The Portal – Devastation or Reboot

Missouri Valley’s Rocky Offseason

(St. Louis, MO) – It has been anything but a peaceful and satisfying offseason for Missouri Valley Conference fans. The excitement of Belmont, Murray State and Illinois-Chicago joining the league wore off quickly as the transfer portal took center stage. Is it devastation or reboot?

Shortly after Murray State was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, its coach left and so did the ENTIRE ROSTER! The Racers were destined to lose Matt McMahon to a power conference team and stars Tevin Brown and K.J. Williams to professional basketball. After quickly replacing McMahon with his former boss, Steve Prohm. Racer culture seemed secure.

A solid recruiting class was expected to click with Prohm and the veterans would feel the same vibe from McMahon’s mentor and all would be right with the world. Prohm, who coached Isaiah Canaan and Cameron Payne would certainly mesh with star guard Justice Hill. Just as Murray fans could give their collective sigh of relief, every player on the roster left the program.

Murray State Is Not Alone

Belmont’s arrival in the Valley is not much easier. Casey Alexander is still coaching the team, but all-time greats Grayson Murphy, Nick Muszynski and fellow veteran Luke Smith are graduating and leaving a huge hole in the roster.

Those things are expected, but when rising star and Ohio Valley Conference all-freshman team member Will Richard moved to the portal, the Bruins were deeply wounded. Jacobi Wood followed Richard there, and the Bruins have a serious power outage.

Illinois State’s hiring of Ryan Pedon will prove to be an outstanding hire, but Pedon will build the Redbirds without the Valley’s leading scorer Antonio Reeves and fellow guard Josiah Strong. Evansville veterans Evan Kuhlman and Noah Frederking have graduated, but the nucleus of Todd Lickliter’s team has portaled its way out too. Talented guards Shamar Givance and Juwan Newton and Lickliter’s top freshman Blake Sisley are making like Captain Kirk and being beamed somewhere else.

Bradley and Northern Iowa have been mostly stable in terms of roster turnover, but their losses are gigantic. Brian Wardle’s best player, Terry Roberts is gone. Northern Iowa has lost its second best player in Noah Carter and who knows if A.J. Green will stay or declare for the draft?

The third in-coming team, UIC has lost five players and Indiana State has seen six depart. Valparaiso lost up-and-coming talent Sheldon Edwards.

It is no surprise that  Missouri State star Isiaih Mosley declared for the draft, but Demarcus Sharp and JaMonta Black entering the portal caught this reporter by surprise.

Southern Illinois and Drake seem the least affected by the ‘portal pandemic’ so far …

Devastation or Reboot

How these programs and coaching staffs react and rebuild will determine if this is devastation or reboot. Capable coaches and remain and more than 1,200 players are in the portal. Some of these players could actually return to their Valley schools. UNI’s Carter did that last season. Mosely and Green could find out the NBA doesn’t want them yet and could be back torching MVC nets.

In-coming freshmen, and portal utilization will be key. Belmont has rarely been a transfer destination, but that will likely have to change. Drake has tons of players back and a Texas Tech transfer coming in.

All is not lost. However, Steve Prohm and other Valley coaches’ jobs are significantly more difficult. Luke Yaklich’s first year in the Valley won’t be easy and he has to rebuild AND upgrade his roster. Indiana State’s Josh Schertz has been active. He landed Bradley’s Jayson Kent and DePaul transfer Courvoisier McCauley.

Player movement is here to stay, so Valley coaches seemingly have to look at every offseason as devastation or reboot.

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