As the college coaching carousel whirls, Missouri Valley Conference fans wonder if their league will experience another power shift.
Darian DeVries built a powerhouse at Drake, then jumped up to the next conference level to take over at West Virginia.
Replacing him in Des Moines will be a big task, but simply promoting assistant coach Marty Richter might be the best way to keep that train running. Northwest Missouri State coach Ben McCollum would be another logical target given his remarkable success at the Division II level.
Josh Schertz turned long-dormant Indiana State into a Valley power. After getting stiffed by the NCAA Tournament, he has led the Sycamores to the semifinals of the NIT.
As luck would have it, those games will be played just down the road at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. So the Sycamores will essentially finish their season playing at home.
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He is building value in the marketplace. Will he stay at Indiana State for at least another season and try to add to his success?
The power conference openings in this cycle are filling up quickly. Louisville, for instance, seems focused on New Mexico coach Richard (son of Rick) Pitino, who was a Cardinals assistant coach under his father.
Staying at Indiana State could allow Schertz to build additional stock and earn power conference offers in future hiring cycles.
SLU could multiply his salary right now, if it offered Travis Ford dollars, and give him a chance to coach in the not-so-treacherous Atlantic 10. Coming to Ƶ would be logical career progression.
If Schertz leaves Indiana State, the school will be hard-pressed to find a replacement who could keep the program rolling at its current speed. That could create an opening for other MVC schools to rise.
Missouri State is trying to do just that. Athletic director Kyle Moats fired Dana Ford and zeroed in on a reunion with former Missouri, California, Tennessee and Missouri State head coach Cuonzo Martin.
If Martin lands back in Springfield, he could put his regional recruiting ties to work. For instance, Christian (C.J.) Jones, a player he recruited from East Ƶ while at Mizzou, is coming off a strong sophomore season at UIC – another school making a coaching change in this cycle.
After firing coach Luke Yaklich, UIC has explored multiple candidates, including Norfolk State coach Robert Jones.
“With success comes suitors,” Jones recently said. “So it's just part of the business. That's all I'll really say.”
SIU Carbondale is showing its eagerness to regain its long-lost standing. The Salukis won 42 games during the past two seasons, but they failed to reach postseason play in Bryan Mullins’ five-year run.
So athletic director Tim Leonard, who came to SIU Carbondale from Towson in 2022, fired Mullins so the school could seek still another fresh start.
Mullins, meanwhile, returned to Chicago as an assistant coach for new DePaul coach Chris Holtmann. Mullins previously served as an assistant coach at Loyola Chicago during the Ramblers’ resurgence under Porter Moser.
It will fascinating to see how this all plays out.
THE BASKETBALL DIARIES
Here is what folks have been writing about March Madness:
Lauren Theisen, The Defector: “By any measure the second round of the 2024 men's bracket ruthlessly swept aside its most surprising visitors. If guests, like fish, start to stink on the third day, then the tournament's appointed housekeepers made sure to clean up. Of the 16 games over the weekend, only Gonzaga over Kansas and Clemson over Baylor qualified as ‘upsets’ in the seeding-based sense of the word, and neither of those schools are the kind of scrappy out-of-nowhere squad that has the local apparel store suddenly rushing to fill orders from all over the country. While the first round did provide some unpredictability, the most non-traditional athletic schools and least recognizable brands met their demises this weekend.”
Jeff Eisenberg, Yahoo! Sports: “An unusually chalky opening weekend of the men’s NCAA tournament has produced a Sweet 16 only Greg Sankey could love. There are no slingshot-wielding long shots left in the field, no semblance of small-conference charm. NC State is the only double-digit seed still left in the field. An original ACC school with multiple national titles is no one’s idea of Cinderella. Only Gonzaga and San Diego State remain from outside college basketball’s power conferences. Those two outgrew the mid-major label long ago. Marquee programs treated little guys this past weekend like 18-wheelers bearing down on slow-to-react squirrels in their path. Duke put away James Madison before the first half was even over. San Diego State buried Yale under an avalanche of 3-pointers.”
Joe Lunardi, : “Allow me a word -- several, actually -- on the ACC. Fans of the conference consistently -- and correctly -- countered my season-long description of its decline by insisting the league would be just fine when it mattered most. And, once again, a conference ranking fifth, fifth, seventh and fifth since the pandemic has been more than fine in the NCAA tournament. An 8-1 record through the first weekend can only be commended. Going forward, it remains to be seen if the conference will make the necessary scheduling adjustments to counter the continued weakening that's coming in the form of Stanford, Cal and SMU.”
Isaac Trotter, 247 Sports: It’s the second time in the last three years that the ACC has flexed on its counterparts with four of its five entrants making the second weekend, and it has kickstarted a firestorm of dialogue around the ACC’s place in the college basketball pecking order. The ACC owned the fifth-highest rating in college basketball this year, per KenPom, behind the Big 12, Big East, SEC and Big Ten . . . North Carolina, Duke and Clemson formed as good a Big Three that you’ll find in any league outside of the Big East. That part has been lost in translation. The bottom of the ACC was not good enough, period. First-year coaches at Georgia Tech and Notre Dame, predictably, struggled, but Miami regressed heavily and Louisville made little-to-no progress. That’s a fact. The top of the ACC is also as good as the rest of its counterparts.”
David Cobb, : “When the dust settled on Selection Sunday, two of college basketball's ‘Big Six’ conferences were left with more significant gripes than the rest. Those leagues — the Big East and ACC — finished the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament with a combined record of 14-1. All seven teams from the two conferences that were part of the first round reached the Sweet 16. The only loss from either conference was from No. 10 seed Virginia, which was eliminated in the First Four. While UVa crept in -- perhaps undeservedly -- as a No. 10 seed, ACC bubble teams Pitt and Wake Forest were left out. Snubs were even more significant for the Big East, which had Seton Hall, St. John’s and Providence left on the wrong side of the bubble.”
Mike Lopresti, : “Will anyone ever feel safe with an NCAA Tournament lead against Texas A&M again? The Aggies are gone but not forgotten. In 2016, they came from 12 points back in the last 44 seconds of regulation and eventually beat Northern Iowa in double overtime in the second round. Sunday, they were down to Houston 83-73 with 1:20 left and found a way to score 13 points in 70 seconds against the nation’s best defense, the last three on a shot at the buzzer. The Cougars reserves saved the day in a 100-95 rock fight that had 75 free throws. It was the kind of trial by fire that makes a team feel destined. Time will tell for Houston.”
Neil Paine, : “It's hard to be too down on any team that punches its ticket to the Sweet 16, but Arizona has had a few moments that make us question whether it can live up to expectations as a championship squad. Against theoretically overmatched No. 15 seed Long Beach State in Round 1, the Cats nonetheless trailed with 2:38 remaining in the first half. Arizona's ensuring 22-2 run helped put the game away, but their final plus-20 victory margin was lower than we'd expect from SRS. The next round, No. 7 seed Dayton stubbornly stayed in the game, pulling within three points with 11:40 to go before Arizona asserted itself again. We have to wonder whether these Wildcats' habit of playing with their food will eventually come back to bite them.”
MEGAPHONE
“Our goal is to be enjoyable to watch. We want to win championships, but we also want to put fans in the seats and be easy on the eyes.”
New Michigan coach Dusty May.