Homer Drew has coached all over the country — in basketball arenas big and small — during his 22 seasons at Valparaiso University.
“We’ve played a quite a few of the top teams. We’ve played at Duke and KU, and those two are the loudest arenas we’ve played in. I’d say ESPN’s poll was pretty accurate,” Drew said Sunday night, referring to ESPN The Magazine’s ranking Allen Fieldhouse No. 1 and Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium the second-loudest building in college basketball.
“The last time we were at KU, at the four-minute timeout, I brought the team over and could not hear myself,” Drew added.
His Crusaders, who dropped a narrow 81-73 decision to KU on Jan. 2, 2002, return for a 7 p.m. rematch against KU today.
“I can remember with 4 minutes, 13 seconds left I looked up and we were within five points,” Drew said. “Then (Drew) Gooden hit two threes from the corner, and it was over.”
Gooden erupted for 30 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, while fellow NBA power forward Nick Collison chipped in 14 points and 15 rebounds for Roy Williams’ Jayhawks. Lubos Barton and Tony Falu scored 19 and 18 respectively for Drew’s Crusaders.
KU — which has won 60 straight home games (two off the school record of 62 set from 1993-98) — has rolled to an 137-7 record in Allen since Valpo’s last trip to Lawrence.
“We enjoyed it the first time. It was a great experience. This is our first time in renovated Allen Fieldhouse. It looks great,” Drew said immediately after Sunday night’s practice in the tradition-rich building.
“We love coming here to play one of the top programs in college basketball. I hope the fans appreciate what coach (Bill) Self has been able to do in accomplishing so many great things.”
He’s not the only member of the Valpo team who has experienced Allen on game night.
“That’s a very difficult place to play. I played there twice. Both times, they blew us out of the water,” Valpo senior forward Cory Johnson, a transfer from Iowa State, told the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana.
“They were ranked No. 2 when we took them to overtime at our place (Hilton Coliseum), and we really should have beaten them, but Brandon Rush hit a three-pointer at the buzzer. Their place is extremely difficult to play, they just swept us out of there.”
The 6-foot-7 Johnson, who scored 17 points off 8-of-9 shooting in Friday’s 111-64 season-opening rout of IU Northwest, averaged 15.6 points (off 55.6 percent shooting) and 5.8 rebounds a year ago. He earned a spot on the Horizon League’s preseason all-league second team.
Brandon Wood, a 6-2 junior guard and a preseason first-team all-league pick, scored 20 points in the opener after averaging 17.7 points last season. Top reserves from last year — senior guard Howard Little, the cousin of KU senior Mario Little, and sophomore guard Ryan Broekhoff — added 17 and 18 points, respectively, in Friday’s opener.
In all, Valpo returns four starters and 10 letter-winners as well as 82.8 percent of the scoring and 91.2 percent of the rebounding from last season’s team, which went 15-17 overall and 10-8 in the Horizon League.
“This will be one of the harder non-league games we have this year,” KU coach Self said. “These guys can play in our league without question.”
He delved into specifics.
“They can make threes. They are athletic. When they come in here, you’ll be saying, ‘These guys can play,”‘ Self said of a squad that led its conference in scoring last season at 73.2 ppg.
“They are great offensively. They way we guarded (against Longwood in Friday’s 113-75 win), I certainly would think that would be something they probably feel they can do (score) to be honest with you, because we haven’t locked anybody up yet, at least over the span of more than 20 minutes.”
On the defensive end, “They will play a lot of the same zone that Baylor plays and really extend out,” Self said.
VU coach Drew is father of Baylor coach Scott Drew.
“Making shots will become a premium. Their big guys can all shoot threes. This is not coach-speak. They are very good. They share the ball well so we’re going to have to play much better defensively,” Self added.
Self said he respects the work of Drew, who is 349-293 at Valpo and 618-415 in 32 years overall as a head coach.
“Homer has been around a long time. I coached against him when I was at Oral Roberts. That’s when he had Bryce (son and current Valpo assistant). Homer has done a great job over time and is a good guy, and of course he’ll be watching a lot of Baylor tape on how they played us the last couple years.”
Homer, of course, watches Baylor closely.
“I’m proud of what Scott has been done at Baylor,” Homer said.
The Bears are ranked No. 16 to KU’s No. 7 in this year’s preseason AP poll.
“That’s off last year probably more than anything else,” Drew said of BU. “They’re young. I think they’ll improve a lot as the season goes along.”
Valpo recently named its home court “Homer Drew Court.”
“The nicest thing is we got a brand new floor which is bouncy, good for our players,” Drew said, modestly. “I think it’ll benefit our student-athletes for some time to come.”
Cousins to meet: Tonight marks the first time Valpo’s Howard Little plays against cousin Mario at any level of basketball.
“We used to play together in AAU (for Illinois Warriors), but we were from different parts of Chicago, so we never played against each other,” Howard told the Northwest Indiana Times in Sunday’s editions. “We come from a very supportive family, and I know it’s going to be a fun night.
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be guarding him a bit when he’s on the floor,” Howard added. “I know that our families are going to be cheering for us.”
This, that: Tonight’s game is part of the Las Vegas Invitational. KU will play host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the second game of the event on Nov. 23, then play Ohio University on Nov. 26 and Arizona on Nov. 27 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. … KU leads the all-time series with Valpo, 2-0. KU also beat Valpo, 74-58, on Jan. 24, 1970, in Lawrence. … Valpo has had 10 games against top-10 teams (North Carolina three times, Butler and Purdue twice apiece, Marquette, Ohio State, Michigan State) in the last four seasons. Four times the Crusaders played the Top-10 opponent within 10 points, including twice when they had a shot to tie at the horn. … KU sophomore Elijah Johnson is expected to miss his second straight game. Self says Johnson “has been irresponsible in some areas off the court.” … KU is 14-1 all-time against current membership of the Horizon League (7-1 vs. Loyola Ill., 3-0 vs. Detroit, 2-0 vs. Valparaiso, 1-0 vs. Illinois-Chicago and 1-0 vs. Wisconsin-Milwaukee).
Marcus Morris on tonight’s game: “They are a great team. Coach said they are capable of beating us. We’ll try to play those guys and get them sped up and try to defend.”
