The Valparaiso Beacons authored one of the great moments in tournament history. In 1998, 13th-seeded Valpo stunned fourth-seeded Ole Miss 70-69 — Bryce Drew catching the full-court pass and drilling the three at the horn. 'The Shot' remains the defining image of mid-major March, and the Beacons rode it to the Sweet 16.
Homer Drew built the miracle: the longtime coach (1989-2002, 2011) turned Valpo into the Mid-Continent's premier program — tournament trips in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000, with the 1998 Sweet 16 as the crown jewel. His teams played with precision and belief.
The Athletics-Recreation Center in Valparaiso gives the program a beloved home: 5,000 seats in northwest Indiana, with the Beacon faithful packing the building. Valpo basketball has always been about the region's overlooked — tough, skilled kids who play the right way.
The move to the Missouri Valley Conference raised the stakes: the Beacons now battle the Valley's powers nightly. The 1998 tape plays on loop — proof that the little guy from Valpo can conquer March.
What defines Valparaiso is The Shot. Bryce Drew's buzzer-beater, a Sweet 16, and the most famous play in mid-major history. In Valpo, they don't just remember 1998 — they are 1998.
Bryce Drew's Shot deserves its own monument: the full-court pass from Bill Jenkins, the catch, the 23-footer at the horn — 70-69 over Ole Miss, the most famous play in mid-major history. Drew's father Homer coached the team; his brother Scott played on it. A family masterpiece.
Homer Drew's 1989-2002 run built the program: five tournament trips in five years (1996-2000), the 1998 Sweet 16, and a precision offense that made Valpo must-watch. His return in 2011 added another chapter to the legend.
The 1999 and 2000 encores proved 1998 was a program: back-to-back Dances, back-to-back banners — the Beacons owned the Mid-Continent. The ARC crowds believed every March was theirs.
In the Missouri Valley's wars, Valpo plays the newcomer with March pedigree. The 1998 tape plays on loop — and the Beacons keep believing the encore is coming.
The Beacons' Mid-Continent dynasty was the foundation: five tournament trips in five years (1996-2000) — a stranglehold on the league that made Valpo must-watch every March. In the Missouri Valley's wars, the 1998 tape is the program's eternal flame.
The arrow is pointing up — and in Valparaiso, that’s everything. Roger Powell Jr.’s rebuild has moved in a straight line: 7-25 in year one, 15-19 in year two, 18-15 (11-9 in the Missouri Valley) in year three, a sixth-place finish and a conference-tournament run that included a win over Indiana State before Bradley ended it. Now the fourth season arrives with real expectations, the kind this program hasn’t carried in nearly a decade. Powell — who played in the 2005 national championship game for Illinois and spent four years on Mark Few’s Gonzaga staff — was hired to restore a standard, not just win games. The standard is returning. The question for 2026-27 is whether it returns all the way: a winning Valley record, a deep run in St. Louis, and a program that looks like it belongs in March again.
The standard, of course, is 1998. On March 13 of that year, 13th-seeded Valparaiso trailed fourth-seeded Ole Miss by two with 2.5 seconds left. Bill Jenkins threw a full-court pass, Bryce Drew caught it on the run, and drilled a 23-footer at the horn — 70-69. “The Shot” remains the defining image of mid-major March, the play that every buzzer-beater since gets measured against, and the Beacons rode it all the way to the Sweet 16. Homer Drew — Bryce’s father, the longtime coach who built Valpo into the Mid-Continent’s premier program with tournament trips in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 — turned a tiny Lutheran school in northwest Indiana into America’s favorite underdog. In Valpo, they don’t just remember 1998. They are 1998.
The Drews’ shadow stretches across the whole program. Bryce came back as head coach in 2011 and kept the machine humming: Horizon League dominance, NCAA trips in 2013 and 2015, and the magical 2015-16 season — 30 wins and a run to the NIT championship game, where the Beacons fell just short. That era cemented Valpo as the Horizon League’s flagship, the program everyone else measured itself against. The move to the Missouri Valley in 2017 raised the stakes and the suffering in equal measure: the Valley’s nightly wars with Drake, Bradley and Northern Iowa are a different animal, and the Beacons have spent most of their Valley tenure trying to climb back to relevance. Powell’s three-year climb is the first sustained progress in that fight.
The name on the jersey changed, too. In 2021, the school retired the Crusaders nickname — used since 1942 — and became the Beacons, a rebrand meant to signal a new era for the university. The basketball program carried the old name’s baggage and the new name’s promise at the same time. Through it all, the Athletics-Recreation Center has remained the constant: 5,000 seats of northwest Indiana basketball intimacy, where the student section sits on top of the floor and the building gets genuinely loud when the Beacons are rolling. Valpo has always been about the region’s overlooked — tough, skilled kids who play the right way, the sons of steel towns and farm counties who arrive with a chip on their shoulder.
A year ago, the formula started working: Rakim Chaney’s 14 points a night leading the offense, Shon Tupuola’s 7-plus boards anchoring the paint, and a team that defended with Powell’s Illinois-Gonzaga pedigree. The 2026-27 Beacons open with something Valpo hasn’t had in years — continuity and momentum at the same time. The Valley remains brutal — Belmont, Bradley and Northern Iowa aren’t going anywhere — but the Beacons have closed the gap from 12th to 6th in three seasons, and the trajectory says the climb isn’t over. In Valparaiso, Indiana, March still means one thing: the tape of The Shot plays on loop in every bar in town, proof that the little guy from Valpo can conquer the sport’s biggest month. Powell’s job is to make the present feel like the past. He’s getting close.