MVC In Review

(This is the first of a two-part series on the MVC’s 2013 Season and beyond)

St. Louis, MO – We just finished one of the most successful seasons in Missouri Valley Conference history.  By all standards of measure the MVC reasserted itself into college basketball’s collective consciousness.

Wichita State’s run to the Final Four is the most obvious exclamation point of the 2012-13 season, but it is not the solitary statement by America’s Renaissance Conference.  The Shockers’ climb to the championship weekend was the first for a Valley team since Larry Bird and the Sycamores of Indiana State turned the trick in 1979. Shocker Nation made a loud and respectful noise on the national scene.

For the second straight year, an MVC player (Creighton’s Doug McDermott) was named to multiple All-American teams.  McDermott was in the national conversation all year long as a potential player of the year and potentially finishes his career at Creighton as one of the most decorated Valley players in a generation.

To a lesser degree, Bradley’s Dyricus-Simms Edwards and Walt Lemon Junior were breaking MVC defensive records and climbing the national leaders charts all season. Recently Simms-Edwards was named the CollegeInsider.com’s mid-major defensive player of the year.

Speaking of CollegeInsider.com, multiple Valley teams were successful in that post season tournament too. Northern Iowa and Evansville made it to the semi-finals of that post season tournament and Bradley reached the quarter-finals where they lost to UNI.

Six Valley teams played post season games and the league broke its own record for post-season wins and finished second only to the Big Ten among the conferences in post-season victories. For the second straight year, there were two teams in the NCAA tournament.

There are storm clouds on the horizon with Creighton’s departure from the league, but Valley fans can’t help but be hopeful with solid leadership in place at several MVC outposts. Clearly Wichita State is the undisputed banner carrier, but behind the Shockers there are solid programs in several places.

Long known as a ‘coaches conference’ this could be one of the best collection of coaches in the league in some time. With only one coaching change (Ray Giacolleti at Drake) there is also great stability.  We know that Ben Jacobson (UNI), Greg Lansing (Indiana State) & Barry Hinson (Southern Illinois) are proven winners. There is great potential in Geno Ford (Bradley),  Greg Muller (Illinois State) & Paul Lusk (Missouri State). Marty Simmons seems to have turned the program at Evansville and even Giacolleti has great pedigree coming from both power conference backgrounds along with his very successful run as an assistant at Gonzaga.

This league could be on the verge of one of the very best runs in MVC history.