Catching Up with Old Friends

Former Missouri Valley Coaches

(St. Louis, MO) – People always tell us the Missouri Valley is a ‘coaches’ league’. If that’s true then it’s likely that coaches would sometimes move on the ‘greener pastures’ and succeed. So we decided to do some catching up with old friends. Saturday we spent time with two former Valley head coaches and we’ve also just checked out how some of our old friends are doing in other places.

Old Friends Meet up in St. Louis 

When Loyola Chicago visited Saint Louis University on Saturday, it was the perfect opportunity to look under the hood on one of our former programs and speak with two former Valley head coaches. LUC’s Drew Valentine’s first year as a head coach was Loyola’s last in the Valley. Saint Louis U’s Josh Schertz is coaching his first season with the Billikens after three at Indiana State.

The Billikens won the game in convincing fashion pushing SLU and LUC into a four-way tie for third place in the Atlantic Ten. Schertz said his team probably played its best game all season. Gibson Jimmerson set a SLU record with nine three-pointers and the team set a new program record of 18 triples. Old friends Robbie Avila (28 points)and Isaiah Swope (12) weren’t bad either.

Schertz says the Ramblers are a very good team and that he and Valentine are good friends. He hopes his team can build on Saturday’s outstanding performance.

Kenpom.com ranks the A-Ten as the nation’s eighth best conference (the Valley is ranked eleventh). For Schertz and Valentine to have their teams in the top third of that league is significant. SLU is currently 101 in the NET and LUC slipped to 122.

Both teams are trying to fight their way into the A-Ten’s four seeds and receive a double-bye in the conference tournament. Valentine says he believes the Loyola trajectory is heading in the right direction. During his first A-Ten season the Ramblers won just ten games. Last season they raised that total to 23 and with two games left and then the league tournament, they have 19 victories.

Both of these teams have battled injuries, but have stayed extremely relevant in the conference race.

I asked Valentine about the possibility of scheduling some MVC teams and it sounds like that is at least a possibility.

Recent Departures to Power Conference Teams

Valentine’s previous boss, Porter Moser has been at Oklahoma for four years and is looking for that ‘break through’ season. Last year, Drake’s Darian DeVries left for West Virginia. Moser’s 71-57 record clearly isn’t bad, and this year the Sooners own a significant number of big time wins and have earned a NET rating of 53. But a 4-12 Southeastern Conference record has people wondering about his future in Norman, Oklahoma.

DeVries left for the Big Twelve Conference and son Tucker went with him. His current record is the same as Moser’s (17-12), but the team has been playing short-handed. Tucker played just eight games before his left shoulder problems flared up again. The Mountaineers have dropped four of their last six games, but like Oklahoma, have some big time wins.

Victories over nationally ranked Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas and Iowa State should make any fan base happy. The Sooners have wins over Arizona, Louisville, Michigan and Vanderbilt, but the Sooners have dropped two-in-a-row and seven of their last eight games.

We know the ‘grass isn’t always greener’ and we wish these two all the best.

Old Friends – Further Removed

Along time ago Purdue’s Matt Painter, Creighton’s Greg McDermott, Oregon’s Dana Altman and Nevada’s Steve Alford patrolled Missouri Valley sidelines. McDermott was at Northern Iowa and left for Iowa State. He returned to the Valley to coach at Creighton and then the Bluejay program left for the Big East.

His current team is 39th in the NET and ‘Coach Mac’ is six wins shy of 500 for his outstanding career. 197 of those victories happened in the Valley.

Painter’s stay was a lot shorter. After coaching one season at Southern Illinois, he ‘went home’ to Purdue. He had played there and after being an assistant under Bruce Weber at SIU, he earned the top spot when the hall of famer left for Illinois. During Painter’s one season in Carbondale, the Salukis went 25-5, won the regular season title and played in the NCAA Tournament. Twenty seasons later, Painter has won 467 more games and this year the Boilermakers will participate in their 16th NCAA Tournament under Painter.

Why would Dana Altman ever leave the Valley? During his 16 seasons at Creighton, the Bluejays won 65% of their games, three conference championships, six Arch Madness titles and went dancing seven times. Altman left for Oregon and things got even better.

The Ducks have won nearly 70% of their games and during Altman’s fifteen campaigns they have participated in eight NCAA Tournaments. Altman has won 776 games during his illustrious career. 327 came at Creighton.

Steve Alford had four meteoric years at Missouri State. The Bears twice won at least twenty games and Alford led Missouri State to its only NCAA Tournament as a Valley member (1999). He has enjoyed significant stays at Iowa, New Mexico, UCLA and now at Nevada. His current Wolfpack squad is 71st in the NET. Alford has flown a little under the radar on his way to 621 career victories.

He has taken thirteen teams dancing in March

Still Pulling for Old Friends

When these coaches leave the Valley, it’s like losing a friend to a nicer neighborhood, or a co-worker to a rival company, but in the end, I/we keep rooting for their success. Bruce Weber was one of those guys and he’ll be recognized at Arch Madness as a Valley hall-of-famer.

As it should be with old friends.

Do Good