At 3:40 a.m. Tuesday, the bus carrying the team that leads the Mid-Continent Conference finished its six-hour ride from Youngstown, Ohio, and pulled into Valparaiso, Ind.
Coach Homer Drew had a final word for his travel-weary Valparaiso Crusader players as they stepped off the bus and into the pre-dawn chill.
“Be sure you get to your morning classes,” cautioned Drew. “I’ll have people making spot checks. . . .”
Welcome to glamorous life of Division I basketball.
Valparaiso, located some 55 miles from downtown Chicago, has an enrollment of 3,524 students, the smallest in the nine-team Mid-Con. Affiliated with the Lutheran church, it is the league’s only private school. Five of its current players list the Bible as their favorite book.
When the Crusaders play host to Chicago State Thursday night, they will try to improve records of 16-5 overall and 8-2 in the conference whose title they’ve won two years in a row. The Crusaders, sparked by junior guard Bryce Drew, the coach’s son, seek to return to the NCAA Tournament they played in last year for the first time.
“I’d love to win 20 games again and win our conference tournament and get the tournament bid,” said Homer Drew, who wasn’t discouraged by his 90-51 loss to Arizona in the first round of the NCAAs last year. “We learned a lot from being in it last year. We’ll make a better showing.”
Rebounding by committee and team defense have been the Crusader cornerstones. Valpo has limited opponents to 41 percent shooting and 64 points a game while averaging 74 points and 47 percent.
“Our defense is the best we’ve had at Valparaiso,” the coach said. “We have a nice eight-man rotation of juniors and seniors, and we’re more defensive-minded than in the past.”
Win or else: Jimmy Collins, coach of Midwestern Collegiate Conference-leading UIC, said after his Flames routed Loyola: “Now our goal is to get into a tournament.”
If Collins means the 64-team NCAA Tournament, he had better win the league’s automatic bid by capturing the MCC tournament at Wright State Feb. 28-March 4.
An at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament is not likely to go to any MCC team because of the teams’ so-so overall records. Only two MCC teams have winning records, Butler (14-8) and Loyola (10-9).
UIC’s 1-8 start seemingly leaves it with only two postseason options: crash the NCAA “dance” by winning the conference tournament or receive a bid to the 32-team National Invitational Tournament.
Red hot: Kevin Stallings, who previously assisted Gene Keady at Purdue and Roy Williams at Kansas, has had remarkable success in his four seasons at Illinois State. When the Redbirds edged Bradley last weekend, they improved Stallings’ record to 41-9 (.820) in Redbird Arena.
Stallings’ record in Missouri Valley play is 47-18 for a .723 percentage. That ranks him No. 6 in all time percentage among coaches with at least 50 MVC games.
