By Adam Vachon, Her Hoop Stats
 
Valparaiso finished the 2021-22 season with an 11-19 record. It lost its top three leading scorers. The Beacons play in a conference that had the fourth-highest NET rating among mid-major conferences last season. So, college basketball fans may not expect much from Valparaiso during its 2022-23 campaign. However, that ignores the Beacons’ strong team chemistry, work ethic, positive mindset, plethora of outside shooters, and talented roster of young players eager to prove themselves.
 
“I'm hoping we can go and prove a lot of people wrong,” junior Leah Earnest said. “We have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder.”       
 
The Beacons’ quest to prove people wrong began this summer with a productive offseason where players built closer relationships with each other, a difficult prospect the last couple of seasons due to COVID-19.   
 
“This summer was really important for our team, not just on the court, but it was a big summer for us to kind of rebuild our culture,” head coach Mary Evans said. “And I don't necessarily think our culture was bad, but our culture had taken a hit, like everyone else’s culture during COVID…We were coming off of two years of there being a lot of fear around getting COVID and missing games. And so I think this group and the leadership on this team really made a point to do things together on the court, off, spend quality time, get to know each other.”
 
One challenge for the Beacons this season is the inexperience of their roster. Of the eight players who received the most minutes last year, five are no longer with the program. That includes Shay Frederick, the team’s leading scorer and a two-time First Team All-MVC member, and Grace White, Valparaiso’s leading rebounder and a member of the MVC All-Defensive Team. Evans addressed her team’s inexperience by taking a special approach to conducting offseason workouts.
 
“We really went back to the basics this summer and kind of took a year one mentality,” Evans said. “We graduated and lost a lot of production and a lot of experience, and we have a lot of inexperience coming back with just a few experienced pieces…I think as coaches we learned that some of our younger kids that had been in the program maybe didn't quite understand conceptually exactly what we were trying to do.”
 
Despite needing to go back to square one, Evans was encouraged by her team’s development and attitude during the summer.
 
“I think collectively as a team, what we saw this summer that we loved was just their energy, their effort, and their coachability,” Evans said. “They were like sponges and that was exciting.”
 
Valparaiso’s success this season will hinge largely on the production it receives from its two top returners: senior Olivia Brown and Earnest. Brown, an uber-efficient 5-foot-8 guard, led the MVC in effective field-goal percentage en route to a spot on the conference’s All-Newcomer Team last season. Earnest, a versatile 5-foot-10 junior guard, was second on the team in rebounding while also knocking down over 35% of her attempts from long distance.   
 
“Olivia and Leah really progressed through the course of the year last year,” Evans said. “I think the big thing for them will be doing it when they are the players...when you're more of a focal point on scouting reports night in and night out.”
 
The Beacons also expect strong veteran leadership from fifth-year guards Maya Dunson and Ilysse Pitts, the only other returning players who averaged double-digit minutes last season.
 
“I've seen Maya and Ilysse really step up from a vocal leadership [perspective],” Evans said. “I see a real sense of urgency from them. I see a real desire to lead this team in a very positive way. And they're working tremendously hard.”
 
Valparaiso's five-out offense needs multiple players capable of knocking down outside shots in order to operate. Last season, the Beacons had five players shoot over 35% from beyond the arc and average at least one 3-point attempt per game; only two other teams in the country had more such players. While three of those players have since graduated, Valparaiso added a pair of 40% 3-point shooters from the transfer portal in redshirt junior guard Emma Tecca and sophomore guard Olivia Sims.  
 
“Emma Tecca is a pretty elite shooter,” Evans said. “I think she really fits into how we play. She can stretch the floor with her ability to shoot. You're going to have to have somebody out there on her. So I think she's going to create space for our kids that can get to the rim.”
 
Evans also had high praise for Sims, focusing on her shotmaking ability off the dribble and her hard-nosed defense.
 
“She is really good off the bounce,” Evans said. “She's very good at finishing with both hands around the rim and she's a very physical perimeter defender. She's a strong-frame kid that likes to guard and can use her body very well to hold her ground. And so I'm really excited about her upside.”
 
Ella Van Weelden, a 6-foot-1 redshirt freshman from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, provides the Beacons with some much-needed length on defense. Earnest described Van Weelden’s 3-point shot as “the most beautiful 3-point stroke I’ve ever seen.” Needless to say, Van Weelden’s height combined with her proficiency from long range will present a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses.
 
Lovie Malone, a 5-foot-10 redshirt freshman from Dayton, Ohio, gives Valparaiso the athleticism, aggressiveness, and physicality necessary to bolster its defense this season.
 
“Lovie is super athletic,” Earnest said. “She is a really high jumper, really strong….She is very aggressive, fighting after rebounds and a very good defender, very quick laterally and a good finisher around the basket.”
 
Rounding out the trio of players seeing their first college basketball action is 5-foot-10 guard Ali Saunders of Depauw, Indiana. Evans described her as a “very smooth point guard” who reminds her a little of Frederick.
 
While the jury is still out on who will receive the lion’s share of the minutes this season, Evans emphasized the importance of all 12 players on the roster. 
 
“I think everybody is just trying to figure out exactly what their role is going to be,” Evans said. “This has been a very open race for playing time. We're going to see who steps up, but everybody's role on this team is important.”
 
Evans identified two areas for improvement this season: improving how her team runs its five-out offense and increasing its aggressiveness on defense.
 
Despite the Beacons’ proficiency from long range last season, they managed just 60.1 points per contest, the program’s lowest since the 2011-12 season. Valparaiso’s offense is at its most dangerous when there is good ball movement, spacing, and continuous movement away from the ball, features that were sometimes absent last season.
 
“I think we have to get back to running our offense properly, “ Evans said. “We got a little too pattern-oriented. We got a little too in love with isolation situations.”
 
Another reason for last season’s reduced offensive output had to do with pace; the Beacons averaged just 67.4 possessions per 40 minutes, the program’s slowest pace since 2011-12. In echoing Evans’ comments about properly running the five-out offense, Earnest discussed the importance of pushing the pace.  
 
“We just became too predictable last year with teams knowing what we were going to do,” Earnest said. “We became too slow. We just didn't get enough shots fast enough and got a lot of shot clock violations…So this year, we're trying to get away from being predictable…and not necessarily having to wait for something that we've rehearsed.”
 
Evans has also challenged her squad to play a more aggressive brand of defense, one that generates more turnovers. Valparaiso’s opponents committed only 14 turnovers per game last season, significantly lower than the 18.7 turnovers per game forced by the Beacons in 2020-21.   
 
“Defensively, we got way too passive [last season],” Evans said. “Our defense is built on being aggressive. It's built on making plays. It's built on turning people over. It's why we can be outrebounded because we're going to get those possessions back by winning the turnover margin.”
 
Granted, Valparaiso enters this season without several of its key veterans from last year. However, if the Beacons can rise to Evans’ challenges, they have the ingredients to really turn some heads during conference play.  
 
“We are a young team, and so I know that we're going to go through some challenges, but I really do have so much optimism that even when we go through challenges, we're going to get through it and we're going to push forward,” Brown said. “I just see so much potential with this team. I think that everyone works so hard. I think everyone's very passionate and I think that everyone really has that hunger and drive to become great.”
 
Will Valparaiso realize its potential this season? Time will tell, but early indications suggest that if you’re in the mood for a compelling underdog story chock full of unselfish basketball, aggressive defense, and plenty of shots from beyond the arc, the Athletics-Recreation Center in Valparaiso is the place to be this winter.