What's Up In The Missouri Valley 4/16/2021

NCAA Basketball: Evaluating bold preseason predictions from the past season--Heat Check CBB

Missouri Valley

LOYOLA CHICAGO IS A DOMINANT LEAGUE CHAMPION

If you want to argue against ‘dominant’ because of how good Drake was this year, I’ll give you that. But the Ramblers were excellent, ranked in the top ten in both KenPom and the NET rankings and reached the Sweet 16. They swept MVC regular season and tournament titles, too. That counts as a win to me.

Portal magic: Wardle navigates the ever-changing world of transfer recruiting--Bradley Scout

Gabi Haack to return for a fifth season at BU--Bradley Scout
Women’s Basketball Adds Pair Of Transfers--bradleybraves.com

Todd Lickliter: Aces will return four starters, hope to jump 'five more spots' in MVC--Evansville Courier & Press

Peterson, Crawford now official to ISU--Terre Haute Tribune Star
Indiana State Men’s Basketball Adds Two for 2021-22 Campaign--gosycamores.com

Postseason awards: All-Mid-Major Madness First Team--Mid-Major Madness

Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

We’ve arrived at the summit of awards season here at Mid-Major Madness.

We’ve relived our game of the year, doled out individual awards and handed out our second and third all-MMM teams. That leaves just one piece of business: the first team. As you might expect, some of these names will already have been touched on and, it bears repeating, just because some players on this list qualified by virtue of playing in a mid-major league, it does not mean their team is a mid-major.

Here’s who we think were the cream of the crop in hopefully the only pandemic-affected season we see in our lifetime:

Cameron Krutwig — Loyola University Chicago

2020-21 stats: 15.0 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 3.0 APG

Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

What’s left to be said about the Ramblers’ man in the middle? Krutwig wrapped up his college career much like he started it: by putting his stamp on the NCAA Tournament. The senior was the centerpiece of another tremendous Loyola team, anchoring the country’s second-most efficient defense while picking the opposition apart with from the high post or low block with a diverse offensive arsenal.

His high school coach, Jimmy Roberts, recently talked to us about what appealed to Porter Moser when he was recruiting Krutwig years ago.

“Coach Moser always talks about Coach [Rick] Majerus being a huge influence on him, and when [Majerus] looked for a big he wanted to find bigs who are basketball players,” Roberts said. “A lot of big kids, tall kids just play basketball because they’re tall, and they’re not basketball junkies, not basketball players and that’s what he loved in Cam. He’s a basketball junkie, he’s a gym rat he just loves to play.”

The MVC Player of the Year is the only player in Loyola history to be in the program’s top 10 in points, rebounds and assists, and is as responsible as any single player for the Moser-led renaissance on the North Side.

Saluki Women’s Basketball signs Laniah Randle--siusalukis.com