Over the next several days, I'll be posting previews of each team in the Valley. Today I take a look at the Evansville Purple Aces.
Evansville
2006-07: 14-17
(6-12 MVC)
01.09 at CREI
02.13 at UE
2006-07 REWIND: When your coaches' greatest triumph is shown in the standard montage of clips CBS shows every March, generally speaking, your job is secure. When that triumph was at your previous job, and you've led your current team through five consecutive losing seasons, not so much. Thus, Steve Merfeld, just five seasons removed from coaching 15-seed Hampton over 2-seed Iowa State, and Evansville mutually agreed to part ways. But make no mistake: Evansville is bad.
In a way, its sad what has become of the UE program. As recent as 1999, they won the regular season crown and earned an at-large berth into the NCAA tourney (after losing to the Jays in the MVC championship). But that was under legendary Bob Knight protege Jim Crews, and seems like an eternity ago.
Creighton and Evansville matched up twice last year. Both games were, as Dick Vitale would call them, Ex-Lax Specials, Baby! In Evansville, the Jays used a 12-0 run to take a 30-17 lead, then coughed it up during a 18-2 UE run. A Jays defensive change held them to just two field goals in the first 16 minutes of the second half, and they ran off a 18-4 run to put the game away and they won 75-62. The rematch saw Evansville take a 48-34 lead into the locker room at halftime -- records for points and margin of lead at halftime for Creighton opponents at Qwest Center Omaha. A 25-4 run out of the break rallied the Jays to a 79-74 win.
---
Evansville brought in Evansville legend Marty Simmons to replace Merfeld. Simmons was a key part of Evansville's 1988 NIT berth, and was on Jim Crews' staff when they ran off three-straight NCAA Tourney berths in the nineties. He inherits a mess, with three of the top four scorers departing from a team that was 14-17 last year.
The three departing players are likely the only players the casual fan could name on Evansville's roster. Matt Webster (17 points per game), Bradley Strickland (11 points, 6 boards) and Kyle Anslinger (10 points per game) all scored 1000 points in their careers. Webster, Strickland and Anslinger were all good players who, saddled with a non-existent bench for years under Merfeld, toiled on losing teams.
Sharpshooter Jason Holsinger does return, and his sophomore season offers hope for UE faithful. Second on the team in scoring at nearly 12 points a game, he hit a whopping 87 three-pointers last year, including a pair of 30-footers against Creighton at home. He also finished third in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio, and fifth in assists.
Shy Ely, an All-MVC Freshman Team member two years ago, regressed as a sophomore and started just four games. His 7 points and 3 boards a game represented huge disappointments for a player the Aces were counting on to contribute more. His development as a junior will be key to the Aces chances of climbing out of the second division of the MVC.
Jay Couisnard, the younger brother of Wichita State's PJ Couisnard, was a beast on defense (just like his brother) but didn't show much offensively.
Can Simmons turn around Evansville? This is a program with great tradition and is accustomed to winning; the seven consecutive losing seasons they've endured is the longest such streak in school history. The new coaching staff has won everywhere they've been, and Simmons in particular played and coached for the Purple Aces during better times. If nothing else, he will have great passion for rebuilding the team. Passion without talent can only get you so far, and there's not enough of the latter in Evansville this year, unfortunately.
PREDICTION: 12-18, Ninth in the Valley.
Leave a comment