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After years of being beaten, bruised and marginalized, scorers are back in the Missouri Valley Conference. The conference is no longer symbolized by grinding defenses and 58-55 scores. In the spirit of Larry Bird, Lewis Lloyd, Xavier McDaniel and Hersey Hawkins, offense matters again.
“It has been such a smash-mouth league, and now all of a sudden it has changed,” Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery said. “There is a lot of high scoring and a lot of offensive weapons in the league. We are getting better skill kids in the league now.”
With the MVC schedule one-third finished, evidence is mounting. Defense remains a source of pride for coaches. Games, however, are no longer a race to 60. Seven of the MVC’s 10 teams average more points than last season and eight shoot a higher percentage. Creighton, which leads the MVC with an average of 82.2 points, is on pace to be the first Valley team to crack 80 for a season since Tulsa in 1993-94. Four teams average 70 or more points, something that hasn’t happened over an entire season since 2004-05.
“There are some very explosive teams in transition in this league,” Missouri State coach Paul Lusk said. “College basketball has become such a game of spread the court out and driving the basketball. Penetrating and pitching. Guys are getting so good offensively.”
Wichita State is part of the trend, even playing for a defense-and-rebounding disciple such as Gregg Marshall. Since the start of the season, he talked confidently about his team’s scoring ability, a departure for a coach who usually promises only tough defense and rebounding. The Shockers average 77.5 points, three more than last season and on pace for the highest average since the 1988-89 season (77.7). As Marshall recruited better scorers and refined existing ones, WSU’s offense picked up the pace.
“You can let it rip and run a little more when you better players,” he said. “When you have lesser players, you want fewer possessions.”
Creighton’s story is similar. The Bluejays averaged 68.8 points last season and shot 34.6 percent from three-point range. This season, they are running more, getting more open shots and making them. Sophomore forward Doug McDermott, son of the coach, averages 24.2 points a game while making 56.9 percent of his threes and 62.3 percent of his shots. Those statistics are earning him national Player of the Year mention.
“We just have more depth this year, and because of that we decided to play a little bit faster,” Greg McDermott said. “We have a chance to be pretty good if we get out on the fast break.”
The MVC’s offensive surge is produced by three factors: coaching continuity, older players and better players.
• Six MVC coaches are in their fourth season or better, and even that is a misleading guide to experience.
Creighton’s Greg McDermott is in his second season, but spent five at Northern Iowa previously. Indiana State’s Greg Lansing, also in his second season, served as an assistant coach for the Sycamores before being elevated. Lusk, in his first season, took over from Cuonzo Martin, and their shared history as Purdue assistants smoothed the transition. Lusk, who played at Southern Illinois, also inherited MVC Player of the Year Kyle Weems. Only Bradley’s Geno Ford is an outsider in his first season.
Coaches such as Marshall, Marty Simmons at Evansville and Illinois State’s Tim Jankovich, all in their fifth seasons, had time to build their programs and recruit. Their early recruiting classes are now maturing. Only Ford is in a full-blown rebuilding mode.
“This is the best basketball conference, top to bottom, where seniors play,” Lansing said. “They’re great jobs, so guys want these jobs. You get a very high caliber of coaches. Every game you go into, that team is prepared for you.”
• Nearly 60 percent of the starters from 2010-11 returned, including five of the top seven scorers and four of the top five rebounders. Five players who earned All-MVC (first or second team) are back.
WSU has five seniors. Creighton returned three starters and added an experienced transfer from Gonzaga in guard Grant Gibbs. Indiana State returned four starters and eight of its nine top scorers from a team that went to the NCAA Tournament. Illinois State added two scoring guards (freshman Nic Moore and junior Tyler Brown) to a lineup that returned its starting front-court. Evansville’s top four scorers from 2010-11 are a year older and junior Colt Ryan averages 20.1 points a game. Northern Iowa juniors Anthony James, Marc Sonnen and Jake Koch watched older players carry the Panthers to the Sweet 16 in 2010. Now they are in their second season as starters.
Valley officials and coaches pointed to this season while conference teams took some lumps in recent years with young players and new coaches. Now that experience is back on their side, Valley teams are scoring big and winning.
• Players and coaches say the MVC is attracting better players in recent seasons. Creighton and Wichita State separate themselves with the conference’s top post scorers. Other teams rely more heavily on guards and outside shooting.
“The conference is getting more athletic, and getting players that can really play the game,” WSU senior Toure Murry said. “I see a rise in talent. McDermott. Colt Ryan – great scorer. Kyle Weems.”
Last season’s freshman class produced three players who made big splashes _ McDermott, Drake guard Rayvonte Rice and Indiana State point guard Jake Odum. McDermott (14.9 points) and Rice (13.8) finished in the top six of the MVC scoring leaders. Odum finished second in assists (4.09 a game).
Just ahead of them are players such as Ryan, Drake’s Ben Simons and Jackie Carmichael at Illinois State. All played extensively as freshmen. As juniors, they are experienced center-pieces to their teams.
“There are some really good offensive players and some really good offensive coaches right now doing some really good things,” Drake coach Mark Phelps said. “It’s an infusion of offensive talent.”
Those players showcase offense with bursts of scoring rare in recent seasons.
This is the conference that selected lockdown defender Darren Brooks of SIU as Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005. This is conference that named Drake’s Adam Emmenecker, a guard who averaged 8.6 points and didn’t make a three-pointer, as Player of the Year in 2008.
Times changed. The Valley head-liners are big scorers these days.
McDermott and Ryan both average 20 or more points and Rice is close behind. In 2008 and 2010, the MVC’s top scorer didn’t crack 16 a game. An MVC player hasn’t averaged 20 or more since Illinois State’s Tarise Bryson in 2001. McDermott scored 44 points against Bradley, the conference’s first 40-point game since 2008.
Six games into the 18-game schedule, Valley players produced seven 30-plus games, one behind last season’s total and more than in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
“When you play against talent, you are stressed on the defensive end,” Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich said.
MVC coaches still love their defense. It is a more difficult way to make a living these days. The influence of Southern Illinois’ domination by defense has given way to the faster paces practiced by schools such as WSU and Creighton.
“Either all the coaches have forgotten how to teach defense, which is absolutely not true,” Jankovich. “It could be that, but it’s not. We have some amazing talent in this league.”
