Merry Christmas – I’ve Been Around a Long Time

Things Keep Changing

(St. Louis, MO) – Merry Christmas! It is amazing to me how things change. I began my engagement with the Missouri Valley Conference at Arch Madness 1998. I’ve been around a long time. A young player named Dan Muller was helping Illinois State to its second straight championship win over Missouri State.

For the next several years I announced more Arch Madness games (on local radio) than any other broadcaster. I fell in love with a league filled with administrators, media members and fans that loved the sport, their teams and the notion that some smaller schools could over achieve in the world of ‘big time basketball’.

We stood in awe as the ‘Creighton Dynasty’ took place. The Bluejays would win five of the next seven season-ending tournaments. Dana Altman had an amazing thing going. Clearly the folks in Oregon understand the greatness of that coach.

We’ve watched the league shrink and expand several times. Wichita State became a formidable challenger to the ‘Reign of Creighton’ but shortly after those two stepped into national prominence, they departed for ‘greener pastures’. With the loss of those programs, the Valley landed Loyola Chicago and Valparaiso.

When the Ramblers departed, Belmont, Illinois Chicago and Murray State joined the Valley family.

Making National Noise

During my first full season of embracing the MVC, three Valley teams participated March Madness and Missouri State advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Creighton split its two tournament games and the great Marcus Wilson put on an offensive show against Kansas during an Evansville, first round defeat. Suddenly, the Valley was cool!

I’ve been around a long time. It seemed like the Valley sent multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament every year and those teams were successful.

Southern Illinois went to the Sweet Sixteen in 2002. Three teams were dancing in 2005, but the pinnacle of NCAA success would take place in 2006 and 2007. MVC teams would shock the world with two teams reaching 2006’s Sweet Sixteen and one more doing so in 2007.

Four Valley teams ‘danced’ in 2006 and Bradley’s Marcellus Sommerville and Patrick O’Bryant-led squad won a pair of tournament games and so did Wichita State. The 2007 SIU Salukis reached the ‘Big Dance’ for a Valley-record-tying, sixth straight season and proceeded to win their first two NCAA Tournament games for another Sweet Sixteen appearance.

‘Floor Burn U’ was real and MVC teams had participated in five Sweet Sixteen games in nine seasons.

NCAA power brokers didn’t like a system that rewarded the non-power conferences, so they changed the metrics related to the RPI and life began to change for the so-called, ‘mid-major’ programs. I’ve been around a long time and watched NCAA power brokers continue to set up a system that doesn’t help our favorite teams.

For the next four seasons, the Valley sent a singular team to the Big Dance, but Northern Iowa shocked everyone with another Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2010. The ‘all-time’ unique name team including Jordan Eglseder, Ali Farokhmanesh and Kwadzo Ahelegbe defeated UNLV and Kansas.

UNI broadcaster Gary Rima’s “Down Goes Kansas” call is legendary.

Wichita State claimed the 2011 NIT title and Missouri State was the 2010 CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) champion.

The Teen Years

Through the early ‘teen years’ of the 2000s, Valley teams continued to strut their stuff. During Creighton’s final two seasons in the league, they and Wichita State would both go dancing. The Doug and Greg McDermott-led teams from Omaha were fun to watch. Doug’s 33-point performance in the Arch Madness final of 2012 was mesmerizing. Greg Marshall’s ‘Play Angry’ Shockers were a picture of enforcing your will on someone else. Malcolm Armstead’s 28-point 2013 Arch Madness final was electrifying.

By-the-way, Armstead’s ‘back-up’ was future NBA star Fred VanVleet.

Creighton split two games during the 2013 Dance and Wichita State ran to the Final Four. That Shocker team was so deep that future professionals including VanVleet, Ron Baker and Cleanthony Early came off the bench.

That was Creighton’s last MVC season and Loyola Chicago joined the Valley. Little did we know how impactful and how short-lived the Ramblers stay would be.

While WSU didn’t return to the Final Four, the Shockers opened the 2013-14 season with 35 straight wins! Early, VanVleet, Baker and Tekelle Cotton took center-stage and dominated college basketball. In perhaps the greatest basketball game I have ever seen (in person), the Shockers lost during the NCAA Tournament’s second round to Kentucky and several future NBA stars. 78-76 was the final in downtown St. Louis.

During the Shockers’ final three Valley seasons (2015, 2016 & 2017), Marshall’s team would win five NCAA Tournament games, including a Sweet Sixteen bid earning defeat of Kansas, which launched headlines that the Shockers were ‘The Kings of Kansas“!

Northern Iowa claimed opening round wins in both 2015 and 2016. After a magnificent  Arch Madness Championship win over Evansville, UNI’s 2016 NCAA Tournament experience was insane. They defeated Texas with a half-court shot and then lost to Texas A&M in double-overtime. Ben Jacobson’s ‘Giant Killers’ earned a national reputation for knocking off nationally ranked teams.

That Evansville team went on to become the second Valley team win claim the CIT Championship. Loyola’s 2015 team was the College Basketball Insider tournament champion.

Wichita State won the 2017 Arch Madness title, split two games in the national tournament and was on its way to the American Athletic Conference. Valparaiso replaced the Shockers in the ten-team MVC. It was the end of an era.

Illinois State’s 2017 was amazing, historic and disappointing all at the same time. The Dan Muller-coached Redbirds won the league with a 17-1 record, but then lost the MVC tournament title game. Sentenced to the NIT, the Redbirds defeated UC Irvine and were one home victory away from hosting Illinois in the NIT semifinals but lost on a last second shot to Central Florida.

I’ve been around a long time, but I did not know that a new exciting era was emerging.

Moser, Sister Jean and Rambler Culture

The emergence of Porter Moser, Sister Jean and the Rambler Culture at Loyola took the league and the nation by storm.

A magical 2018 NCAA Tournament run was followed up by a 2021 Loyola experience that was nearly as thrilling. Moser’s leadership, Sister Jean’s inspiration and the Rambler culture were talked about throughout the Valley and college basketball.

From the beginning of 2018 until their departure for the Atlantic Ten, LUC went 124-44, with an MVC record of 69-21 and played in three NCAA Tournaments reaching the 2018 Final Four and 2021 Sweet Sixteen. Dramatic, single-score games highlighted that 2018 fairy tale.

Donte Ingram, Cameron Krutwig, Marques Townes, Ben Richardson and Clayton Custer took turns putting on the Superman cape during that historic 2018 season.

After Bradley dropped a nail-biter during the 2019 tournament and the 2020 dance was covidly cancelled, the Ramblers were back with a different cast, but still fought their way to the 2021 Sweet Sixteen. Krutwig and classmate Lucas Williamson were the foundation pieces that sparked the Ramblers to more March Madness glory.

The Ramblers defeated the Darian DeVries-led Drake Bulldogs in both the 2021 and 2022 Arch Madness finals. Drake would split a pair of games in the ’21 ‘Big Dance’. Before the Ramblers left for the Atlantic Ten, Moser left for Oklahoma. His current Sooners’ team is one of four undefeated Division 1 teams. Drake is the other.

DeVries led Drake to the last two Arch Madness championships and is now coaching at West Virginia. His replacement, Ben McCollum has been wildly successful.

Final Thoughts

When I think of the Missouri Valley Conference and having been around a long time, I think of people. Former Commissioner Doug Elgin and other Valley staff members like Mike Kern, Jack Watkins, Joe Mitch and current commish Jeff Jackson. True professionals that do the right things for the right reasons. They care about the student-athletes and about those of us that love the league.

Valley broadcasters and writers are big part of the Valley family. Hall-of-Fame broadcasters like the late Larry Cotlar, and retired announcers Mike Reis, Rima, Dick Luedke, Neal Bradley and current all-time greats Dave Snell, Art Hains, and Mike Kennedy. The young rising stars like Luke Martin, Michael Admire, Jevin Redman, Steve Layman and JW Cox are carrying the tradition quite nicely.

Legendary writers Dave Reynolds, Todd Hefferman, Todd Golden and Jim Benson have been joined by amazing cross-platform reporters. Paul Oren, Wyatt Wheeler, Jeff Bidwell and independent bloggers like the guys from the ‘March to the Arch Podcast’ have changed the reporting dynamic.

TV commentators Kevin Lehman, Rich Zvosek, Scott Warman, Tom Ackerman, John Rooney, Kelly Burke and now Dan Muller are people that make the Valley special. They care about this league that has allowed me to call it my college basketball home.

In recent years, I’ve been blessed to be a part of some of those television broadcasts. For the past several years the kind people at KTRS (Brendan Wiese) here in St. Louis have brought me back to announce some local radio, Arch Madness games.

I’ve been around a long time and I should mention the many Sports Information Directors that make my job possible. You folks are incredible in the way you serve the media members and the fans. We owe you more than we can repay.

So many coaches have been kind to answer my hundreds of questions and to make time for our interviews and discussions.

My friend Michael Eaton has been the technical guy behind all the site work and management. I would be huge sinner if I didn’t thank him for all that’s happened on this site since 2014.

Thanks for letting me stick around a long time.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover graphic is what we posted on the site before there was ever anything written on it.