Primarily a collection of news links about all 12 Missouri Valley League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.
March 22, 2018
Appearing in the Sweet 16 for the first time in 33 years, the Ramblers took another step in their improbable 2018 run -- with Sister Jean in tow! -- by downing the Wolf Pack with heroics from Marques Townes, who entered the game having scored just 15 points in the team's first two tourney games. With Loyola-Chicago up by just one with 6.3 seconds remaining, Townes drilled a 3 in front of his own bench, securing the Ramblers' latest dance into history.
Missouri Valley Conference ‘Player of the Year‘ A.J. Green (Northern Iowa), Bradley’s Elijah Childs and Loyola’s Cameron Krutwig were named to the 40-man roster. Green led the Valley in scoring and the Panthers to a league title, while Childs sparked the Braves to an Arch Madness championship. Krutwig and Green were named to the Valley’s all-conference team. Childs was a second-teamer.
One of the lasting memories of the tournament was the Ramblers’ telegenic and now-100-year-old team chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt. What they did on the court was pretty memorable, too.
Their run to the Final Four as an 11 seed never seemed short of drama. There was Donte Ingram making a 3-pointer with three-tenths of a second left to beat Miami. They got past Tennessee thanks to Clayton Custer’s jumper with 3.6 seconds to play. Marques Townes’ 3 with 7 seconds left held off Nevada’s comeback bid in the regional semifinals.
All that made a 16-point win over Kansas State in the Elite Eight look easy.
The Ramblers’ 14-game win streak finally ended when Michigan erased a 10-point deficit in the second half to beat them 69-57.
2019-20 stats: 19.7 PPG – 3.0 APG – 92% FT – 39% 3PT
Here’s a shock: Ben Jacobson’s team overachieved this year and was, in fact, really really good. Northern Iowa had the 23rd most efficient offense in college basketball, led by its 6’4 sophomore stud, A.J. Green. This guy was excellent in 2018-19, but made a name for himself this year early when the Panthers knocked off Power 5 opponents South Carolina and Colorado. In those two games, played two weeks apart, he averaged 23 points, shot 7-15 from three, and went 13-15 from the line. It was merely a preview for what was to come.
In MVC play, he averaged 21.8 points per game and received 39 out of 49 first-place votes in league player of the year voting. No team in the conference relied on one player more, as Green played more than 90 percent of his team’s minutes — first in the MVC — and was used on 29.9 percent of possessions, which ranked third.
Former Loyola star Ben Richardson, who played
in the Czech Republic, said teams and players came to a mutual agreement
about a lump-sum payment when their season ended early. His career is
in limbo, he said.
“The negative
effects this could have on the economy won’t help,” Richardson said. “I
can’t go six months of an offseason without a paycheck. I’m a free
agent. I’m not going to get a paycheck until another season starts.
That’s something I have to think about. I’m hoping all these precautions
will bring (the coronavirus) to an end.”
Former Loyola guard Marques
Townes had enjoyed the local beaches in Murcia, Spain, before the
nation’s lockdown. Now he passes time indoors, using apps to communicate
with friends playing on other international teams.
“We’ll
see what will happen,” Townes said. “If the league wants to start
again, it’s good for us to finish that. But if they decide anything
else, I’ll just ride it out.”
Richardson called his experience leaving the Czech Republic for Kansas City, Mo., “chaotic.”
He
practiced March 12, preparing for a game two days later. By the
evening, it seemed unlikely his league would continue playing as public
places began shuttering amid the government’s declaration of a state of
emergency.
Worry set in as
Richardson began hearing news of travel restrictions from several
countries or anyone who had visited certain countries within 14 days
before their U.S. trip. He was unclear as to whether U.S. citizens could
return but learned he could as long as he flew into designated
airports.
The Czech Republic closed its borders Monday, although it allowed some exceptions.
Richardson
booked four flights — two were canceled and one went to waste — to
ensure he could depart. He left Prague at 10:25 p.m. Saturday local
time, flew to London, landed at O’Hare on Sunday and stayed overnight at
a friend’s in the suburbs. He flew Monday afternoon out of Midway and
arrived in Kansas City at 4:30 p.m. to return to his parents’ suburban
home in Overland Park, Kan.
When Richardson landed in Chicago, he rewarded himself with a slice of Giordano’s deep-dish pizza.
“My first meal back here,” he said. “It was great.”
While it was a relief to step on U.S. soil, his travel brought new concerns.
“I’ve
heard people coughing,” he said. “Am I going to breathe something in
and take it where I’m going next? I’m going through big (airport) hubs.
I’m going to lock myself up for a while now.”
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