The Rise & Fall of the Valley

[Dave Stalwart]

Maybe the Valley has a new, long-term goal of eventually going all-private schools like the Big East.

[vbird53]

The Valley needs to fire their current marketing department.

What marketing department?

[ShockerMas]

@ShockerMas do you believe/think Valpo turns down the invite?

No chance that they would turn it down, the MVC is seen as a much better fit for Valpo than the Horizon League in the same ways that the American is a better fit for WSU than the Valley. Athletically they are able to renew old rivalries with ISUb and Evansville from their Indiana Collegiate Conference days (1950s-1980ish) and Loyola while stepping up competition across all sports. Many HL fan bases were skeptical about how Valpo's programs would fare as they joined from the Summit in 2007, but Valpo went on to win the basketball regular season 5 of the last 6 years along with 2 tournament titles, along with titles in Men's and Women's soccer, Men's tennis, baseball, and softball. Academically Valpo is a much better fit with private schools like Bradley, Drake, and Evansville than they are with all of the big commuter schools in the Horizon League (Detroit is the only other private school left after Butler and Loyola departed).

I think most Valpo fans (myself included, as I have ties to both WSU and Valpo) would have liked to see more ambition out of the MVC with Murray St and Belmont (or Milwaukee) being invited alongside Valpo, but in the end it's still worth making the move for the reasons listed above.

[Shoxcity]

I'm not convinced Valpo can sustain success in the league.

Going to be hard to convince Northern Indiana and Ohio kids into wanting to travel to Iowa and Missouri in the middle of winter.

[Shockerman]

This won't be popular but if the valley schools with football would drop the program and focus on basketball and the other sports I feel it would be a much better conference. I'm not anti football and would love for wsu to have it but not having it has allowed our athletic department to focus time, money and attention on hoops.

We dropped football and basketball promptly went into the tank for almost 20 years. If your Athletic department isn't actively trying to push the bar, you can drop all the sports you want and it won't make a difference. The only school that has dropped football recently and actually put an emphasis on basketball was St. Mary's. Everyone else is still right where they were. The rest including long beach, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Fullerton, Pacific, Northridge, Hofstra, Northeastern, Boston U, La Salle, Sienna, and Ionna, are all still right where they were...low major basketball programs.

[ShockerMas]

Going to be hard to convince Northern Indiana and Ohio kids into wanting to travel to Iowa and Missouri in the middle of winter.

Not sure if this was meant as sarcasm, but Northern Indiana and Ohio winter weather is pretty bad, lake effect snow makes it worse than Iowa or Missouri. I can't imagine spending one day per year in each of Des Moines, Cedar Falls, and Springfield is going to change the minds of many recruits. Anyways, Valpo doesn't have many players from Ohio (last one graduated in 2014) or even that many from Northern Indiana in recent years. Much of their recruiting is done in Chicago, downstate Illinois, and internationally (recent players from Jamaica, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and Croatia, with one incoming from Germany), so I don't think their recruiting will take a hit and in fact I think it will improve with more exposure in downstate IL and IN along with IA & MO.

This tweet about Valpo having the highest rated 2017 recruiting class in the Valley is probably a good sign for them... https://twitter.com/FatherHarry1/sta...61093871730699

[Fake Gregg Marshall]

A Valpo fan tweeted me this morning and said they're waiting for baseball/softball to end before accepting.

[Shoxcity]

But sustained success is different. The same things were said about Bradley that are being said about Valpo.

[SHOCKvalue]

But sustained success is different. The same things were said about Bradley that are being said about Valpo.

??

Bradley has been in the MVC a long time, and has a proud NCAA history. Now they may never return to that form, but it's sorta beside the point.

Are you confusing Bradley with Loyola/Evansville perhaps?

[AndShock]

Has Valpo ever had any success that wasn't led by a Drew?

[Shoxcity]

??

Bradley has been in the MVC a long time, and has a proud NCAA history. Now they may never return to that form, but it's sorta beside the point.

Are you confusing Bradley with Loyola/Evansville perhaps?

Perhaps, yeah.

[Shoxcity]

Has Valpo ever had any success that wasn't led by a Drew?

Good point. And no Alec Peters, also just had a starting guard transfer.

Going to be a rough start in the Valley.

[1972Shocker]

We dropped football and basketball promptly went into the tank for almost 20 years. If your Athletic department isn't actively trying to push the bar, you can drop all the sports you want and it won't make a difference. The only school that has dropped football recently and actually put an emphasis on basketball was St. Mary's. Everyone else is still right where they were. The rest including long beach, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Fullerton, Pacific, Northridge, Hofstra, Northeastern, Boston U, La Salle, Sienna, and Ionna, are all still right where they were...low major basketball programs.

I don't know whether there is a direct correlation between dropping football and the decline in the basketball program but perhaps the deep financial hole the athletic department was in as a result of football may have contributed along with other factors such as the NCAA sanctions late in Gene Smithson's tenure and then a series of poor hiring decisions (perhaps limited by financial concerns). The program might never have turned around if it wasn't for finally making a significant upgrade in facilities with the Roundhouse Renaissance in 2002. Had we tried to sustain football who knows if we would have recovered from those years.

[ShockerMas]

But sustained success is different. The same things were said about Bradley that are being said about Valpo.

I guess it depends on what you define as sustained success. If you mean an NCAA bid every year like we've gotten used to at WSU then no, but then again there are no Valley programs left with that kind of recent sustained success. Valpo's success of the last 20+ years is light-years ahead of Loyola before they joined the MVC and I'd argue they've been a much more successful program since they've joined than longtime Valley schools like Drake and Bradley.

Also if you read my previous posts I mentioned that HL fans had the same doubts about Valpo's ability to succeed in that conference when they joined, but they've risen to become the top basketball program in the HL, winning 5 of the last 6 regular season titles and 2 tournament titles in the decade they've been a member

[ShockerMas]

Has Valpo ever had any success that wasn't led by a Drew?

Valpo only has 10 seasons as a DI program without a Drew as head coach. They weren't good during the 9 seasons after they moved up before Homer took over (but then again not many programs succeed during their transition to DI). I would call 2016-17 a successful season as Valpo tied for the HL regular season title and made an NIT appearance while missing the HL Player of the Year, Alec Peters, for the end of the regular season and all of the postseason and also having the only non-senior big guy, Adekoya, ruled ineligible for most of the season.