VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 08:55:28 03/05/04 Fri
Author: Valpo89
Subject: Valpo in Division I - a brief history

There has been much discussion below comparing Oakland's entry to Division I and VU's struggle once the school decided to go D-I. There is no doubt Oakland has had more success in its D-I infancy compared to Valpo.

Valpo went Division I in 1976. They played a partial D-1 schedule that year, I believe, in the transition. Valpo had some good "College Division" teams in the 60s, and even beat Purdue one year. But they weren't very good in the early 70s prior to the transition.

They struggled in the early years, and weren't affiliated with a conference until the Mid-Con formed as the Association of Mid-Continent Universities-8 (AMCU-8). Thank goodness that name was changed. I believe the league started in 1982. Valpo was not good. The most memorable pre-AMCU game was against No. 1-ranked DePaul in 1979, the team that had Mark Aguirre. The school didn't put enough money into the program, the team played in the old gym upstairs at the ARC (which was finished for the 1984-85 season), and they never had any quality big men under coach Tom Smith, Homer's predecessor.

Homer took over in 1988-89. That first season, the team beat Notre Dame in December. The Irish had freshman LaPhonso Ellis and were ranked No. 19 at the time. Homer's first team won 10 games or so - he had two good players from Valpo High (Scott Anselm and Mike Jones), but still no big men. After that, Homer's teams went something like 4-24, 5-22 5-22. This, of course, was in the old Mid-Con playing against the likes of UIC, UWGB, Cleveland State, Northern Iowa (not Northern Illinois - they were in the conference for maybe two seasons), SW Missouri State, Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois.

But then, starting in 1992-93, Homer got two talented local kids to transfer home - David Redmon from Arkansas-Little Rock, and Casey Schmidt from Arizona. They played together for two years. The first year they were just under .500 overall, and played 8 overtime games. That team upset No. 2 seed Northern Illinois in the first round of the conference tournament. The next year (1994) they won 20 games for the first time, and were ousted in the semifinals by UIC, which had Sherrell Ford (played with Supersonics) and a terrific guard named Kenny Williams. This was the last year of the old Mid-Con.

The next year Valpo won its first Mid-Con tournament title, beating Western Illinois in three overtimes. It was Bryce Drew's freshman year, and it was the start of 9 titles in 10 seasons. Yes, it was the first year of the new (bad) Mid-Con with the likes of Buffalo and Central Connecticut State. By then, Scott Drew had started recruiting 7-footers from Europe. So they had the big guys to go along with talented guards.

Valpo's program was on the rise when the Mid-Con changed. Sure, it has helped them put together the string of 20-win seasons. Valpo would have been competitive all the years against the old Mid-Con teams (I think their record against former members is pretty good, as is the current league overall). The improvement of the program coincided with the change in the Mid-Con. They wouldn't have all the NCAA appearances if the league hadn't changed, but they would have had a shot every year. Plus, more money has been put into the program than in the early years.

So yes, it has been a big difference between Oakland and Valpo with regard to early success in Division I.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.