Is the Transition Complete?

(St. Louis, MO) – The transition taking place in the Missouri Valley Conference was never more evident than during the opening night of Arch Madness. Bradley’s spectacular Walt Lemon Junior was playing in his final game in a Braves uniform and Loyola’s fantastic freshman Milton Doyle was participating in his first MVC post season game.

Lemon who would eclipse the 1,700 career point mark in the contest played like a man who had no interest in ending his collegiate career. He was at his senior best, stealing balls, setting up teammates and scoring big points. He is one of four players in Valley history to score at least 1,600 (1,721) points, distribute over 300 (367) assists and collect 200 (222) steals. The other three to do so were Hersey Hawkins, Darren Brooks and Larry Bird.

Doyle landed in Loyola after an extremely brief stay in Lawrence, Kansas.  He sat out last season and ended up being named both the MVC’s Freshman AND Newcomer of the Year. The 6’4” Chicago native made his mark throughout the Valley this year.

During Friday’s game the Senior showed the Scottrade Center his four year brilliance and the Freshman revealed the scope of his enormous potential. Both were leading their teams and both hit gigantic free-throws as the lead changed hands often down the stretch.

Lemon finished with 24 points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals. He was perfect on 10 shots from the line, including six of them in the final two minutes and two that looked to provide a winning margin with 4 seconds remaining.

But the Freshman wasn’t done yet. Doyle didn’t score much early in the first half, when Head Coach Porter Moser said he had played his best first half of the season because of the way he was moving the ball and involving his teammates.

When the Ramblers needed him most, he brought his best. Doyle scored Loyola’s last nine points including a thrilling game winning three-pointer as the Scottrade Center buzzer blared.

After the game, Lemon was at a loss for words, “It’s hard to end a season like that. I mean, my college career is over. Younger guys get a chance to play again. Me, I got to move on with my life.”

Head Coach Geno Ford said Lemon has made more than a statistical impact on the Bradley program. “I give him credit for turning the program in one direction … turning the work ethic because we weren’t a program three years ago where guys get in the gym and worked on their own game. Now, because of Walt’s relentless approach to becoming a better player individually, it spread.”

Moser was pleased with the way his team prevailed with what he called ‘an attitude of winning’ and gave a lot of credit to Doyle for making that big shot.

 

Lemon will move on to some other arena of life and will be missed in all ten MVC arenas and Doyle is just arriving to terrorize those same facilities.

Do Good