The State Farm Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball tournament is noted as one of the nation’s best run and most successful during the NCAA’s postseason. The nation takes notice of “Arch Madness,” which is celebrating its 40th year in 2016.
The 10 MVC schools (Bradley, Drake, Evansville, Illinois State, Indiana State, Loyola Chicago, Missouri State, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois and Wichita State) have men’s and women’s teams in 12 sports. In addition, six MVC member field FBS college football teams.
Keeping MVC fans on top of all the action in this digital age is Derrick Docket, MVC associate commissioner for new media & technology.
“It’s all hands on deck right now,” he said Tuesday, February 23 from his MVC office.
Called the league’s “point person” for information and technology, Docket manages the MVC website administration and oversees the conference’s various athletic websites.
“My role is doing the marketing and creative for digital social media, including Facebook and Twitter,” Docket said. “Currently, I’ve been doing graphic design for the Coach of the Year banquet; there is a Hall of Fame event and All-Conference teams are named.
“During the tournament I’ll help coordinate the video streaming for the postgame press conferences.”
He added, “This is a most important time for the conference. We are at a neutral site and we get the most traffic of the year at the MVC website and the Arch Madness tournament website.”
Docket is a 2002 Missouri State University graduate with a B.A. in Art and Design, Advertising and Promotion. He was a production artist and analyst with St. Louis based Epsilon and also served as a computer graphics specialist at the advertising agency Osborn & Barr Communications.
The MVC Tournament tips off at 6:05 p.m. Thursday March 3 and the championship game is at 1:05 p.m. Sunday March 6 on CBS
Stedman steadfast about playing
On the evening of November 24 St. Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey was sitting on the passenger side of a parked vehicle with his cousin on a street in his native Miami.
Another vehicle sped by and riddled the car with more than 30 bullets, hitting Bailey twice in the head and wounding his relative 11 times.
“Totally random,” Bailey said in a ESPN interview. “It doesn’t make sense why we were targeted.”
No arrests have been made, but Bailey said he just wants to get on with his life – and that includes playing for the Los Angeles Rams when the season begins.
“I’m hoping I’ll be able to play this year,” Bailey said.
“I’ve met with a couple of neurosurgeons, I’m having CAT scans. There are no lingering effects. No dizziness. No headaches. When I tell doctors that, they are in awe.”
After a seven-hour surgery to remove bullet fragments lodged between his shattered forehead and brain, Bailey was hospitalized for a month. Almost immediately after the surgery he began his stunning recovery.
“They thought it could be six months or more before I was walking. That wasn’t the case with me. I uploaded a video of me jogging around with my physical therapist while I was still in the hospital. Everyone thought it was amazing,” he said.
“I’m doing well. I gained back a lot of the weight I lost. I’m doing weight training, doing things they didn’t think I would be able to do already.”
Bailey said he planned “to hit the football field and run in cleats” on Monday afternoon.
“It’s good to go back to football activities. I’m taking it a day at a time. Everything has been looking good,” he said.
Regardless of how you feel about the Rams’ departure, it would be truly inspirational to see him introduced at the L.A. Coliseum next year and playing in a game.
50 shades of Gronk
The second three-day “Gronk Cruise,” with host New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, docked on Sunday after featuring more than 72 hours of wild partying, drinking and who knows what else.
The shirtless Gronk and his brothers were often on stage twerking the night away, and at one point he offered a couple $10,000 to have sex in the middle of a crowded dance floor.
This is the same Gronk who performed a “lap dance” on a female reporter during Super Bowl week in San Francisco and proudly told Jimmy Kimmel that he hasn’t read a book since ninth grade.
He’s a tremendous football player who is headed for all-time records and the Hall of Fame if injuries or debauchery don’t slow his roll.
But you have to ask yourself, “Would Gronk be known as the fun-loving free spirit that people adore if he were black?”
Unfortunately, I think we know the answer to that question.
Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook and appears on ABC’s The Allman Report and several sports radio shows. His Twitter handle is @aareid1.
