Last Place Teams Rising in the Missouri Valley Conference

(St. Louis, MO) – How do last place teams turn their seasons around? January ended with the Missouri Valley Conference’s two Indiana-based teams (Evansville and Indiana State) tied for last place with only one conference win apiece. February came along and everything changed for the Hoosier state teams.

Evansville (13-14, 4-10) lost a one point, February 1^st overtime game at Indiana State, and haven’t lost since. The Sycamores (10-16, 4-10) dropped their next game at Northern Iowa and then won two straight contests.

Suddenly in a three-way tie for eighth place, one game out of seventh and two from sixth, how did these two teams turn around lost seasons? Most games in the Missouri Valley Conference are knock down, drag out affairs. Indiana State, for example, has played 15 games decided by six points or less. Five of Missouri State’s 14 league game have gone into overtime.

In the tightly contested MVC games, how did the Purple Aces and Sycamores flip the script?

Hard Work at Practice

Every coach preaches the value of practice and hard work. ISU head coach Greg Lansing may enjoy practice more than the games. His teams are known for playing fundamentally sound basketball, solid defense and keeping it clean. All of those close games and TJ Bell’s departure from the team wore the Sycamores down, but Lansing says the relief of winning some games has come about due to hard work on the practice floor.

 

 

Having center T.J. Bell back with the team has done a lot to settle Lansing’s rotation. More than points and rebounds (Bell has only scored 19 points in the four game run), his presence in the locker room, the pivot rotation with Brandon Murphy and Emondre Rickman has fortified their interior game. Lansing says Rickman’s improvement (he has scored 26 points and blocked 12 shots in the last three games) is a direct result of having Bell rejoin the team.

 

 

Getting Better and Growing Confidence

We hear coaches talk about that fine line between winning and losing. That line is increasingly narrow in the well-coached Missouri Valley Conference. Evansville head coach Marty Simmons says his team’s turn around comes down to a few basic things. Simmons says his guys are just playing better.

In addition to improved play, remember they lost two hall-of-famers and one other expected returning starter from last year’s team, Simmons says the Purple Aces have seen their confidence level improve, and with that growing confidence, better results have followed along.

 

 

UE has won three straight games because they’ve been able to solve that fine line. During the four games before the three game stretch, the Aces lost three road games by a total of 14 points (one in overtime) and they dropped a ten point home contest to league-leading Illinois State.

Simmons says that elusive thing called ‘confidence’ is particularly important on the offensive end, as players shoot and execute aggressively rather than passively. The Aces hadn’t scored as many as 70 points since New Year’s Day. UE has turned that trick in three of their last four games.

Simmons says the grind of the MVC season is always demanding and his players have stayed united and improved their execution and consistency.

 

 

As the season winds down and Valley teams look forward to Arch Madness 2017, it’s obvious that every game is critical for these two teams. This week’s games for Evansville (hosting Drake and traveling to Bradley) are winnable games that could catapult the Aces to the possibility of moving out of a Thursday night game in St. Louis. Indiana State’s games (visiting Loyola and hosting Southern Illinois) are more difficult, but those are teams the Sycamores and Aces must catch to climb out of the basement.

Do Good