Valparaiso’s Horizon League championship is a testament to teamwork over star power

The most dominant storyline at the Horizon League championship game had nothing to do with the team that earned the right to host it. It wasn’t anything Valparaiso did wrong, so much as it was because of everything Green Bay star Kiefer Sykes had done right in his four years at school.

Sykes had accomplished just about everything a player from the Horizon League could ever reasonably hope to achieve. He won the conference’s player of the year award as a junior and senior, and became the first player in Horizon League history to score over 2,000 points, drop over 500 assists and grab more than 400 rebounds. Just about the only thing Sykes hadn’t done was play a game in the NCAA Tournament.

Standing in his way on Tuesday night in Indiana was a Valparaiso team that should have been sunk long ago. Two months before the season began, the Crusaders lost starting point guard Lexus Williams to a torn ACL. As conference play started, Williams’ replacement, junior Keith Carter, was sidelined for over a month with a toe injury. To cap things off, starting shooting guard Tevonn Walker was injured in Valpo’s first game of the conference tournament three days earlier.

The entire season had been building up to this night. Valpo had already set a program record with 27 wins and Green Bay was 24-7 with a win over Miami (Fl.), but both teams entered knowing the Horizon would be a one-bid league. They had played two stellar regular season games, with Green Bay winning its home game by one and the Crusaders winning their home game by four. With a packed gym under the bright lights of ESPN, the stage was set.

Green Bay came out playing an inspired brand of ball, opening up a 10-point lead on a bucket from Greg Mays with 1:58 left in the first half. Sykes already had eight points and it seemed like injuries might have finally caught up to Valpo. Tavvon Walker started, but could only play four minutes because of the injury, and fellow starter Darien Walker took the worst of a nasty collision with Sykes that halted the game for nearly 10 minutes midway through the first half.

Valpo needed something. Anything, really, just to get the crowd into it. The Crusaders got just what they were looking for when Vashil Fernandez slammed home a dunk at the halftime buzzer to cut the deficit to six.

It was the play coach Bryce Drew credited for changing the tide in his team’s 54-44 victory, one that sends the Crusaders to the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in 11 years. Well, that and an ability to slow down Sykes.

“We tried not to give him looks, but he still got off 15 shots because he’s that good of a player,” Drew said. “Obviously he’s a really good player, the best player in the league. He entered averaging 25 the last five games. We knew he was going to be aggressive so we just wanted to make sure he was taking tough shots.”

Sykes only scored 18 combined points in the first two games against Valpo this season on 6-of-30 shooting. He finished the night 5-of-15 for 14 points on Tuesday.

At this point, it isn’t a coincidence. The Crusaders hedged hard off every ball screen and trapped Sykes before he could generate momentum going to the hoop. It also helped having 6’8 E. Victor Nickerson check the 6’ Sykes throughout the night.

Like seemingly everyone else on Valpo this season, Nickerson has been through a lot. Drew didn’t know if he’d be able to play this season after undergoing double hip surgery to try to subside chronic pain before the season. Nickerson entered the game as only Valpo’s sixth leading scorer with just four double-digit scoring nights this season. He was second on the team with 11 points on Tuesday, and his defense on Sykes was even more valuable.

Valpo isn’t supposed to beat a team as good as the Phoenix when star forward Alec Peters struggles as much as he did. Peters said he “couldn’t throw a rock in the ocean the entire game”, finishing only 3-of-13 for nine points.

“If you would have said Nickerson and (David) Skara were our two guys who scored in double figures before the game, no one would have believed it,” Drew said.

As cliche as it sounds, Valpo wasn’t supposed to be in this position. It was one of the youngest teams in the country even before the injury flood hit. No one knew Peters would be this good during a sophomore season in which he averaged 17 points per game and hit 48 percent of the 5.5 three-point attempts he took per game.

To hear Drew talk after the game, you get the impression this tournament championship was really won in the regular season. After all, that’s what allowed Valpo to host.

“It was a huge advantage,” Drew said of the home fans. “The crowd was incredible. Some times they got the guys too excited on fast breaks, we threw it to them in the stands a couple times. I think on the defensive end, too, they gave us a lot of energy.”

If Valpo’s players don’t know what March Madness is like, their coaches do. Drew is a legend here after hitting one of the most iconic shots in NCAA Tournament history as a player in the 1998 tournament. Assistant Roger Powell was a starter on the 2005 Illinois team that reached the national title game, and fellow assistant Matt Lottich enjoyed a great career at Stanford, too.

Drew doesn’t know where Valpo will fit into the bracket, but most see the Crusaders around a No. 13 seed. After watching the way Valpo slowed down Sykes and gutted out a huge win without so many key players, you can bet whoever draws Drew’s squad in the round of 64 won’t be looking forward to it.