Ranking the MVC HCs

[BuBrave2006]

Id go Jake, DeVries, Mullins and the list ends there. Wardle is consistently 20 wins but not higher. He may sneak in every few years. I'd rather go for an unknown who could propel us to the next level that go for status quo. Moser and Wardle can't. Loyola was a one off. Lightning in a bottle.

Brian Wardle took a dumpster fire of a program that kept 3 returning players and here's how it went:

Year 1: 5 wins, 9th place
Year 2: 13 wins, T-6th place
Year 3: 20 wins, 5th place
Year 4: T-5th place, MVC Tournament Title and NCAA Tournament
Year 5: T-3rd place and MVC Tournament Title with our best player missing 9 games

Brian Wardle deserves to be on this list.

hes a good coach but not one that will take a program to the next tier consistantly. hopefully, ISU will find one after the season. Too bad, UIC hired Yaklich

I mean the premise of this was building a program from scratch, which is literally exactly what Wardle did. Now if you are talking about taking a mid tier program and bringing to the next level, I can certainly agree that the jury is still out with Wardle there.

[siudawgs]

Can't wait to see how Mullins continues to build the Saluki program. He's only been head coach for one season, but he's off to a very promising start in just about all aspects of building a program. I would like to see some growth in terms of instilling a more efficient and productive offense, but I think part of that will be addressed as the talent in the program improves. If he's able to get Southern scoring in the 70s or 80s with some consistency, there will be a lot of Ws in the coming seasons.

Among the other coaches in the league, agree with the consensus that Jacobson, Moser, DeVries and Wardle are all solid, with Jacobson obviously the most accomplished as a head coach. I'm not going to diminish Moser's Final Four run or strong recent recruiting, although his overall body of work certainly has some blemishes. Elsewhere around the league, I'm curious how Mo State trends under Ford, who had an impressive first year and then backslid last year. I can't consider the head coaches at any of the Indiana schools or Illinois State to be above-average until proven otherwise.

[goramblers2011]

Yeah, if I am starting a program from scratch, I'm taking Mullins over anyone not named Moser, Jake or Wardle.

Id go Jake, DeVries, Mullins and the list ends there. Wardle is consistently 20 wins but not higher. He may sneak in every few years. I'd rather go for an unknown who could propel us to the next level that go for status quo. Moser and Wardle can't. Loyola was a one off. Lightning in a bottle.

Conference records since Loyola's "one off" "lightning in a bottle" year:
1. Loyola 25-11
2. UNI 23-13
3. Drake 20-16
3. SIU 20-16
3. Bradley 20-16

And they are expected to compete for a conference championship this year. From a program that could not finish in the top half of the standings in the Horizon or the MVC to a program that is now consistently expected to be a top 3 team in conference and compete for March Madness. Porter Moser has proven himself as a program builder...it is why P5 programs have already offered him to take over their programs.

Don't take the bait!!! The stats won't help!!!!!

Ugh. I took the bait.

[Mikovio]

1. Jacobson
2. Moser
3. Wardle
4. Ford
5. Mullins
6. DeVries
7. Lansing
8. Lottich
9. Lickliter
10. Muller

Wardle did a fantastic job with terrible injury luck including Elijah out most of the conference season, keeping the team playing hard and finishing strong. There were only 6 dressed scholarship players in the game at ISU Blue with DB and Elijah both out and it was still close. How would Loyola have fared with Krutwig missing half their games?

[mexicobufan]

Brian Wardle is a great coach and belongs in tier one on the MVC list. Beyond what he has done to bring Bradley basketball back with two MVC tournaments in a row, he does it with quality young men and that matters to me. They seem to set a record for GPA every year and they stay out of trouble. For those who don’t think he is a tier one MVC coach watch what Bradley does this year. Very pleased being a life Long Bradley basketball fan to have Brian leading our program.

[BEARZ77]

I like Wardle, but until he can win a regular season MVC title and make a run in the NCAA Tourney, you can't put him on a level with Jake and Porter. Those two things separate coaches in my mind .

[squirrel]

Bradley may not have the regular season title, but they have the best record involving all Valley-Valley games (including Arch Madness) over 32 and 37 games:

20-10/23-9/26-11

By comparison, both UNI and Loyola are 20-10/21-11/24-13 over the same stretch.

I get the "Wardle needs to win a regular season title" bit, I really do, but when you consider it's a team that had its best league finish as T-3rd, Wardle still should get credit for having the most wins in all games against Valley opposition over the last 30+ games.

Looking only at the final league position misses the overall state of the Bradley program as the principal rising force in the Valley.

[Drakey]

Squirrel: What do those numbers mean? If they are records over a certain number of games, those are very random sample sizes you have chosen. 32 games? 27 games? If you have to work that hard, it mist not be evident.

[patnb]

Having a team get hot for 3 days the first weekend of March doesn't make you a great coach.

Wasn't it just like 4 years ago or so Cal Poly got hot and won the auto big for Big West at something like 14-16?

Just 2 years ago SDSU went through Horizon play at something like 13-1 and then lost to the worst team, by far, in the Summer WIU (who had a NET of like 330+) in the first round of the conference tournament. Does that mean WIU was the better team and had a better coach?

[Majik45]

I understand why other's aren't as high on Wardle and the perception that he has just gotten hot for a weekend the last 2 years. The one thing that I do like about him is he has his teams peaking at the end of the season which is great going in to Arch Madness

As far as the regular season goes, 2 years ago, he had that horrendous start to the conference season with starting 0-5 before he made some major line-up shake-ups. Bradley finished the conference going 9-4 the rest of the way. It took him too long to make the line-up changes on that team and that is why they did not contend that year.

Last year, Childs missed 10 conference games and he was arguably Bradley's most valuable player. It's hard to lose a 1st team All Valley player for that long and win a regular season title. It can be done, but another reason they did not contend.

We'll see what happens this year as Bradley on paper has just reloaded, and I love what Wardle has done. Bradley appears to be in great shape to make an extended run here now, and I fully expect to be in the Valley race with Loyola and UNI.