building Programs in the Valley

Coaches Talk About Building Blocks

(St. Louis, MO) – During the ‘portal pandemic’ Missouri Valley Conference coaches still believe in building ‘programs’ and staying focused on their essential building blocks. While hosting the Valley’s ‘Game of the Week – Pregame Show’ we asked several Valley veterans about building programs in the Valley.

The coaches seemed to echo similar themes. When talking about their own programs and some of their peers, they emphasized things like consistency, being ‘true to who you are’, expectations and their supporting structures.

Casey Alexander – Building Programs Three Times

Belmont’s Casey Alexander has enjoyed outstanding success following legendary Bruins’ coach Rick Byrd. While he attended a ‘masters class’ playing for and coaching with Byrd, Alexander is grateful that he left Belmont and gathered other experiences to better prepare him for the Bruin job.

Belmont has won at least 20 games for 14 straight seasons and 19 contests for 19 consecutive campaigns. During Alexanders’ six years, they have enjoyed a .730 winning percentage and amazing academic achievements.

Alexander believes coaches need to know what they want to build and fight compromise all along the way. He admits building a program the way he prefers to build is challenged with the player mobility changes of recent years.

Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson admires the way Alexander and Belmont have maintained high standards and a consistent approach to building the Bruin program.

Belmont plays Northern Iowa in the second game of its State of Iowa road trip, Wednesday night at 8:00 pm on Matrix Midwest.

Brian Wardle – Bradley Braves

It took Brian Wardle two seasons to get the Bradley program fully moving in the right direction, but his accomplishments over the past eight seasons have been impressive. Since that five-win first season and just 13 in the second year, Wardle’s teams have won .619 of their games, one regular season championship and two Arch Madness titles.

He cut his teeth working for Tom Crean and says he still has a few ‘Crean-isms’ in his coaching style.

Wardle has seen quality ‘star’ players depart through the portal and at least in one case (Zek Montgomery), have a player ‘bounce back’. Building programs in the Valley (or rebuilding) has changed during  Wardle’s ten years on the Hilltop.

Indiana State’s Matthew Graves calls Wardle an ‘old school coach’ that isn’t afraid to evolve. Graves is at the beginning of his building program and has great respect for Wardle’s consistency and accountability.

During his first season as the Sycamore head coach, Graves feels like his team is a little bit ‘ahead of schedule’ during this initial edition of Indiana State hoops.

The Braves travel to Indiana State for the first game of the ‘Matrix Midwest’ ‘Game of the Week’ double-header. It is a 6:00 pm tip from the Hullman Center. Both Bradley and Indiana State are 2-0 in early Valley play.

Ben Jacobson – The Dean of Valley Coaches

Northern Iowa has enjoyed sustained success for over twenty years. Greg McDermott led the Panthers to great success and then moved to Iowa State and eventually to Creighton. McDermott assistant Ben Jacobson was hired to replace his ‘boss’ and is now working in his 19^th head coaching season.

Jacobson is the Valley’s all-time winningest coach in terms of conference games (195). He has claimed the league’s ‘coach of the year award’ an unprecedented five times and has been the author of some of the conference’s most historic and consequential wins.

This week’s Valley ‘Player of the Week’ is Tytan Anderson. The fifth-year player is climbing the ladder on many UNI career accomplishment categories. While Jacobson admits retaining players is harder than ever, and prefers to build with players during longer periods of time.

He says watching Anderson compete and grow in the UNI uniform is a source of a little ‘dad pride’.

Alexander says the expectation of winning is important. He says Jacobson and the UNI players expect to win. He sees similarities between their two philosophies.

There are five new head coaches building programs in the Valley. Graves is one of those, but Wardle, Alexander and Jacobson are some of the mainstays of the MVC coaching fraternity.

Drake’s Ben McCollum is a unique addition to that fraternity. His 394 Division 2 wins don’t show up on D1 record books, but what he’s accomplished during his time at Northwest Missouri State and his first season at Drake is remarkable.

Here are the coaching win totals (in descending order) of Jacobson (362), SIU’s Scott Nagy (339), Missouri State’s Cuonzo Martin (271), Wardle and Alexander (264 each) and Murray State’s Steve Prohm (237). Jacobson (.603), Nagy (.631) and Alexander (.613) own winning percentages above .600. Wardle does too after the first two years of foundation building. Prohm’s winning percentage is .667 at Murray.

Martin is over .600 at Cal and Tennessee and just below that number (.591) with the Bears.

Building programs in the Valley is in good hands.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo of Ben Jacobson, courtesy of unipanthers.com.