I’ve got something special coming for you all on Tuesday morning. Been working on it for a year.
The first two articles are out.
Introduction: The Last Meeting
Part I: The Return of the Mayor
Hope you enjoy!
I’m loving these articles!
Great pieces. It's clear that the NIT run season created great memories for these guys. I'm sure they enjoyed reminiscing about that time.
Getting a Billy Donlon quote… I give that a chefs kiss. Not to stray to far from the story, but those were some great games against the raiders. Filled with tension. The Ryan Brok 3 pointer to seal it and the Tip in at the rim by their point guard for the win at the buzzer.
Paul has built a Wayback Machine. I sat here and very slowly read his Part2 and was pulled back to that time following the team every day — living with every win and going into depression after every loss. And throughout, he reminds us how young that team actually was.But it makes me sad as well. We’ll never have this kind of story again (at least, in the current world of collegiate basketball).
I loved this series. Brought out some real emotions as I read.
But it also dredged up a dark memory. This was a junior laden team that won 31 games. It was close-knit. And the future of MBB looked so bright despite the loss in the final. And then the wheels started to come off. Bryce bailed taking Roger with him to Vandy. That probably was not preventable (given Bryce’s great record coupled with the mounting Drew frustrations with university support). The search for a successor ‘appears’ to not have gone full national (or was budgetarily constrained), and Matt is hired without any HC experience. My gut at the time was that the Valpo opening would attract some great DI candidates with excellent HC resumes cuz the next guy would inherit a now senior-filled team with something to prove. But it just seemed that we were repeating the same sad song the administration sang after the 1998 Sweet 16 run. So we lose Skara too. We make another HL run but……. We join the MVC and are unprepared for the jump. And here we are today still trying to regain relevance. But it is what it is.
Thank you, Paul. That was a great run and those are great memories.
Thank you! There is still an epilogue coming tomorrow.
This was a terrific series, Paul. Thank you for your hard work on this. Great memories of the last time Valpo was truly a contender. Some day, we'll be back!