Valparaiso Basketball enters their third year in the Missouri Valley Conference hoping to make positive strides after a rough start in their new league. Will they take that step forward?
The harsh introduction to the MVC continued last season for Valparaiso Basketball, who tied for eighth place in their second season in the conference. A program familiar with dominating the Horizon League, last season was slight progress after a last-place finish in their first MVC season. Unfortunately, major changes on the roster will temper expectations for the Crusaders moving forward.
After an up and down run through non-conference play, Valparaiso got off to a hot 5-1 start in MVC play. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t survive key injuries, including a long stretch without starting forward Ryan Fazekas. They wound up losing 10 of their final 12 conference games, faltering late time and time again in close games. Just two more wins would’ve avoided opening round action in the MVC Tournament, but Valpo finished as the #9 team in the conference.
For some, patience is running thin with fourth-year head coach Matt Lottich, especially after five players transferred from the program in the offseason. Losing junior centers Derrik Smits and Jaume Sorolla was killer, along with guards Markus Golder, Bakari Evelyn, and Micah Bradford robbing them of key depth. However, Lottich and his staff immediately went to work and filled this roster with young, albeit unheralded talent.
Adjusting to life in a new conference is difficult enough, but there will certainly be growing pains on this team. There are a few clear contenders in the MVC this season and Valparaiso is not one of them. The Crusaders return some impressive talent from last year’s roster, including stud sophomore Javon Freeman-Liberty, but getting these new faces to meld and compete at a high level isn’t going to happen overnight.