Voices of the Valley – Late Quarterfinals

Battle of the Deans

(St. Louis, MO) – It is a Battle of the Deans in Friday night’s quarterfinal game at Arch Madness. Southern Illinois’ Barry Hinson is coaching in his 16th Missouri Valley tournament and Northern Iowa’s Ben Jacobson is coaching in his 13th.

We met with the play-by-play announcers from those two great programs. UNI’s Gary Rima and SIU’s Mike Reis have seen it all and represent their programs well.

Practically a pup compared to them, Illinois State’s Dan Muller is coaching in his seventh Arch Madness. The Redbirds face second seeded Drake. Jim Benson covers the ILS program for the Pantagraph.

Here is our conversation with Gary Rima.

 

 

Mike Reis has been with Southern for right at 40 years and is one of the truly nice men in the broadcasting profession.

 

 

I had Jim sit at the big interview table in the basement of Enterprise Center.

 

 

Illinois State play-by-play man Dick Luedke is in his second stint calling Redbird games. He has great insight into Dan Muller because he announced his games as a player and now as he head coach.

 

 

Tomorrow we go away from local reporters and speak with Valley commentators and national pundits.

I want to take time to thank our sponsors.

 

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