In a series of dispatches, award-winning college basketball writrer and former USA Today columnist Mike Lopresti will share features with HorizonLeague.com. Today, Lopresti looks at the new-look Valparaiso Crusaders.
Say hello to the Valparaiso Crusaders. Nametags optional.
“When we come into practice, we have a lot of introducing to do,” said coach Bryce Drew, who added that he is just grateful for the names on the back of the practice jerseys.
OK, he was kidding. A little. But the defending Horizon League champions lost six seniors, including every starter and 77 percent of the scoring, so faces are going to be different. The page must be turned at Valpo.
Here’s the question. Is the right term “rebuilding?” Or “reloading.”
“Reloading is always the goal,” Drew said. “You never want to go through the so-called rebuilding. But realistically, only a few programs in the country can do that on a yearly basis.
“We have some huge voids we have to fill. I think the rebuilding comes because you don’t know who’s going to fill those, or how they’re going to get filled.”
It’s more than simple talent, or statistics. Those can be replaced. But all those seniors on the court gave the Crusaders a savvy and crunch-time cohesion which was hard to beat. And that is gone.
“You can’t replace the guys being in tight games, and trusting each other and figuring out ways to win games,” Drew said. “It’s kind of like starting that process over with these guys. How are they going to react? You’ve got to learn your way through it.”
No surprise, then, that Valparaiso was picked sixth in the preseason league voting, which doesn’t sit all that well with the few who are returning. A senior does not care for the concept of building for the future. His future is now.
“I think we approach this year with a chip on our shoulder,” said LaVonte Dority, whose 8.1 average is as high as it gets among the returnees. “We want to come out and try to win games and get back to the tournament. Those are the things that we preach to each other every day in practice, and in the locker room.”
Preseason forecasts don’t faze Drew all that much, anyway.
“I don’t think we deserve to be higher because of the caliber of teams that are in our league,” he said. “I told our team last year when we were picked first like I’ll tell my team this year, preseason rankings are great but the postseason is what’s important. We’re way more concerned about that.”
So he’ll hope Dority, Bobby Capobianco and Jordan Coleman thrive as the most experienced Crusaders, and 7-foot Alabama transfer Moussa Gueye is a force in the middle, and a promising freshman class grows up in a hurry.
“When we recruited them, we told several of them, with six seniors leaving, they were going to have the opportunity to play right away,” Drew said. “How they seize that opportunity is yet to be determined. If we want to have a successful season, we’re going to need a few of them to step up and really help.”
Saint Louis transfer guard Keith Carter becomes eligible at the end of the first semester, and there is some thought he might end up among the best Crusaders of all. So it will be hard to assess Valparaiso early, since progress is a process. Drew is hoping the customers in the stands, accustomed to big seasons, are patient.
“Hopefully they understand and see the improvement in our guys, and not just see the bottom line result of our games,” he said.
This is Drew’s third season replacing father Homer, and he’s using coaching muscles he hasn’t had to call on before. His first two teams were heavy with veterans.
“We definitely have to do more teaching, more correcting, more multiple corrections of the same mistakes. I would say the practices have been a little more exhausting because there’s a lot of teaching and re-teaching,” he said. “But as a coach, it is also very rewarding when young players do start catching on to what you’re teaching.”
At the end, if the revamping goes smoothly, it could be as satisfying a season as Drew has seen in a young career. The road there, though, might have its bumps.
