From MVC-Sports.com: Valley tournament baseball preview
@ddocket gives a great video preview on the MVC-Sports.com website. ESPN3 will show the tournament.
Indiana State wins Missouri Valley Conference baseball title
Congratulations to Head Coach Rick Heller and his Indiana State Sycamores baseball team for capturing the school’s first outright MVC baseball title today with a 6-3 victory over Missouri State.
The Sycamores scored in the first inning against MSU starter Nick Petree – it was the first run Petree allowed in 38 innings of MVC play this year. With the game tied 3-3 in the 6th inning, the Sycamores took the lead on an infield single and added two more runs in the 8th inning for the final margin.
Mountain West – Missouri Valley Conference Challenge will not be renewed after this year
Jeff Eisenberg reported today that the Mountain West – Missouri Valley Conference Challenge will not be renewed after this season. The agreement between the conferences was for 4 years and the 2012-13 version is the final year of that contract.
Missouri Valley associate commissioner Mike Kern said the challenge with the Mountain West will not continue once the original four-year contract expires after next season. Instead the Valley is exploring other potential scheduling arrangements with other leagues or select teams in other leagues.
Whatever arrangement the Valley enters next, it would be great if it was more flexible than the current one with the Mountain West. The event only meets its potential when the leagues have the capability of creating the best matchups every year.
link: Challenge to end
You can discuss this and more on the MVCfans.com message board: MVCfans.com basketball discussion
Valley Baseball – Sycamores and Bears face off to determine MVC title this week
Indiana State completed a sweep of Southern Illinois today to move to 40-12 overall and 13-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference. With the win and Missouri State’s 1-0 loss to Evansville, the Sycamores will take a 1.5 game lead into their season concluding three game series to be played Thursday through Saturday at Bob Warn Field in Terre Haute.
Indiana State has played themselves onto the favorable side of the NCAA tournament bubble. A win on Tuesday against nationally ranked Purdue would help solidify an NCAA berth for the Sycamores.
Message board: MVCfans.com baseball discussion
Point Guard Nic Moore leaving Illinois State
News like this really irritates me. Nic Moore, who nearly led Illinois State to the NCAA tournament as a freshman point guard, was granted his release by the Redbirds today. It comes on the heels of head coach Tim Jankovich’s decision to leave Normal to become the “coach in waiting” at SMU and the susbsequent hiring of Dan Muller to replace him.
As I tweeted, I’m not sure who to blame for his decision to leave, but I narrowed it down to three:
1) Tim Jankovich
2) Seth Curry
3) Moore’s “Advisors”
Here was Moore’s comment today:
“As soon as Coach (Tim) Jankovich left I made up my mind and knew I wanted to go play for a BCS program,” said Moore in a statement from ISU. “It didn’t matter who was going to be the head coach. My decision had already been made.”
In simplest terms, if Jankovich was still at Illinois State, Moore would be as well. While disapppointed in Jankovich’s decision, most have accepted his move as an acceptable career move.
I tend to place more blame on the “Curry phenomenon” and the “advisors” who seem to be guiding college basketball players more and more . Curry, you will recall, was a scoring phenom as a freshman at Liberty. He then decided to leave the low major and take his talents to Durham to play for Duke instead. He became the most celebrated player to “trade up”. In a sense, Moore appears to be following the same path. Speculation exists that he will join Drake transfer Rayvonte Rice who made a similar decision to leave the Valley for a BCS league – namely John Groce’s Illinois Fighting Illini. A young man of Moore’s ability undoubtedly had people in his ear telling him that he was too good for the Valley. When the dominoes started to fall, the voices probably became louder and more clear and now Moore is leaving Illinois State.
If the non-BCS schools are simply going to be AAA affiliates for the BCS schools, the system is broken. For years, coaches have been moving to schools for increased exposure and pay and it appears that players are beginning to follow their lead. It’s a bad, bad day for the Valley.
Illinois State confirms former player Dan Muller will be next head basketball coach
Well that was interesting, wasn’t it? The supposed tenure of Rob Judson as head coach at Illinois State lasted less than 24 hours. The reported hire of the long time assistant Judson turned out to be inaccurate as the school confirmed tonight that they have instead hired former player and current Vanderbilt assistant coach Dan Muller to succeed Tim Jankovich as the Redbirds head coach. Muller is expected to be named head coach of Illinois State by Athletic Director Gary Friedman at a 4pm press conference on Tuesday.
You can discuss this and more on the MVCfans.com message board: MVCfans.com basketball discussion
Report: Illinois State selects Rob Judson as head basketball coach
From Jim Benson of The Pantagraph.com:
NORMAL – The Pantagraph has learned Rob Judson will be named Illinois State’s head basketball coach sometime this week, possibly as early as Monday.
Judson, 54, has been an ISU assistant coach the past five years under Tim Jankovich, who resigned on April 26 to become associate coach/coach-in-waiting for Southern Methodist.
This will be the second head coaching position for Judson. He served six seasons as Northern Illinois’ coach from 2001-07, compiling a 74-101 record. The Huskies won the 2006 Mid-American Conference West Division title under Judson.
Judson, who played at Illinois from 1976-80, took his first job as a college assistant coach in 1989 at NIU. He left two years later for Bradley before going to Illinois in 1996 under Lon Kruger and later Bill Self.
link: Illinois State selects Rob Judson
You can discuss this and more on the MVCfans.com message board: MVCfans.com basketball discussion
More conference realignment – any impact on the Missouri Valley Conference?
It was reported today by Brett McMurphy of CBS that Conference USA is adding six teams to replace the four that are leaving for the Big East (Houston, SMU, UCF, Memphis) . The teams joining CUSA are Florida International, North Texas, Louisiana Tech, Texas San Antonio, Old Dominion and Charlotte. The previously announced “merger” of CUSA and the Mountain West is dead..
Speaking of dead, the WAC appears to be just that. Losing UTSA and Louisiana Tech today, along with Utah State and San Jose State to the Mountain West, the WAC has only two football schools left. The impact of losing Old Dominion on the CAA is tempered for the moment. However, if the Colonial loses VCU and George Mason (as many expect), that league will be in disarray.
The question is whether any of these changes impact the Missouri Valley Conference? Not yet is the correct answer, but things change quickly in college athletics and there are certainly schools in the MVC that could be courted by others. Yesterday, Creighton President Fr. Tim Lannon stated that he has communicated with Big East and Atlantic 10 colleagues and asked them to consider Creighton should those leagues ever consider expansion. Illinois State has plans to eventually move to FBS football and would then look beyond the MVC.
Interesting times indeed. We’ll keep you posted.
link: CBS: conference realignment article
Wichita State’s Carl Hall granted 6th year of eligibility by NCAA
We learned last week that Wichita State forward (and 2012 Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year) Carl Hall had exhausted his eligibility pending an appeal to the NCAA. We are glad to hear that the NCAA acted quickly on this and granted a 6th year of eligibility.
From Kansas.com:
The NCAA approved Wichita State senior Carl Hall for a sixth season of basketball eligibility on Friday.
WSU submitted paperwork asking for a sixth year last week for Hall, a 6-foot-8 forward. He began his college career in 2007-08 at Middle Georgia College. NCAA Division I athletes are given five years to complete four seasons of eligibility. Since Hall started his “time clock” in 2007-08, he needed a waiver to play next season. A heart condition caused him to miss most of 2007-08 and all of 2008-09 at Middle Georgia.
Wichita Eagle article:Wichita State requesting 6th year for Carl Hall
Illinois State’s Tim Jankovich leaving to become coach in waiting at SMU
I’m sorry to hear this news as Jank was well liked in MVC circles. Whoever takes over sure has a loaded cupboard though as the Redbirds will be contenders for a Valley title and an NCAA bid.
Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich has accepted a coach-in-waiting position under SMU coach Larry Brown, a source with direct knowledge told ESPN.com Thursday.
The deal is expected to be in the $700,000 range a year, according to the source.
There is no time limit on when Jankovich would take over for Brown.
Jankovich had been mulling over an offer to be Brown’s coach-in-waiting, or at the very least his top assistant coach, since Brown took the job last week.
Jankovich gave himself a self-imposed deadline of Thursday afternoon to make a decision. Illinois State hadn’t been publicly or privately pressuring him to do so.
Link to article: Tim Jankovich leaving Illinois State for SMU
