TERRE HAUTE — The Missouri Valley Conference’s official announcement Tuesday to move the MVC Tournament to a neutral site in 2008 comes two years too late for Indiana State women’s basketball fans.
It is no given the Sycamores would have won the conference tournament the last two seasons when they were eliminated by the host teams in championship games in 2005 and 2006, but no doubts about fairness would exist had the tournaments been played on a neutral court.
It’s really not about the fans. It’s about the players who work for four years to reach the NCAA Tournament to see their dreams’ shattered partly due to a homecourt advantage.
The step is a large one forward, with the MVC joining all the BCS conferences as having a neutral site and the ninth in the nation to do so. The Mid-American Conference has home sites and a neutral site for the last two rounds.
The women’s MVC currently ranks 16th in the country in RPI ratings. The league enjoyed much more success when Missouri State and Drake were in their heyday near the end of the last decade.
The conference’s best days had to be when then Southwest Missouri State reached the Final Four in 1992 and 2001, MVC associate commissioner Patty Viverito said Tuesday when asked about where the neutral-court announcement ranks in the league’s history. So moving to a neutral court has to rank third in the league’s history of accomplishments.
It will take time and continued improvement by all 10 programs for the tournament to be a success on a neutral court. The benefits may not be seen right away.
Viverito said the conference is committed to staying at St. Charles (Mo.) Family Arena for more than the one-year contract upon which the parties agreed.
“It’s a one year commitment, but we have the intention to stay in the St. Charles community for a long time,” Viverito said.
Viverito also conceded that the conference is fine with taking a financial loss, at least in the short term. Viverito and commissioner Doug Elgin told the Tribune-Star — when we reported that this announcement would likely be coming last summer — that the women’s basketball tournament is not a money maker, even at a site like Missouri State, where there’s a season-ticket base of several thousand fans. So why not take the loss and hope a neutral-court tournament near St. Louis helps the league grow?
“We’re not having unrealistic expectations,” Viverito said. “What we will be looking for is growth.”
When discussing this issue the past two years, Valley officials wanted to be sure that each member institution was prepared to promote the tournament and each of its women’s program. In my travels around the league — I’ve yet to make it to all 10 arenas — the programs are making progress in building a fan base. The MVC actually ranks among the top 10 conferences in the nation in attendance, but that’s mostly because Missouri State and Indiana State rank in the top 30.
The big question is, will fans of many of these teams travel? ISU and MSU fans will travel. But will the small fan base from Creighton drive six hours from Omaha, Neb.?
For the 10 MVC teams, it will be an average of a 4-hour, 11-minute drive from all the campuses.
But for those of us on the eastern side of the MVC, it’s basically a three-hour drive from Terre Haute, Evansville and the three schools in Illinois.
All the coaches in the league are in favor of the move to a neutral site. MVC officials and each school’s administrators deserve credit for doing their homework and agreeing to make this plan a reality. It’s a fairness issue to all the coaches. Their consensus opinion was key in making this happen.
Illinois State coach Robin Pingeton has said it was an unfair advantage since her team’s MVC Tournament title and reiterated her thoughts during Tuesday’s MVC coaches teleconference. Coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson acknowledged after her team’s tournament win last March that homecourt advantage played a big role in the Bears’ run last year.
Both of those teams had seniors who were some of the best players in the league — MSU’s Kari Koch and Sarah Klassen and Illinois State’s Jaci McCormack and Katie Donovan. Those teams were more than capable of being top teams in their respective regular seasons, but the won-loss totals showed otherwise. Maybe those teams played with less urgency during the regular season, knowing they would have the MVC tournament in their own house.
Allowing a No. 7 or No. 8 seed to be at home is an unfair advantage for a weekend. A team can have a good weekend and negate an entire season of struggles. The key in those two tournaments were first-round games. In 2005, Illinois State shot the lights out to take down top-seeded Missouri State in the opening round. The momentum gained from that win gave the Redbirds and their fans confidence to overcome a better Sycamores team in the championship. In 2006, Missouri State picked up momentum by coming from a 20-point second-half deficit to defeat Bradley in the play-in round.
Those kinds of upsets happen in tournament play. That’s the beauty of March.
In the past two years, I arrived at Normal, Ill., and Springfield, Mo., knowing those Illinois State and MSU teams had the players to make them a factor. This year, Drake does not look like a team capable of winning at home in Des Moines, Iowa, with Jill Martin, the preseason favorite for the Jackie Stiles Award, recovering from back surgery. This year’s tournament will be a crapshoot, evidenced by the ability of all 10 teams to win about anywhere this season.
Still, whoever is forced to play Drake in the first round is up against a program rich in tradition that could knock out one of the top contending teams. It had become a tired issue.
Now the talk can return to where it should be, the women on the court.
Given to Fly
February 20, 2007
Given to Fly: MVC women’s tourney finally moving to neutral ground
- Given to Fly
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GIVEN TO FLY: Come to expect new standards of excellence
Records are definitely meant to be broken; athletes today are faster and stronger than those in the past in many endeavors in athletics.
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GIVEN TO FLY: ISU women have solid recruiting class
The caliber of athletes that the Indiana State women’s basketball coaching staff is bringing in is on an upswing.
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GIVEN TO FLY: Major leaguers John, Dorsett meet up at tonight’s game
Terre Haute’s only two big leaguers of the last 50 years — Tommy John and Brian Dorsett — will catch up with one another today.
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FOOT NOTES: Valley natives perform well on national stage
Several Wabash Valley natives continue to shine on the national track and field scene.
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'Til It's Over: Sycamores ‘in a good place,’ but searching for more in MVC
Can Teri Moren lift Indiana State, last year’s seventh-place team in the Missouri Valley Conference, to one of the league’s contenders in her first year on campus?
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'Til It's Over: Two sets of identical twins should keep North Central baseball a contender
The last high school baseball team standing in the Wabash Valley was the North Central, the Thunderbirds falling short 4-3 in the Class A Semistate on Saturday just one game shy of Victory Field.
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'Til It's Over: Jarvis, Anderson confident Olney, hard work leads to Division I dream
Olney, Ill., population 8,000-plus and known for its population of white squirrels, might not be the dream destination for high school basketball players in Indiana.
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'Til It's Over: Robinson 7-footer more focused in postseason; 6-foot Jones keeps producing
Robinson 7-footer Meyers Leonard is not going to be the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA some day, but his odds of reaching the league are pretty solid if his game continues to evolve as it has during high school.
- 'Til It's Over: ‘Stepping stone’ game points Sycamores in right direction Whether the win comes against a top-25 team or a conference pushover, ending a four-game losing streak is always a relief.
- 'Til It's Over: Indianapolis ISU recruit rolling along in senior season As Indiana State recruit Anna Munn approached Christmas with the Decatur Central basketball team, the senior guard didn’t seem to need much of a wishlist.
- 'Til It's Over: Magic’s still there for '79 Sycamores For the former Indiana State players who visited the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in late November, the weekend was a chance to relive memories with teammates and see Larry Bird’s career with the Sycamores celebrated again.
- CRAIG PEARSON: North has strong history in cross country state finals Vigo County is home to just four IHSAA state championships in team sports. Most recently, Terre Haute South won girls titles in basketball (2002) and tennis (2001).
- 'Till It's Over: It’s been rough year but no need to break up Cubs' core Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry is only in the first year of a three-year contract, and aren’t back-to-back division championships enough to keep him around despite this year’s season filled with bad luck?
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You might have heard of the Indiana Pacers’ 2009 first-round draft pick. He was on the television once in a while during his four-year career at North Carolina.
- 'Til It's Over: Bertoli, Moore put on show in abundance of events “Anthony and Erica” may not have the marketing capability of “Dan and Dave,” but neither of Indiana State’s outstanding multi-event participants had let-down performances this weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships.
- ‘Walking wounded’: ISU seniors return to provide spark All three ISU seniors will graduate in May, and all three will be in uniform today as Indiana State battles Bradley in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament quarterfinals.
- Given to Fly: Northview standout runner Thacker coming to ISU Doc Brown told an old-timer in a saloon in “Back to the Future III” that despite having automobiles in the future people run for recreation.
- Given to Fly: Schilli’s Rodman-like performance aids ISU With Indiana State’s women’s basketball team ranking eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference in field-goal percentage (36.5), the Sycamores need as many shot attempts as possible to maintain their standing on top of the league.
- Given to Fly: A classic in every sense of the word What tournament director and co-founder Gary Fears had in mind when creating the tournament came to fruition Tuesday. Marshall, with an enrollment of 438 students, became the smallest school to win the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic in the ninth season of the tourney.
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Given to Fly: ISU women should build confidence off strong outing
Indiana State did not pull off the monumental upset Saturday against No. 23 Kansas State, but the Wildcats are —aside from Connecticut in 2005 — the best team the Sycamores have played in the Jim Wiedie era.
- Given to Fly: ISU women's hoops team slides onto commercial radio Coach Jim Wiedie expects the Indiana State women’s basketball team to have a bit of a retro feel this season, meaning the Sycamores have the potential to get back to creating havoc with their full-court press.
- Given to Fly: ISU vets hope to prove pundits wrong Indiana State’s only two seniors were surprised to see they were picked ahead of just three Missouri Valley Conference women’s basketball teams Tuesday morning.
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Footnotes: In first marathon, former Sycamore comes out a winner
Indiana State graduate Dani Prince made her debut in the event with a victory in the Columbus Marathon on Sunday.
Prince’s goal was a time under 2 hours and 50 minutes, and she ran a 2:48.56. -
Given To Fly: ISU volleyball turning things around
It was an extremely busy weekend for Indiana State athletics this weekend.
- Footnotes: Here’s hoping perfect weather is still around for Nationals in November The weather made for a perfect fall afternoon Saturday at LaVern Gibson Championship Course. For what it’s worth, the Farmer’s Almanac calls for more sunny conditions from Nov. 20-24, with the NCAA Championships falling on the 24th this year.
- Terre Haute natives cherish memories of ‘House that Ruth Built’ Yankee Stadium was packed as usual on Easter Sunday in 1979. George Steinbrenner’s Yankees were one loss away from being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers to start the season. That was no way for the two-time defending World Series champions to perform, so the boss had a conversation with his new veteran left-handed starting pitcher prior to the game.
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Footnotes: Oregon men and women have strangehold on preseason NCAA cross countryrankings
The Oregon men and women were almost both unanimous picks as the No. 1 teams in the nation in the preseason cross country national rankings released recently.
- Given to Fly: Bronze medalist has strong ISU ties One of the remarkable American medalists of this 2008 Olympics thus far also provided one of the most sparkling stories in the brief history of the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course here in Terre Haute.
- Former ISU QB gets back to Amarillo This week, Indiana State signed its most highly-touted football prospect in years, and former quarterback Julian Reese is ripping it up for the Amarillo Dusters of Arena2.
- Indiana State track sending strong group to NCAA regional Three sophomore women and three senior men lead a large Indiana State contingent of track and field athletes into the NCAA Mideast Regional this weekend at Fayetteville, Ark.
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