The final tour of the Missouri Valley Conference starts on Thursday for Wichita State senior guards Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet. Their final 18 regular-season MVC games provide one last chance for them to add to their status as one of the conference’s great backcourts.
Bradley’s Jim Les and Hersey Hawkins. Drake’s Willie McCarter and Don Draper. Larry Finch and Bill Laurie at Memphis State. Junior Bridgemen and Phillip Bond at Louisville.
Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson and anybody.
Baker, once a walk-on from Scott City, and VanVleet, snapped up by the Shockers before higher-profile programs discovered him, own accomplishments that rank with any guard in Valley history.