Missouri Valley

The Stakes are High in Des Moines

by
Harry Schroeder
February 12, 2021

Loyola & Drake Battle for Valley Supremacy, but Breaking News – Hemphill is OUT!

(St. Louis, MO) – Late season games on national television with first place at stake, is what college basketball fans, coaches and players dream of. We have that this weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference. When Loyola Chicago (17-3, 12-1) visits Drake (19-1, 10-1) this weekend the stakes are high in Des Moines, Iowa.

LUC is 22^nd in the latest Associated Press Poll and two weeks ago the Bulldogs were twenty-fifth. With nationally televised games (ESPN2) Saturday and Sunday and College Game Day interviewing Sister Jean, many people will be eyeballing the Valley.

These are the Valley’s two best teams in many ways. Their rank among MVC schools is first and second in scoring offense AND scoring defense. They are the conference’s top two teams in shooting percentage, assists and assist/turnover ratio.

Both teams are ranked in the top ten NATIONALLY in scoring defense.

We’ve seen these kinds of games before.

Heady Times

Illinois State’s Dan Muller led his Redbirds to a 17-1 conference mark in 2017. After winning their first 11 league contests they lost to nationally ranked Wichita State. They blew through the rest of the regular season and into the finals at Arch Madness where they again fell to the Shockers

WSU went on to the NCAA Touarnament and ILS was dispatched to the National Invitation Tournament. Muller says he’s glad the league has two teams receiving national recognition and he remembers those heady times.

The stakes are high in Des Moines.

Southern Illinois’ Bryan Mullins is one of the program’s all-time great players. During his sophomore season the Salukis were one of three Valley schools to receive a national ranking. The Egyptian Dawgs finished first but before 22,612 fans at Arch Madness, they dropped a six-point decision to Creighton.

Mullins knows players notice national rankings and extra media coverage, but they want more. They want to improve and be ranked even higher.

Moser and DeVries – Playing it Cool

While both teams have impressive National Evaluation Tool numbers, no Valley team feels secure by banking on the metrics (see Missouri State 2006; Illinois State 2017). Many believe Loyola’s historic 2018 team wouldn’t have been invited to March Madness without their Arch Madness victory.

This will be a ‘Quad One’ game for both teams. They need to play in and win quad one games. Unfortunately, and fortunately for Valley fans it is against a fellow conference comrade.

Drake’s Darian DeVries, who was a coach in that 2007 Creighton win over SIU talks about the value of this weekend’s games for the league and for his team.

Loyola’s Porter Moser echos those thoughts. The author of that magical 2018 Final Four run says the coaches root for one another in nonconference games, but admits it is a big weekend for both teams.

Moser believes the Bulldogs are an elite team.

Game Changer – Hemphill OUT

Muller mentioned the disadvantage Drake had by having to play a game on Wednesday night. As it turns out Drake’s leading scorer ShanQuan Hemphill went down with a foot injury. Late Friday afternoon, Drake announced Hemphill sustained a fracture in that foot and had surgery. Drake announced Hemphill will miss several weeks of action.

Hemphill’s injury is a true game-changer.

It was Drake’s first game after suffering their only loss and DeVries thought his team played well. While he is speaking we show you some of Hemphill’s abilities. (Video courtesy of godrakebulldogs.com)

Moser believes Marquise Kennedy will play this weekend, but he is coming off a hamstring injury.