Beacons have chance to write new story

WBB: Valparaiso gets third crack at Drake to open Missouri Valley Conference tournament

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.