VALPARAISO - Saturday’s annual spring football game represented something of a double-edged sword for Andy Waddle.

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To outsiders, the 2025 season might look like one to forget for Kaleigh Shafer.

That’s not how the Valparaiso midfielder sees it.

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The latest episode of TVB: The Podcast dives into the process that led to the recent oral history series on Valparaiso’s March to Madison Square Garden.

TVB host Paul Oren explains how the project came to be and tells a few behind-the-scenes reporting stories along the way.

Thank you to all who read the series and a special thanks to all who contributed their memories and stories to the project.

As always, The Victory Bell: The Podcast is open to all listeners. Click below to become a paid subscriber at $7.99/month or $79.99 per year and gain full access to the site.

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Host: Paul Oren

For more coverage of Valparaiso athletics, visit TheVictoryBell.com

VALPARAISO - There was a moment during Saturday afternoon’s epic three-set comeback when Lacey Tanner told herself that today was going to be different.

It may have come when the Valparaiso sophomore first took the court at No. 3 singles against Drake’s Shiori Takeda. It might have been when Tanner dropped a 7-4 tiebreak at the close of the first set. It’s more likely her internal pep talk came when Tanner fell behind 5-0 in the second set and the Florida native was down to her last hope.

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The end of the 2015-16 season came slowly and then suddenly for the Valparaiso men’s basketball team. George Washington slowly pulled away in the second half of the NIT title game and Bryce Drew spent the final minutes of the game making sure his seniors got a suitable farewell from the Valparaiso faithful at Madison Square Garden.

The team returned to the locker room defeated, but not deterred. Valparaiso would be returning plenty of talent the following season, including All-American candidate Alec Peters, and possibly even starting point guard Keith Carter. Carter, who limped through the second half against George Washington, was hoping to receive an additional year of eligibility after an injury-shortened freshman year at St. Louis.

Shane Hammink, Tevonn Walker, Jubril Adekoya and David Skara would be key pieces returning as well as a handful of reserves in Lexus Williams and Max Joseph. Losing Vashil Fernandez, Darien Walker and E. Victor Nickerson would be a blow, but the coaching staff was excited about adding a healthy Derrik Smits and highly-touted incoming freshman Micah Bradford. Valparaiso would be a team worthy of Top 25 consideration entering the 2016-17 season.

NIT 10: An Oral History of Valparaiso’s March to Madison Square Garden

Introduction: The Last Meeting

Part I: The Return of the Mayor

Part II: The Sprint and the Marathon

Part III: Motor City Madness

Part IV: The Second Option

Part V: Empire State of Mind

The players flew home from New York on Friday afternoon while the coaches made their way to Houston for the Final Four. By the time the players landed, their lives were already in upheaval. Rumors spread online that Bryce Drew was being targeted for jobs at Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech. Each hour brought new questions and fewer answers for everyone associated with the program.

As players battled the emotions that came with the end of a magical season, they were now forced to consider their own futures as Valparaiso’s administration readied for the end of an era that some thought may never come.

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Madison Square Garden and New York City have long been woven into Valparaiso’s basketball history.

Loren Ellis took over the basketball program in 1941 and coached his first game two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a 34-24 victory over Elmhurst. Valpo beat Concordia (Ill.) a week later, but then proceeded to drop 13 of its final 15 games.

By the winter of 1942, Valparaiso’s roster looked entirely different. The United States was preparing for entry into World War II and many college-aged basketball players were foregoing the sport in exchange for military service. The military had height restrictions at the time, so a fair amount of taller individuals were unable to serve. This, coupled with the Big Ten scaling back its athletic offerings during the war, allowed Ellis to get taller players to enroll at Valparaiso.

And just like that, The World’s Tallest Team was born.

NIT 10: An Oral History of Valparaiso’s March to Madison Square Garden

Introduction: The Last Meeting

Part I: The Return of the Mayor

Part II: The Sprint and the Marathon

Part III: Motor City Madness

Part IV: The Second Option

Ellis led Valpo to a 17-5 record in 1942-43, which ended with a trip to the National Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament. Valparaiso rattled off seven straight wins to open the following season before dropping back-to-back games to the Cessna Bobcats and Boeing Aircraft. Valpo bounced back in a big way by knocking off No. 1 DePaul and star big man George Mikan. The squad finished the season 17-8.

By the time the fall of 1944 arrived, Ellis had built a juggernaut. Bob Dille, John Janisch and Milt Schoon all eventually played in the NBA and the fourth-year coach looked to play a difficult schedule. In addition to a game at the Boston Garden in late January, Ellis scheduled Valparaiso to travel to New York and take on Long Island at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 9. Valparaiso won 64-59 and the victory was part of a season-opening 11-game winning streak. Valpo finished the year with a 21-3 record.

The trip to New York was immortalized in a photo that had been on display in various parts of campus for the next 70 years. Valparaiso was about to bring that photograph back to life.

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Six days had passed since the Valparaiso men’s basketball team fell to Green Bay in the 2016 Horizon League semifinals. The team scattered for the final remaining days of spring break, but players and coaches were back on campus by Selection Sunday.

Unlike previous seasons where Valparaiso had won an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament, the school had no elaborate celebration planned for the bracket reveal. Members of the program gathered inside the Schrage Basketball Wing anxiously awaiting to see if Valpo’s name was called.

CBS made the decision to expand the Selection Show to two hours in 2016. Instead of simply revealing the brackets, a bloated studio show dragged in slow motion while talking about everything but the matchups. The show started at 4:30 p.m. and it was nearly a half hour before the first game was revealed.

The entire bracket wouldn’t be known for more than an hour, but a handful of individuals inside Schrage, as well as anyone who was on Twitter that night, knew pretty quickly that Valparaiso wasn’t going dancing.

NIT 10: An Oral History of Valparaiso’s March to Madison Square Garden

Introduction: The Last Meeting

Part I: The Return of the Mayor

Part II: The Sprint and the Marathon

Part III: Motor City Madness

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The undoing of Valparaiso’s 2016 NCAA tournament dreams began two years earlier on a Saturday night in Green Bay.

Valpo had already been eliminated from the Horizon League tournament when top-seeded Green Bay took on Milwaukee in a thrilling semifinal that saw the Panthers knock off the rival Phoenix 73-66 in overtime. By virtue of beating Cleveland State earlier in the evening, Wright State was suddenly thrust in the spotlight as the highest remaining seed. That meant the 2014 Horizon League title game would be moving to Dayton in the middle of the night.

Not since the 2004 tournament had the semifinals and finals been at a different location, and that was only because Milwaukee had a conflict with the local indoor soccer team. The Horizon League had been playing with fire in regards to its tournament format. The semifinals and finals were always scheduled to be at the highest-remaining seed. The No. 1 seed advanced to the title game every season for 10 years, including when Valparaiso hosted in 2012 and 2013.

When Green Bay lost in 2014, chaos ensued. It might have taken two years, but Valparaiso was the school that eventually got burned.

NIT 10: An Oral History of Valparaiso’s March to Madison Square Garden

Introduction: The Last Meeting

Part I: The Return of the Mayor

Part II: The Sprint and the Marathon

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The text came from a friend of mine on a Tuesday night in late November and it was a sentence I never thought I’d read.

“Homer Drew just walked into Northsides and he’s sitting by himself at the bar.”

I dropped everything I was doing and I raced out the door. Valparaiso was playing Oregon State in Corvallis and the game was being broadcast on the Pac-12 Network. Northsides was the only place in town to have the game and Valpo’s legendary former coach wanted the chance to watch his son take on a high-major opponent. And I wanted a shot at watching a Valpo game with someone who has forgotten more about basketball than I’ll ever know.

What followed was a two-hour Masters class in hoops. If there was an out-of-bounds play, Homer called it. If there was a defensive alignment, Dr. Drew deciphered how to break it down.

NIT 10: An Oral History of Valparaiso’s March to Madison Square Garden

Introduction: The Last Meeting

Part I: The Return of the Mayor

Just as Homer was delivering the goods at the end of the bar, Bryce Drew was calling one heck of a game on the court. Valparaiso led by nine at the break and stretched the advantage to 17 early in the second half. The Beavers got within single digits late, but the game wasn’t nearly as close as the 63-57 final.

Bryce was stoic as he celebrated his 100th career victory as a head coach and Homer was equally as calm. He stood up from his stool, handed some cash to the bartender with instructions to take care of the patrons around the bar and he was off into the night.

I sat in awe of what I had just experienced. It was hardly the only time the 2015-16 Valparaiso men’s basketball team would make memories during the regular season.

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The ground was starting to thaw in early April across Northwest Indiana and expectations were heating up for the 2015-16 Valparaiso men’s basketball team.

Long before players transferred on a yearly basis, college basketball rosters were generally set in stone for several years at a time. Valparaiso was coming off an oh-so-close defeat to Maryland in the 2015 NCAA tournament and was expected to return a bulk of its roster, with the exception of starting center Vashil Fernandez and reserve big man David Chadwick.

Both had been honored during a special Senior Night celebration in late February, when Fernandez surprised the Athletics-Recreation Center by dropping to a knee and proposing to Bridget, his longtime girlfriend. Fernandez had spent four years at Valparaiso and was preparing to leave campus as one of the most beloved players in program history. He was always quick to run to the student section after games to celebrate victories and his 6-foot-10 frame made him recognizable all over town.

NIT 10: An Oral History of Valparaiso’s March to Madison Square Garden

Introduction: The Last Meeting

If Fernandez wasn’t the unofficial Mayor of Valpo, he was a close second behind Bryce Drew. The former high school and college star who returned to his hometown 10 years earlier to join his alma mater’s coaching staff, and now, entering his fifth season leading the program, Drew was coming off his second trip to the NCAA tournament as a head coach. That kind of success brought overtures from other schools. Mississippi State and Tulsa had courted him in the past and this offseason it was DePaul pursuing the former NBA first-round draft pick.

Much like he had done in previous years, Drew went through the process with DePaul, but ultimately decided to return to Valparaiso.

Drew’s return wasn’t the only one that had people around the ARC buzzing. As players began preparing for spring workouts, there was a growing sense that Valparaiso might not be losing as much as everyone believed, and that something even bigger could be on the horizon.

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The sun had set in Midtown Manhattan, but the lights never dim in Times Square.

High above the hustle and bustle of New York City, nestled inside the Marriott Marquis on the corner of 46th Street and Seventh Avenue, members of the Valparaiso men’s basketball program made their way into a meeting room they had called home for the last several days.

Tomorrow, the winningest team in school history would play its final game together, the 2016 NIT title game against George Washington. Tonight, however, was one last opportunity to spend time with one another.

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Alec Peters (Valparaiso junior forward): Usually what we’d do the night before a game is we’d get locked in. We’d get team dinner, maybe have another video session to go over the scouting report, and then guys would get their rest.

Luke Simons (Valparaiso director of basketball operations): I can still see where I was in the room. It was a room that was a lot longer than it was wide. We moved all of the tables down to one end. We didn’t eat in there, it was just a room filled with chairs. It was just the guys.

Jacob Schoon (Valparaiso student manager): I’m sitting in that room right now in my head. It’s been 10 years, but I can still see where everybody is sitting.

E. Victor Nickerson (Valparaiso senior guard): That night was more of a night to remember everything that happened in the last couple years. Everything was so serious and focused for the last two years. It was just at the point where we had one more game for the seniors. Let’s just enjoy it and make the most of it.

Alec Peters: This was kind of genius of Bryce. He called a team meeting and we just sat there and we took it all in. This is our last game tomorrow, win or lose, let’s just enjoy being around each other as a team. Look where we’re at. Look at the situation we’re in.

Luke Gore (Valparaiso assistant coach): I remember that night more than I remember anything else.

Luke Simons: There was nothing else to talk about after tomorrow night. This has been a really special year. This is a special group of people. Now, who has something to say? There were a lot of memories shared.

Chandler Levingston Simon (Valparaiso sophomore forward): We had a team meeting and we already knew everything that needed to be done for the game. This wasn’t a conversation about X’s and O’s. This was something else. I don’t remember how it started.

Shane Hammink (Valparaiso junior guard): It was a pretty cool moment. We sat down in a circle and just started talking. I think I was the one that led off with the first story. I kind of thanked everybody for being there. Everyone just went around and talked.

Matt Lottich (Valparaiso assistant coach): It’s rare to have moments where coaches let down their guard and players let down their guard. I don’t mean that negatively. You look at a long season and the coaches are coaching and the players are playing. There’s a lot of high-stress moments because that’s the nature of what we do. Every now and then you get these moments where people let down their guard and you see their true personalities.

Lexus Williams (Valparaiso junior guard): When we meet up years later as brothers, we don’t talk about how we were 30-7. We talk about the memories we had in practice or the times we got cussed out in the film room. The times we went out as a team. It doesn’t even matter what happened between the lines, just about the memories you make with the guys. I couldn’t tell you who we played in the nonconference or who we beat to go to New York. I just remember how I felt and there were a lot of times I felt really good as a person. I learned a lot and it made me the person I am today.

Keith Carter (Valparaiso senior guard): I didn’t know at the time how much it would all mean to me. Looking back now, it definitely means a lot.

Luke Simons: Then Max Joseph got up.

Austin Peters (Valparaiso graduate assistant): Nobody knew what was coming.

Alec Peters: Max Joseph is an excellent impersonator, and that’s as much as I’ll say about it.

Jubril Adekoya (Valparaiso junior forward): Max used to always do all these coach impersonations throughout the year. He did it in the locker room all the time. This was the first time the coaches saw it.

Nick Davidson (Valparaiso junior guard): We would get precursors to Max impersonating the coaches. He’d try them out throughout the year. He does a great Coach Powell. We had an appetizer of it during the year. I don’t know, maybe it was the bright lights of New York, but he just rolled with it and performed. Once he started, he didn’t stop. He never broke character. He never laughed. He was Leonardo DiCaprio.

Vashil Fernandez (Valparaiso senior center): It brings me such joy. We know this is going to be our last game of the season, and for a few of us, it’s going to be our last college game ever. We’re able to be in a space where we know the seriousness of it, but still, in the midst of that, we are able to enjoy laughter with each other. We could still enjoy the moment, and we really enjoyed that moment.

Luke Simons: Max didn’t talk a whole lot, but it was obvious he had been listening and observing the entire year. He did every single coach impression and people lost it.

Chandler Levingston Simon: What people don’t know is Max didn’t really speak English when he first got to Valpo. He really only spoke around people he was comfortable with. By not speaking, he was watching everybody. He picked up on everything. He mastered how everyone did everything. He used to do AP’s jump shot. He got up there and he did the entire halftime. He did what every coach would do at halftime. The coaches were dying.

Darien Walker (Valparaiso senior guard): Max watched those coaches a lot and he had some accurate readings. We had a lot of serious moments on that team. Roger Powell was always there to keep us together with those preacher-man speeches. Max took that and gave us some comic relief.

Matt Lottich: He was phenomenal impersonating the assistant coaches, but I loved watching him have the reluctance to impersonate Coach Drew. It was so funny and it was really cool. A core memory, no doubt about it.

Austin Peters: Coach Drew was crying. He was on his knees laughing. Everybody in the room was. Wow, I haven’t thought about that in a long time.

Jacob Schoon: I don’t think I’ve ever seen Coach Drew like that before. Looking back, maybe he kind of knew this was it. Watching him while Max was going, it was a different type of joy. I saw a side of a man that I really respect and I saw that he truly cares for us, very deeply, and more than I ever thought. He was put in our lives for a reason and we were put in his for a reason. I’d never seen him have that kind of fun before.

Alec Peters: The room was filled with so much laughter. We were on the floor crying. We might have lost the game the next day, but that moment will stick with me forever. Regardless of how the weekend would have went, the memory is so special. Just sitting there and all of us just dying of laughter over some of the stuff, the stories we were telling. Some of the things we were doing in that meeting, it was better than maybe winning the NIT. If we would have won the NIT, great, but we had that time together and that’s what truly mattered.

Over the next week, The Victory Bell will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Valparaiso’s run to the NIT with a special series that has been in the works for the better part of a year.

The five-part oral history draws from more than two dozen interviews of Valparaiso players and coaches, university administration, opposing coaches and other individuals that were connected to the winningest season in program history.

The series begins in the summer of 2015 as Valparaiso readies for an international trip while getting the (un)expected news that a key piece was returning for the upcoming season. The second part is a behind-the-scenes look at a regular season where Valpo continually flirted with a Top 25 ranking while also suffering the occasional setback.

The third part is an in-depth look at the Horizon League tournament as top-seeded Valparaiso took on Green Bay in the semifinals. Instead of playing in Valpo, the league shifted the tournament to Detroit with the formation of Motor City Madness.

The fourth installment focuses on Valparaiso’s march through the NIT, from hosting Texas Southern, Florida State and St. Mary’s, to earning a trip to the Big Apple. The final piece is an epilogue which looks at the fallout from not only a coaching change, but a seismic shift in collegiate athletics that makes what the 2015-16 team accomplished nearly impossible to replicate in the modern era.

While this introduction article is available for free to all readers, the five-part series will only be available to paid subscribers of The Victory Bell. The cost is $7.99 per month or $79.99 for the entire year. It is through the paid support of readers that I’m able to keep the site operating and put together projects such as this one. Thank you for your support.

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(Photo courtesy of Valpo Athletics)

INDIANAPOLIS - Eric Konkol started exiting the court at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Thursday night before he stopped to turn his attention to the stands.

His Tulsa men’s basketball team had just knocked off New Mexico in the semifinals of the National Invitational Tournament and Konkol stopped to give a wave to the passionate fans that traveled to Indianapolis from Oklahoma.

Konkol then fixed his gaze straight ahead and pointed to a trio of individuals sitting in the front row. There were Judy and George Konkol, Eric’s parents, both adorned in Tulsa gear. George wore a subtle polo shirt while Judy was wearing what could best be described as a Tulsa Hawaiian shirt.

Then there was Eric’s brother, wearing his traditional bowtie and smiling wide in the front row. Reunited in Indiana, Eric and Rev. Brian Konkol, Valparaiso’s new President, shared a celebratory moment.

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VALPARAISO - Thomas Cooper was itching to get to the ballpark and make an impact on Sunday afternoon.

The Valparaiso redshirt junior didn’t have to wait long.

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VALPARAISO - The line between winning and losing can often come down to the slimmest of margins.

That was evident during a few key moments at the Valpo Softball Complex on Saturday afternoon.

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ST. LOUIS - Jake Ensminger sat slumped in the corner of Santa Clara’s locker room on Friday afternoon.

The Broncos had just come up on the wrong end of a signature March moment as Kentucky’s Otega Oweh delivered an improbable buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send Friday’s opening game at the Enterprise Center to overtime. The Wildcats survived 89-84 in the extra session, leaving Ensminger to reflect on how close Santa Clara came to an upset.

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ST. LOUIS - Carson Schwieger had a familiar feeling wash over him as he walked into the Queens locker room at the Enterprise Center on Thursday afternoon.

It was the same locker room where Schwieger returned to with the Valparaiso basketball team following their semifinal loss to Bradley in the 2025 Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball tournament.

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CORALVILLE, Iowa - Mikayla Huffine walked off the court and went straight to the athletic trainer.

The Valparaiso senior had just jammed her finger during Thursday’s Missouri Valley Conference tournament opener against Drake and Huffine wanted to get back on the court immediately.

It didn’t matter that the Beacons were trailing by 30 points. It didn’t matter that it was late in the fourth quarter. It didn’t matter that Valparaiso was mere minutes away from setting a NCAA record of futility by finishing the season at 0-32.

None of that mattered to Huffine. She was determined to finish what she started.

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CORALVILLE, Iowa - College basketball coaches love to talk about how seasons are separated into three different segments.

There is the nonconference slate where coaches and players are still learning one another, especially in this era of constant roster turnover. Then there is the conference season, where teams are expected to gel and find their rhythm, ultimately leading to success.

The Valparaiso women’s basketball team, with its 0-31 record this season, is still working on that last part. Fortunately for the Beacons, regular-season records mean nothing in the third segment of the season: The Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

Instead of No. 11 Valparaiso entering Thursday night’s contest against No. 6 Drake at the Xtreme Arena in Coralville with an albatross of a winless record hanging around its collective neck, the Beacons are 0-0 just like everybody else.

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An opposing Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball coach was walking through the halls following a recent game against Valparaiso this season when he stopped to talk with a close confidant.

“Man, JT Pettigrew is a beast. Good thing he won’t be in the league much longer.”

Think again.

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ST. LOUIS - For nearly 50 minutes on Friday night it appeared the Valparaiso men’s basketball team was finally going to exercise one of its Missouri Valley Conference demons.

Down late in regulation, the Beacons rallied to force overtime and were one stop away from knocking off No. 2 Bradley in the Arch Madness quarterfinals. Alex Huibregtse forced a second overtime with a 3-pointer and the Braves made enough plays down the stretch to escape with a 90-84 double overtime win over No. 7 Valparaiso at the Enterprise Center.

The game marked the third time in the last six years Bradley has eliminated Valparaiso from Arch Madness.

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