What's Up In The Missouri Valley 7/6/2022

Belmont officially departs OVC, joins Missouri Valley Conference--Belmont Vision
New Era--belmont.prestosports.com

Everything we know about the University of Evansville men's basketball schedule--Evansville Courier & Press

Watch now: Paige Robinson, newcomers to play key roles for Illinois State women's basketball--The Pantagraph

COLLEGE ROUNDUP: LaRavia scores 13 in NBA Summer League debut--Terre Haute Tribune Star

Texas Tech, Wichita State among men’s college basketball transfer portal losers--The Athletic

Steve Prohm returns to Murray State with a roster that’ll look very different from the one last season. (William Purnell / USA Today)

Brian Hamilton: Murray State

A program that wins on autopilot shouldn’t fret too much about losing a chunk of talent to the portal under normal circumstances. These are not normal circumstances. Murray State joins the Missouri Valley Conference for the 2022-23 season, leveling up in competition and navigating an unfamiliar landscape … after the top half of its roster was effectively lopped off with departures. Tevin Brown, the Racers’ second-leading scorer, turned pro and went undrafted. But that sort of thing happens. What usually doesn’t happen is losing two other starters and a sixth man, all to the same program, in a calculated mass exodus. That’s how K.J. Williams (18 points per game), Justice Hill (13.4 ppg) and Trae Hannibal (9.2 ppg in 21.9 minutes per night) became LSU Tigers.

We can’t totally cast Matt McMahon as a villain here; the LSU roster situation was as grim as imaginable after his arrival. In order to field anything resembling a competitive team or merely survive Year 1 of the rebuild in Baton Rouge — in order to have enough players to play, even — it makes sense that McMahon re-recruited the top talent he left behind. Tough business, this college basketball. Murray State has been reminded of this the hard way.

And speaking of hard ways: The Racers make their MVC debut with one — one! — scholarship player returning from 2021-22. The confluence of realignment and a roster evisceration couldn’t be worse. I’d bet on the program steadying itself eventually. There’s too much winning infrastructure here, and Steve Prohm know how to maximize it, having done it before. But for now? It’s multiple bitter pills to swallow in Murray.