Gordo: Loyola Chicago loses, Missouri Valley wins in basketball conference realignment

Some strikes work out significantly better than others.

The contrasting fortunes of the Loyola Ramblers and the league they left behind, the Missouri Valley Convention, ought to give athletic administrators pause because the Nice Realignment continues in school sports activities.

Ramblers coach Porter Moser painstakingly constructed his program up from Horizon League doormat to MVC energy and Ultimate 4 Cinderella.

Loyola received 99 video games throughout Moser’s final 4 years. Sister Jean grew to become one of many nation’s most well-known boosters. Moser’s well-oiled program equipment stored producing gifted and cohesive rosters.

The Ramblers appeared poised to maintain producing 20-victory seasons as Wichita State and Creighton as soon as did throughout their MVC heyday.

Ah, however establishment is fleeting in school basketball. After rejecting varied pitches to depart Loyola, Moser lastly moved on to a larger problem at Oklahoma.

After Loyola promoted assistant coach Drew Valentine, the Ramblers spent another profitable season within the Valley, punched one other ticket to the Large Dance, after which bailed for the Atlantic 10 convention.

Now, they’re 6-11 total and 0-5 within the A-10 going into Wednesday night time’s house recreation with SLU. On Saturday, Loyola fell 86-55 at St. Joseph’s, which was winless in league play.

In the meantime, the St. Louis-based MVC is flourishing with out Loyola. It introduced in Illinois Chicago to maintain the Windy Metropolis market, and it added mid-major powers Murray State and Belmont from the Ohio Valley Convention.

The MVC hit a tough patch after shedding Wichita State to the American Athletic Convention and Creighton to the Large East. However now, the Valley has a sturdy 12-team league with spectacular aggressive depth.

“A whole lot of applications are the identical in terms of sources,” Bradley coach Brian Wardle stated through the MVC’s weekly Zoom convention. “Having been to Murray State and Belmont now, they’re going to be wonderful in our league, seeing what they’ve in budgets and sources. It’s going to be robust to see a group separate. I feel you will notice a giant bundle on this league for somewhat bit.”

SIU Carbondale, Indiana State, Belmont, Bradley and Drake are all bidding for 20-plus victories. Three groups are 6-2 in league play and 5 are 5-3.

Arch Insanity, at Enterprise Heart March 2-5, ought to be loopy.

“There aren’t any simple nights. Now we have to learn to take care of that on a constant foundation,” Belmont coach Casey Alexander stated Monday. “We didn’t have that within the OVC. We definitely needed to present up and play nicely to win, nevertheless it was not fairly the dogfight it’s each time we play within the Valley.”

Loyola is missed, after all, however the league is transferring upward and onward.

Then again, the Ramblers have hit a rut and left Valentine at wit’s finish. He’s one among school basketball’s rising teaching stars, however this group has not come collectively.

A 78-64 loss at house to VCU left Valentine exasperated. “We appear to be a group that has no concept what they’re doing,” he stated in his postgame interview. “It’s actually irritating and disappointing when that occurs.”

The Ramblers have struggled with turnovers on offense and extreme fouling on protection. Efforts to repair these points in follow have failed. Shuffling the enjoying rotations hasn’t labored both.

“Now we have low emotion, low power, low spirit,” Valentine stated. “That’s received to alter. I can’t beg for guys to have that each single day.”

The problems continued with the debacle at St. Joseph’s.

“Simply unlucky,” Valentine stated in his postgame interview. “Now we have to do a greater job of getting our group impressed to play.”

Transferring ahead, Valentine will face a tough problem pushing the Ramblers up the A-10 ladder. The league is down this season and but Loyola nonetheless sits behind 14 different colleges within the standings.

Applications like St. Bonaventure, Davidson, UMass (with Frank Martin on the helm) and George Mason (coached by Kim English) ought to enhance and push A-10 powers Dayton, VCU, SLU and Richmond throughout seasons to return.

The Ramblers will face the identical type of gauntlet that has confronted Wichita State within the AAC because the Shockers moved on from successful-but-unhinged coach Gregg Marshall.

Again within the MVC, the league maintained its luster with some notable non-conference victories. Murray State beat Texas A&M when the Aggies had been ranked twenty fourth. Drake beat Mississippi State when the Bulldogs had been No. 15, and SIU Carbondale received at Oklahoma State.

The league stays well-situated with good-sized school markets in addition to Chicago, Nashville, Des Moines and Evansville plus the St. Louis hub.

Most of those colleges have a robust basketball custom, and most have loved profitable runs in some unspecified time in the future in program historical past.

That collective heritage permits the MVC to stay one of many higher mid-major conferences at the same time as energy convention colleges swoop in to steal its prime gamers. 

And, sure, the Valley can survive shedding coaches and whole applications to larger conferences, too.