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Daily Conference Poll: Who Will Win the Summit?

Shawn Siegel — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:58:01 -0700

Mid-Con Becomes Summit League

Shawn Siegel — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:28:37 -0700

Mid-Con Conference Preview

CHN — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:54:08 -0800

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Mid-Con Preview

Conference Rank: 25th

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All-Conference

Player of the Year - Caleb Green, Oral Roberts, F

Ken Tutt, Oral Roberts, G

Calvin Wooten, G

Quinton Day, UMKC, G

George Hill, IUPUI, G

Nat'l	Team (Click for Preview)	Conf	Tourney
108	IUPUI	1	NCAA
125	Oral Roberts	2
166	UMKC	3
211	Oakland	4
253	Western Illinois	5
285	Valparaiso	6
302	Southern Utah	7
322	Centenary	8

Head Coach Q&A's

Ron Hunter - IUPUI

Bill Evans - Southern Utah

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Mid-Con Coaches Poll & All-Conference

IPFW to Join Mid-Con

Mid-Con Preseason Poll & All-Conference

Press Release — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 11:21:17 -0700

The Mid-Continent Conference announced that Oral Roberts has been picked to win the Conference championship in men’s basketball, according to the coaches/media preseason poll. The Golden Eagles received 19 of the 23 possible first-place votes, while the IUPUI Jaguars received two of the four remaining first-place votes to secure second place.

Two-time Mid-Con Player of the Year Caleb Green (Oral Roberts) was pegged Preseason Player of the Year and was joined by George Hill (IUPUI), Quinton Day (UMKC), David Jackson (Western Illinois), Vova Severovas (Oakland) and Ken Tutt (Oral Roberts) on the preseason First Team.

UMKC also collected two first-place votes and was picked third, followed by Valparaiso, Oakland, Western Illinois, Southern Utah and Centenary.

2006-07 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
1.	Oral Roberts	260
2.	IUPUI (2)	230
3.	UMKC (2)	200
4.	Valparaiso	156
5.	Oakland	135
6.	Western Illinois	108
7.	Southern Utah	81
8.	Centenary	42
(first-place votes listed in parentheses)

Ghost of Mid-Con Past: Best Valpo Moments

Dan Vance — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:17:33 -0700

Sure the 2006-2007 college basketball season has yet to begin. But, some things are already a given for when it ends come March, or if your lucky even April. And one of those things is that the Mid-Continent Conference is about to look a whole lot different.

And no, it is not just because IPFW, North Dakota State and South Dakota State have already packed their bags in anticipation of moving in on July 1st of next year. It is instead because one of the long time tenants of the Mid-Con hotel is saying bye bye.

So the Valparaiso Crusaders prepare to ride off into the sunset, away from the Mid-Continent Conference and into the open hands of their Midwestern rivals of the Horizon League. Let us take this time to pause and look back at the five biggest moments for Valpo since they became a founding member of the Mid-Con in 1982.

Number 5: 10 years of titles (1994-2004)
It was a time when Valpo bucked all the trends, broke a lot of the records and ignored the turnover ratio of the average college basketball program. While other conferences were experiencing a changing of the guard every year, Valparaiso dominated the Mid-Con, especially for the ten-year span of 1994 to 2004.

The Crusaders won both the regular season and tournament titles for a record five straight years from 1995-1999, capped off by their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1996 and a Cinderella-run in 1998. In 2000, Homer Drew led the school to a sixth straight conference tournament title and then won the regular season crown again in 2001. In Drew’s final season of his first run as coach, they won both titles in 2002. Scott Drew led them to a regular season crown in 2003 before father Homer returned to do the same in 2004.

That is 16 titles in 10 total seasons, winning at least one title each year. And, their 1995-1999 run paired them up with the likes of North Carolina State, UMass and Kentucky as the only teams to win both regular season and tournament conference titles in five straight seasons. The run solidified Valpo as the most dominant team that the Mid-Continent Conference has seen to date.

Number 4: 15 players make it to the NBA
For Valpo coach Homer Drew, the best of his NBA draftees was likely his son Bryce, now an assistant under him with the Crusaders. Bryce was drafted in the first round of the 1998 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets after Valpo’s magical tournament run months earlier. Bryce however only enjoyed a brief stint in the National Basketball Association, averaging 4.4 points per game.

The only other former Valpo player of note who went on to the NBA is Chris Emsinger. While no former Crusader has enjoyed much success on basketball’s highest level, it is a rare feat and therefore an honor for a low-to-mid-major school like Valpo to send so many to the NBA, be it by draft of free agency.

Number 3: Valparaiso is founding member of Mid-Con
The Mid-Continent Conference opened in 1982 with eight members. Valparaiso was the only member of the conference from the state of Indiana until IUPUI joined 16 years later in 1998. It was important in the early going for the Crusader program to bring a presence from Indiana in the primarily Midwest based conference. The initial conference breakdown saw three Illinois schools and one school each from the states of Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana and Missouri.

Valpo however did not have a strong presence until after five founding schools and four other schools had come and gone from the ranks of the Mid-Con. In 1995, the same year that Troy State entered the conference, Valpo won both conference titles. Not a year had gone by until the 2005-2006 season that they had not captured a Mid-Con title of some sort with their titles totaling 18.

When Valparaiso leaves the Mid-Con officially on July 1, 2007, it will leave Western Illinois as the only remaining founding member.

Number 2: Homer Drew returns to head coaching position
He was only gone for one season, watching his son Scott take over for him. But, the true Crusader fans knew the difference. Scott, while leading them to a regular season Mid-Con title, was no Homer Drew. After all, Homer Drew was and still is Valpo basketball.

Drew had coached for 26 years on the college level before retiring on April 25, 2002. One year later, the Valpo faithful were happy to have their school’s all-time winningest coach back in the saddle. Drew has a demeanor all of his own and a style that has led to a distinct home court advantage for teams he coaches. From 1993 until his retirement in 2002, Drew led Valpo to a 101-13 record on their home court at the Athletics-Recreation Center, nearly an 89 percent winning percentage. He was also a Mid-Con coach of the Year three times in the same span.

In his first season back with the Crusader, the elder Drew finished 18-13 overall, winning the Mid-Con regular season title.

Number 1: Bryce Drew hits “The Shot”
It will never matter how many times that you see it, it will still go down as one of the greatest and most maddening moments in the history of March Madness. When you think of the big shots in the NCAA Tournament, especially in recent years, it should always come down to two men: Christian Laettner and Bryce Drew.

13th seeded Valpo was trailing Ole Miss 67-69 with 4.1 seconds to play in the first round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament. The Rebel’s Ansu Sesay then missed back-to-back free throws to give the Crusaders the ball with 2.5 seconds left. Valpo then ran a play called “The Pacer” and two passes later, Drew sank a 23-foot jumper for the win.

In 2005, CHN named Drew the #34 best point guard of the modern era (1990-2005).

Sports Illustrated later named “The Shot” as fifth best moment in sports for 1998 and its image will undoubtedly make basketball fans remember Valparaiso basketball forever.

IPFW to Join Mid-Continent Conference

Dan Vance — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0700

IPFW athletic department officials held a 3 p.m. news conference yesterday to announce that the school has been officially offered a spot in the Mid-Continent Conference effective for the 2007-2008 school year and athletic season. Mid-Con commissioner Tom Douple made the announcement in the packed ballroom of the Walb Student Union on the school’s Fort Wayne, Indiana campus.

“We had put so much effort into this and we had worked so hard to get it done this time that it was so great to hear those words you’re in,” said Mark Pope, the school’s Athletic Director.

Pope was given the news by Chancellor Michael Wartell in the morning and had to prepare for the news conference later in the day.

“Being part of a conference will really allow us to garner some much deserved respect,” men’s basketball head coach Dane Fife said.

“It is for the student athletes,” Fife added. “I couldn’t be happier for the ones that are here everyday pouring their hearts out for the university.”

At the beginning of August, Douple and other officials from the conference visited Fort Wayne in the process of discussing and determining expansion for the conference that lost Chicago State in the spring and will lose flagship program Valparaiso to the Horizon League next fall.

During the visit, Douple and others visited with over 100 people associated with the university including athletes, faculty and boosters.

“Those people saw what a neat town Fort Wayne is and what a neat part we play in it. Those were the real selling points,” Pope said.

IPFW fully joined the ranks of Division I in 2002 and has had four sub-par seasons as an Independent program. After two and one half seasons into their time as a DI program, the school fired head coach Doug Noll. He was replaced by then-assistant Joe Pechota for half a season and the school then hired Fife, a former standout guard at Indiana University, in March 2005 to take over.

In his first season at the helm, Fife led the program to its first 10-plus-win season since 2000, when they were still a member of Division II’s Great Lakes Valley Conference. At 25, Fife also became the youngest Division I coach upon his hiring.

Fife and his coaching staff met with the team early in the day after receiving the news from Athletic Director Mark Pope. While Fife said that the there were a lot of smiles in the room, that he wants the younger players to understand the importance of the seniors, who will not be around for conference affiliation, to go out with a bang.

“We can’t forget this coming year and the importance of this coming year. It is important that Justin Hawkins, Quintin Carouthers and Tyler Best go out with what they deserve,” Fife noted several times. “When the time comes to play in the Mid-Con, that’s down the road. Right now, we have to work for this season.”

While Fife does not want to look past or coast through the coming season, he did note the importance to grooming current and future players a different way.

“We have to get our kids groomed to winning the Mid-Con as opposed to winning the UBC, it’s a different mindset.”

IPFW will be part of the UBC (United Basketball Conference) this season, but will cut off affiliation at seasons end. The UBC is not an official conference, but more of a scheduling agreement between independents.

IPFW will be immediately eligible for conference tournament play in men’s basketball and the 14 other sports that the Mid-Con offers.

“First we need to take a step back and realize what has happened and then what we need to do to win Mid-Con Conference championships. To not just participate but win,” Pope said.

“From our men’s basketball standpoint, it gives every one of our players the chance to fulfill the dream of playing in the NCAA tournament,” said Associate Head Coach Jeff Tungate. Before being hired as Fife’s first assistant a little over a year ago, Tungate was part of the Mid-Continent’s Oakland University coaching staff.

While the current senior class will not see conference play, junior DeWitt Scott, the leading scorer from Fife’s first season will be heading IPFW as they begin conference play. Junior transfer Demetrius Johnson is the only other potential starter who will be around when the school officially begins conference play.

Based out of Elmhurst, Illinois, the conference will now have eight schools next fall but is also looking at South Dakota State and North Dakota State as other possible expansion schools. The majority of schools currently in the Mid-Con are Midwest based. The school furthest away from the others is Southern Utah.