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.
In the world of mid-major basketball, one star is great — but two is
better. We’ll start, then, with a few of the top pairings outside of the
high-major conferences.
You're looking at a pretty incredible run for the trio of Brice Calip, Jasmine Franklin and Abby Hipp.
The three have been starters on three NCAA-worthy teams. Have a chance to be on a fourth.
With all due respect to the stellar career of Abby Hipp, the largest share of the Bears’ recent run of success can be attributed to Brice Calip and Jasmine Franklin.
Both will return in 2021-22 as Missouri State eyes a return to the Big
Dance after earning their own No. 5 seed. Unlike Gonzaga, the Bears made
it to the second round, where they were trounced by eventual national
champion Stanford. Calip (13.6 ppg, 4.1 apg, 2.1 spg) is the reigning
MVC Player of the Year and is coming back for a super senior year. In
fact, this will be the sixth season that Calip has played for MSU,
having taken a redshirt after six appearances in 2016-17. Making up the
other half of this dynamic pairing is Franklin (12.0 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 2.3
spg), who was an All-MVC First Teamer in her own right. She will look to
repeat that achievement as she enters her senior season in Springfield.
The long tradition of Missouri State women’s hoops remains in great
hands thanks to this group.
The
last time a men's basketball coach received an extension at Missouri
State, Paul Lusk was given one, on the same day as Kellie Harper, in
early April following the 2014 season. Both also received raises.
Harper
has also received extensions in May and June. The point is, the
university hasn't followed an exact timeline with extensions.
With
Dana Ford, there hasn't been a pressing needed to get an extension done
— if one is done at all. Going into his fourth year of a five-year
deal, there wasn't a threat of him leaving since the team's success has
been mixed.
If an extension is done, it is
unlikely it will lock him in long-term anyway. We're past the May Board
of Governors meetings meaning we'll have to wait until later this summer
to see if one gets done.
Missouri State was
much better in 2020-21 than it was during a disappointing 2019-20 season
in which it was picked to win the league and finished sixth.
With
bright, young stars in the program, it might be worth making sure he's
kept around to see them through. At the same time, his success hasn't
been so overwhelming that an extension is 100 percent necessary.
2. Will Mox get extended?
Making sure Amaka Agugua-Hamilton
is locked in for the long-haul should be a priority for Missouri State
this summer. She's going into the third of a five-year deal and she's
been nothing but successful on the Lady Bears' sideline.
With
what the Lady Bears have coming back and have added, "Coach Mox" should
have them set up for another deep NCAA Tournament run this upcoming
season.
Agugua-Hamilton's success will demand
attention from major colleges soon. Some were already holding their
breath with jobs including Oklahoma, Baylor, Auburn and Wisconsin. With
more success, the list will continue to get longer until she jumps.
There
lies another reason for MSU to get an extension offered. If/when
another school hires Agugua-Hamilton away, Missouri State should set
itself up financially via her buyout so it can go after its next head
coach.
At the very least, Agugua-Hamilton should receive a bump in her $240,000 salary going into the upcoming season.
3. Does anyone leave MSU hoops?
With
the additions of Isaac Haney, Donovan Clay and Jaylen Minnett and the
departure of Jared Ridder, the Bears are at the maximum number of
scholarships. Minnett wouldn't count against MSU since he is a graduate
player using a bonus season.
It's not a
guarantee the Bears are done adding to their roster for this upcoming
season — which could lead to a player having to leave.
The
major contributors continue to interact on social media as if they are
coming back. With a player like Drake's Joseph Yesufu transferring to
Kansas, who knows what level of programs would have gone after Isiaih
Mosley? He's committed to the maroon and white having helped recruit a
guy like Clay to come play in Springfield.
Young
players including Raphe Ayres and Skylar Wicks have been identified
practicing in recent Instagram postings from the team's official
account.
5. Recruiting returns to normal
Finally.
All Division I sports will return to their regular recruiting calendars
beginning June 1 after the pandemic kept everyone at home since last
year.
This will create some normalcy and should
give us some better insight at what coaches are looking for when more
offers are being thrown around.
There used to
be a day when Ford and the staff would give seemingly everyone and their
dog a scholarship offer. While it appears he's maybe changed his
philosophy a little bit with fewer offers being given, we might actually
see a few more offers become public going forward.
Ford
also hasn't had many scholarships to play with in recent years. With a
big senior class this upcoming season, he currently has six open spots
for the 2022-23 roster and nine in 2023-24. It should be a pretty busy
summer.
8. Schedules will start to leak
Both the men's and women's basketball schedules largely remain a mystery heading into the summer. That will change throughout.
A
few Valley teams have already seen their preseason tournaments
revealed. We still don't know where Missouri State will play if they
play in one at all (they likely will).
Look for
the typical regional teams we're used to seeing with men's and women's
basketball. The Lady Bears should have a home game against Mizzou as a
part of their recent home-and-home contract.
As of Tuesday, the university didn't have any signed men's basketball contracts on record.
The Lady Bears' current signed contracts include:
Nov. 9 — @ Little Rock
Nov. 14 — North Texas
Nov. 17 — @ Oklahoma State ($28,000 guarantee payment)
Nov. 24-28 — San Juan Shootout (Puerto Rico)
Dec. 21 — Toledo
9. Local prospects to keep an eye on
Ysabella Fontleroy (2022) — The
recruitment of Fontleroy should be nearing its end as she has dozens of
offers on the table. Missouri State's success in recent years puts it
in a position where it shouldn't be out of the question to land this
high level of a recruit.
Coming
off a heartbreaking loss the day before at the ARC against the
Bulldogs, Valpo looked for a rebound effort in the second game of their
two game, two day series. The last time Valpo defeated a nationally
ranked team was against Rhode Island in head coach Matt Lottich’s first
year. The Brown and Gold got out to a 7-0 lead to start, and went on an
extended 25-12 run to take a 36-24 lead into the half. That was only the
crescendo to the highlight of the season, as freshman guard Sheldon
Edwards Jr. threw down the dunk of the year over the outstretched arms
of a Bulldog defender, as Neil Everett had the pleasure of describing
the poster on Sportscenter's Top 10 plays later in the evening. Valpo
ended Drake’s perfect season, defeating a team that would eventually win
a game in the NCAA Tournament.
- Garrett Willis
4. Women’s Basketball’s back to back Big Ten Conference (B1G) wins
While
a six point first quarter in Champaign looked like a slow start for the
Brown and Gold, Valpo just saw it as a warmup for what followed:
comeback wins on the road against Illinois and Purdue. Valpo outscored
Illinois 17-9 in the fourth quarter to win 62-59, and sprinted ahead of
Purdue in the third quarter to win 52-47. Before last November, it had
been 12 years since Valpo had beaten a B1G team, as Grace White scored
37 points in the two games for Valpo’s biggest week under Mary Evans.
After the win at Mackey Arena, Evans said that “days like today help
validate all of the hard work they have put in,” as a new energy
surrounds a program in a renaissance.
What five mid-major programs are you most excited about this
coming season? Specifically which five could you see making a Sweet 16
(or better) run? — Dan B.
I’ll hold off on any Sweet 16 predictions because A) it’s early May,
for goodness sakes; B) so many rosters are still unsettled; and C) I
certainly didn’t see Oral Roberts crashing the Sweet 16 at any point
during the just-completed regular season, so what good are my
predictions, anyway?
At some point soon, probably around the NBA Draft declaration
deadline in late May, I’ll drop my way-too-early Mid-Major Top 10. But
since you asked for five, I’ll give you a quintet I’m really interested
in. Note this isn’t in any way a ranking, and I’m leaning toward
intrigue here as much as anything:
Drake. I admit I thought the Bulldogs were toast after Roman Penn
and ShanQuan “Tank” Hemphill got hurt late in the regular season. I
underestimated the team’s resilience. Drake beat Wichita State in the
First Four before running into a USC steamroller. I also didn’t see
Joseph Yesufu blossoming into a big-time scorer in the final few weeks.
He parlayed that into a transfer to Kansas. But Penn and Hemphill will
be back, along with D.J. Wilkins, Tremell Murphy and Darnell Brodie —
the starting five that powered the team to an 18-0 start. Coach Darian
DeVries’ son, Tucker, a four-star recruit, comes on board along with
intriguing Omaha transfer Ayo Akinwole.
Do you think Loyola Chicago returning four out of their five
seniors, as well as bringing in two Ivy League transfers, will make them
a lock to return to the tournament? — James K.
The return of seniors Keith Clemons,
Tate Hall, Lucas Williamson and Aher Uguak for their super senior
years, along with Braden Norris and Ivy League transfers Chris Knight
(Dartmouth) and Ryan Schweiger (Princeton), should make the Ramblers a
borderline preseason Top 25 team. A lock for the NCAA Tournament,
though? I’d have to say no, for a few reasons. The one guy who isn’t
coming back, Cameron Krutwig, was so important to everything Loyola
Chicago did, and replacing him won’t be simple. Drew Valentine sure
looks like the right guy to take over for Porter Moser, but the fact
remains that Valentine is a 29-year-old without any head coaching
experience. And then there is the Missouri Valley Conference, which did
get an at-large bid this season but also offers plenty of opportunities
for résumé-damaging losses and an often chaotic league tournament.
I’d bet on seeing Loyola Chicago in March Madness again, but almost
no team in traditional one-bid leagues can be considered a lock for the
bracket.
