Give and take: How Missouri Valley pragmatically uses the NCAA basketball transfer portal

PEORIA — The Missouri Valley Conference does not fear the NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal.

From coaches to commissioner, the 12-team circuit has evolved to a pragmatic outlook that the portal is a give-and-take fact of life in modern college basketball.

“We’ve heard a lot about student-athletes departing the Missouri Valley Conference to go different places,” MVC commissioner Jeff Jackson said in an interview earlier this summer. “I remember two years ago, we were ranked 15th as a conference. After all those (players) departed, and our teams went out and replenished, we ended up ranked ninth or 10 last season.

Last season, MVC regular-season champion Indiana State finished 32-7 and made a run to the championship game of the National Invitation Tournament after bringing in four transfers.

“So,” Jackson said, “I think there’s a lot of different ways institutions can find to be successful.”

Jackson and a handful of coaches were asked about the transfer portal and the soaring NIL money being offered by Power 5 schools to recruit elite players in the portal and how a mid-major like the Valley has to deal with it.

Valley basketball raided by the Power 5

The Missouri Valley Conference was ranked 10th among 33 conferences scored by metric site KenPom.com in the 2023-24 season. That means the Valley had plenty of player talent for Power 6 teams to raid — and raid they did, as players acquired agents, pursued NIL money and looked for higher-profile opportunities.

The transfer portal included 86 players overall from the MVC, and 12 of the 16 players voted to the MVC’s three all-conference teams last season. That included two-time MVC Player of the Year Tucker DeVries, who entered the portal on March 27, days after his father, coach Darian DeVries, left to become head coach at West Virginia. Indiana State first-teamer Robbie Avila entered the portal on April 9, after Sycamores coach Josh Schertz left for St. Louis.

MVC transfer portal: 20 Missouri Valley basketball players headed to the Power 5 from the transfer portal

In addition, three more players from those all-Valley teams ran out of eligibility. So all told, Bradley guard Duke Deen is the only player from the Valley’s three all-conference teams still in the league as the 2024-25 season approaches.

“I view this as an opportunity to raise our players up to a higher level,” said Bradley coach Brian Wardle, whose team is likely to be tabbed as No. 1 in the MVC preseason rankings. “So we have to see where all this goes. It’s still changing. But we will be able to do some things, continue to have good basketball, good players. Our program will do everything it can to compete and succeed.”

In Bradley’s case, that will evolve around the fifth-year Deen, who Wardle praises for his fiery leadership and his loyalty to the program.

The Braves added 6-foot-10 center Corey Thomas, guard Connor Dillon and welcomed back guard Zek Montgomery all via the transfer portal this spring.

“You’re very fortunate at Bradley to have Brian Wardle, who’s been able to find the right type of (players) and get them to mesh and grow as a unit and find a way for them to be competitive not only in the Missouri Valley but on the national stage,” Jackson said. “(As for NIL money and transfer portal) I’m not sure it’s whether you keep a certain student-athlete. What matters is if you have the ability to recruit and to replenish (athletes), and then have the ability that is necessary as a coaching staff and administrative support and academic support … to create the type of experience where your institution can continue being relevant.”

The view at Illinois State

Illinois State picked up Landon Wolf from the transfer portal, a guard who was on the MVC All-Bench Team last season for Northern Iowa.

“One of the great things about the portal is you can address some specific needs,” Redbirds coach Ryan Pedon said. “The roster is starting to look like a roster I want to play with, guys who are tough, smart and skilled. And that element of shooting from all five spots is essential nowadays.”

Illinois State is heading into Year 3 under Pedon, who likes where his program is headed.

“We got here and shaved it down to the raw framework,” Pedon said. “It takes time. I believe your culture will guide that. You win with people, great people, first. Reality is, a championship culture always precedes championship results. There’s no shortcuts.”

The transfer portal can speed up that process, although it comes with some risks as teams have to be cautious in making sure portal players are a fit with their team’s culture. Better isn’t always … better.

Northern Iowa and the portal

UNI got hit hard in the transfer portal this offseason, losing seven players from a team that won 19 games and finished fourth in the Valley.

The Panthers were among some Valley teams that had a lot of work to do rebuilding this summer. UIC lost 12 players to the portal. Indiana State, on the heels of Schertz’s departure, lost 10.

“That’s the world we’re in, in college athletics right now,” longtime UNI coach Ben Jacobson said. “We don’t like seeing players leave our program when they still have eligibility left, but guys leave for varying reasons, and you understand it and accept it. You move on quickly.

“We were able to add four players through the portal we feel great about. And added three new freshman. You don’t have time to sit around and feel sorry for yourself.”

Stand pat or go big? Examining the future of Missouri Valley Conference basketball

One last thing about NIL

MVC commissioner Jackson has a strong voice in NCAA men’s basketball, which means the Valley does, too.Jackson has been appointed to the NCAA Division I Council, a high-level group responsible for the day-to-day decision-making for Division I.

And he also currently serves on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee, which is charged with ensuring that appropriate oversight of men’s basketball is maintained, enhancing the development and public perception of the sport and making recommendations related to regular-season and postseason men’s basketballHis terms on both committees are through June of 2028.

Players enter the transfer portal in growing numbers for various reasons, but the lure of NIL money from Power 5 teams is perhaps the biggest.

“I favor players taking advantage of NIL,” Jackson said. “Players figuring out things organically. Truly, NIL where they can enhance their financial status as they compete for our institutions.

“One of the things were all trying to figure out how to manage better is NIL, true NIL, and that’s the setting which gets dangerously close to crossing the line of being pay-for-play, which is not an environment I think our institutions want to be in. I don’t favor pay-for-play. I do not see us getting into a world where student-athletes become employees.”

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: NCAA basketball: How MVC deals with transfer portal this offseason