The Ones That Got Away

What Could Have Been

(St. Louis, MO) – Hearing that Antonio Reeves is a third-team ‘all-American’ got me to thinking. He is one of the ones that got away. The all-SEC guard from Kentucky used to play in Bloomington-Normal for the Illinois State Redbirds. What kind of a career could he have had in the Missouri Valley Conference?

How would the Redbirds have fared with an all-American guard in its backcourt? As a five-year player, he recorded over 1,000 points for each of his college teams and some time this weekend he will reach 300 three-point baskets and he is closing in or 500 rebounds.

Reeves is not alone as a player that has prospered in the so-called ‘power conferences’. His Redbird backcourt mate D.J. Horne is a third-team all-Atlantic Coast Conference performer.  I guess that means former Illinois State coach Dan Muller could identify and sign good talent. The North Carolina State guard spent two seasons at Arizona State in between his time in the Valley and the ACC. Horne has also eclipsed the 2,000 point mark.

Big Ten Ones That Got Away

This past offseason Valley fans watched four all-conference players depart for the Big Ten. How did Marcus Domask, Lance Jones, Rienk Mast and Ben Krikke fare in the big-bad Big Ten? Domask recently received first team, all-conference honors. While Mast was tagged with third-team status, both Jones and Krikke were honorable mentions.

All four averaged double-figures in scoring and all but Jones averaged more points than they did in the Valley. Their four teams will all be participating in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

As the ‘portal pandemic’ continues to reign over college basketball, it is impossible not to ask the ‘what if …. ?’ questions. What if Horne and Reeves had played five seasons at CEFCU arena? Would Muller still be an MVC coach instead of a Valley announcer?

We’ll ask Southern Illinois questions later, but it’s impossible not to wonder.

Portal & NIL Have Changed Everything

Division 1 coaches have to navigate new issues. ‘Name, Image and Likeness’ has joined forces with player free-agency and dramatically changed everything about the college game. Valley coaches are learning new skills concerning things like ‘collectives’, endorsements and in-season recruiting by other teams. They must continually re-recruit their own players.

More than one coach has told me privately that their jobs aren’t as fun as they used to be, but they know they have to develop these skills or lose talented players to other programs. Financial details aren’t the only ones players are looking at, but they are very near the top of the priority list.

Valley teams are also using the portal to their advantage. League champion Indiana State starts four players that did not begin their careers in Terre Haute. Several upper echelon Valley players came from ‘money conferences’ and have prospered with their MVC teams.

Others Who Got Away

Missouri State transfers Jonathan Mogbo and DeMarcus Sharp are shining other places. Mogbo left Springfield and became an all-West Coast Conference player with a potential NBA career in his future. Mogbo averaged over 14 points and ten rebounds for San Francisco and was named the WCC ‘Newcomer of the Year’.

Austin Peay’s Sharp was just named to the ASUN’s third-team all-conference team. He plays for former Bear assistant coach Corey Gipson. What would the Bears’ season have been like with those two on the squad? Perhaps the Bears would have been dramatically better and maybe Dana Ford would still be the team’s coach.

SIU transfer Kyler Filewich is finishing his second season at Wofford after two with Salukis. This season he averaged 9.4 points and 8.8 rebounds and has accumulated over 800 points and nearly 700 rebounds during his four collegiate seasons.

What would a Saluki lineup of Domask, Jones, Filewich and Xavier Johnson (he transferred in!) have looked like? SIU might have dominated the league and Bryan Mullins would still be at the Saluki helm. ‘What if’ questions might be productive, but they are impossible to not contemplate.

Northern Iowa seemed like they were one offensive weapon away from being a championship team. That might be because Noah Carter is a Missouri Tiger instead of a UNI Panther. Carter averaged eleven points and five rebounds for Mizzou.

We could say the same thing about Bradley who may have had the best ‘big four’ in the league. What if Carter’s Missouri teammate Sean East had stayed put? East averaged more than 17 points and four assists in the SEC and was the leauge’s Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Belmont transfer Will Richard didn’t receive all SEC notoriety, but the athletic wing did average double digits for Florida.

These high-level players began their careers in the Valley and we wish them all the best. Congratulations to those coaches that saw something special in these players and signed them in the first place, but it’s a brand new game.

The Next Wave

We have a problem. More are leaving. Just this week we’ve learned of the likely transfers of Missouri State’s Alston Mason and N.J. Benson, Belmont’s Ja’Kobi Gillespie and SIU’s Troy D’Amico and Kennard Davis. This struggle is far from over.

The ones that got away are prospering and we still privately root for them grow and prosper, but we quietly wish they were still around.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo courtesy of fightingillini.com.