Take lumps, learn and grow: What David Ragland can learn from other MVC coaches in Year 2
ST. LOUIS — Brian Wardle sat in the middle of Enterprise Center’s platform having seen the heights the Missouri Valley Conference offers. The Bradley men’s basketball coach is coming off a regular-season title and has won Arch Madness in 2019 and 2020.
He’s reached those peaks in the eight years since he started as the Braves’ lead man and a first year that ended with a 5-27 record, the same as University of Evansville coach David Ragland’s first year.
“I’ve been humbled many times in my career. It’s a coaching line, but if you coach, you’re going to be humbled or you’re about to be,” Wardle said. “This league will humble you. ... The bottom line is you have to have an identity and you have to have a program and players that understand the identity and the vision and want to execute that with you."
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Wardle took his seat, still unhappy with how things ended in the MVC championship game last time he was in the Gateway City, still on the pedestal of a regular-season title. Bradley’s path under Wardle started the same way the Purple Aces’ did under Ragland: Beaten and bruised, few wins to come by and more about foundation than anything.
Wardle and the Braves now sat in St. Louis on a perch. Not the tournament-champion elevation, but a perch all the same.
UE hopes for success along the same lines: Take lumps early, learn and grow into a competitor. The Braves won 13 games in Wardle’s second season and 20 the next. The Aces can learn from Wardle’s steps and those of some other coaches who have taken over fledgling programs in the past.
Others have seen similar runs of success, as well. Indiana State coach Josh Schertz rebuilt the Sycamores into a potential conference contender while Southern Illinois’ Bryan Mullins had the Salukis challenging for the league last season.
“The programs, the way they run them, they’re connected. They’re good defensive teams and thay just do things the right way,” Ragland said. “It’s a quality league with quality coaches and quality programs and what guys have done, like the (Northern Iowa coach) Ben Jacobsons, (Murray State coach) Steve Prohms and Brian Wardles have done it the right way and have built championship programs with the right people.”
Ragland: ‘Just stay consistent’
Schertz has brought Indiana State to a spot to compete for a conference title. The Sycamores finished 11-22 in his first season and 23-13 last year. Schertz knows what building looks like.
He sees the process at UE.
Indiana State beat the Aces by a record margin of 39 points in the MVC Tournament last season. Despite that margin, he said UE is “obviously gonna build something special there.” Schertz sees the steps and has lived through them. It’s still the Aces’ beginning but he sees what’s happening. Though Valparaiso is undergoing a similar rebuild with new coach Roger Powell Jr., he said the same.
“The challenge for all of us is to become the best versions of ourselves,” Schertz said. “When you lock into that process, I think the outside expectations are not as relevant.”
Ragland has learned from those who have been through similar paths and is planting that at UE. He’s gotten dinner with Powell to help with his transition into a head coaching job and shared some of the same words that have helped him.
Many of those are the same lessons that he’s learned from others who have built programs.
“There’s gonna be some highs and lows and you can’t let that faze you. Just stay consistent,” Ragland said. “There’s a process to it. As long as he sticks to that, sticks to being himself, the progress will be made and he’ll be happy with it because it’s been done the right way.”
Ragland spoke words that have likely been spoken to him over the years, particularly since he’s taken the Aces job. The process of showing tangible improvements starts now.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville Aces: What David Ragland takes from MVC coaches in Year 2
