After guiding the Valparaiso University men's basketball program to new Missouri Valley Conference heights in 2025-2026, head coach
Roger Powell Jr. has signed a multi-year contract extension to continue to lead the Beacons.
"I am excited about the belief in me from our administration, University and community," Powell said. "This speaks to the positive direction of our program. People are supporting us, and that is helping us be competitive in the Missouri Valley Conference. I'm excited to keep that going and see what the future holds for Valpo Basketball."
Year 3 of Powell's tenure leading the program saw Valpo record its best conference winning percentage and highest league win total since joining the Missouri Valley Conference in 2017. The team went 11-9 in MVC play, nearly doubling its conference win total for a second straight season and notching the team's first-ever winning season in Valley play. Overall, Valpo won 18 games including 17 regular-season contests in 2025-26, the program's highest regular-season win total since its final season in the Horizon League in 2016-2017. Year 3 under Powell was Valpo's first winning season overall since 2019-2020 and featured a 13-4 record at the Athletics-Recreation Center, the team's highest home win total since 2016-2017.
"This is an exciting day to celebrate the forward momentum of our men's basketball program," Director of Athletics and Campus Recreation
Laurel Hosmer said. "The role of head basketball coach at our institution is a multi-faceted one. Coach Powell's success in navigating the current collegiate athletics landscape speaks for itself in the program's on-court progress. In addition, he is an exemplary community ambassador and role model, contributing greatly to our athletic department's responsibility as a front porch for our institution. I cannot wait to see what our student-athletes are able to accomplish under Coach Powell for years to come."
Powell's third season leading the program was an underdog story in the sense that Valpo finished tied for sixth in the MVC and just one game out of a tie for third in a tightly-packed league after being picked last in the 11-team league in the preseason poll. Valpo ranked 325th nationally in Division-I experience as only three scholarship members of the team had played a D-I game prior to the season. Valpo finished the regular season at 150 in the KenPom after starting the season at 283, moving up 133 spots in the rankings, tied for the fourth largest improvement nationally.
The Beacons received more good news after the 2025-2026 season concluded, as five of the team's top players – freshmen
JT Pettigrew,
Rakim Chaney,
Carter Hopoi and
Sader Servilus along with sophomore
Justus McNair – announced their intentions to return to the team for the 2026-2027 season.
The 2025-26 season saw Valpo sweep the regular-season series from UIC for the first time since the Flames joined The Valley, sweep the regular-season series from Indiana State for just the second time since joining The Valley, win a first-round MVC Tournament game over Indiana State to advance to the league quarterfinals, end a 10-game head-to-head losing streak to Bradley and squash an eight-game head-to-head skid to Drake while notching a road victory over the Bulldogs for the first time since 2018 en route to sweeping Drake for the first time since 2017-18.
Powell finished third in the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year voting, becoming the first Valpo head coach to finish in the top three since joining the league. He was also named a finalist for the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the top minority head coach in Division-I college basketball. In 2025-26, Powell recruited and coached
JT Pettigrew, who became the first Valpo freshman to earn all-conference honors since 1999 and finished as the runner-up in the league's Freshman of the Year balloting, marking the third straight year under Powell that Valpo boasted a top-2 finisher for that honor.
Owen Dease joined Pettigrew on the All-MVC Third Team, marking the first time since joining The Valley that Valpo featured a pair of all-conference honorees in the same season.
The momentum of the program in Year 3 of the Powell Era was felt by external constituents as well. During the 2025-2026 season, Paul and Jan Schrage and Don Fites each made generous $1M gifts to support Valpo Basketball. In addition, Jack and Cindy Felton made a generous contribution toward renovations to the Athletics-Recreation Center. Home attendance increased from the previous season, as did student engagement and media coverage.
In the second season of the Powell Era in 2024-2025, Valpo over doubled its overall win total from the previous season and doubled its conference win output before earning a Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinal berth. The Beacons finished with 15 wins, at the time the team's highest total since 2019-20. Powell's group displayed a no-quit attitude in Year 2, coming from double figures down to win on three occasions, highlighted by erasing a 22-point deficit in the final eight minutes at Western Michigan. Valpo beat Belmont 101-86 on Feb. 12, the program's highest point total in a league game since 1998.
The 2024-25 season was filled with breakthrough victories. The team defeated UNI in both matchups, winning back-to-back meetings with the Panthers for the first time in 40 all-time collisions. The Feb. 14 win over Belmont snapped a seven-game head-to-head losing streak and marked the first Missouri Valley Conference victory over the Bruins. By beating Indiana State on Jan. 8, Valpo snapped a six-game losing streak against defending Missouri Valley Conference regular-season champions. The Beacons went 2-0 against Missouri State, squashing a nine-game head-to-head losing streak and winning a season series from the Bears for the first time in a combined 16 seasons of shared league affiliation between the Missouri Valley Conference and the Association of Mid-Continent Universities. Valpo's Jan. 4 win over UNI snapped a 15-game skid against teams picked to finish in the top two in the MVC preseason poll, while the Feb. 22 victory at Southern Illinois brought a seven-game head-to-head losing streak to a halt.
Under Powell's leadership, Valpo boasted the MVC Freshman of the Year for a second straight season in 2024-25, becoming just the third program to earn that award in back-to-back seasons since the honor began in 1986.
All Wright garnered that distinction in addition to picking up MVC All-Tournament Team and All-Freshman Team accolades while breaking the program's freshman scoring record that had stood for over a quarter of a century. Sophomore
Cooper Schwieger, who became Valpo's first National Player of the Week since February 2016 thanks to his performance in the final week of the regular season, achieved All-MVC Second Team status in addition to securing a spot on the MVC Most-Improved Team. Out of 17 weeks during the 2024-25 season, Valpo won the MVC Freshman of the Week Award eight times with Wright doing so on seven occasions and McNair once. Under Powell's guidance, Schwieger led the Missouri Valley Conference in double-doubles, rebounds and blocked shots including 13 rejections at Arch Madness, tied for the second most in the history of the event.
In his first season guiding the program, Powell recruited and developed Schwieger, who was named the Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year, becoming the first Valpo rookie to be named a league's Freshman or Newcomer of the Year in a quarter of a century and then just the fourth all-time, joining Lubos Barton (1998-99), Bryce Drew (1994-95) and Lance Barker (1991-92). Schwieger finished the season as the only freshman in the nation averaging in double figures in scoring and shooting 50 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free-throw line in league play. He led all-MVC rookies in overall scoring average (13.2), overall rebounding average (5.4), MVC-only scoring average (14.6) and MVC-only rebounding average (5.7).
Powell became a head coach for the first time on April 7, 2023 as he returned to Valpo, where he was part of head coach Bryce Drew's staff from 2011-2016 and led the team to 124 wins in five seasons, including a program-record 30 victories and a National Invitation Tournament (NIT) title game appearance in 2015-16.
Powell helped lead Gonzaga University to a 121-13 record during his four seasons as an assistant coach under head coach Mark Few. The Bulldogs reached the 2021 national championship game after winning their first 31 games of the season. During Powell's first season on staff in 2019-20, Gonzaga was 31-2 at the time the NCAA college basketball season was halted due to COVID-19. The Bulldogs reached the Sweet Sixteen each of his final three seasons on staff, including two Elite Eight appearances and the aforementioned trip to the 2021 national title game. The 2020-21 team spent the entire season ranked No. 1 in the nation by the Associated Press. The Bulldogs were the No. 1 overall seed in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 2021 and 2022.
Prior to his arrival at Gonzaga, Powell served as the associate head coach at Vanderbilt University under Bryce Drew from 2016-2019. In his first season in Nashville, he helped lead the Commodores to an NCAA Tournament appearance. Vanderbilt notched five top-25 wins, six top-50 victories and 11 top-100 RPI wins while playing the toughest strength of schedule nationally.
During Powell's first stint on the Valpo bench, he was part of four Horizon League regular-season championships in a five-year period while also leading the 2012-13 and 2014-15 squads to Horizon League tournament titles and NCAA Tournament appearances. Valpo reached postseason tournaments in each of his five seasons on staff, including the memorable run to the NIT title game in 2016 which featured wins over Florida State, Saint Mary's and BYU.
A product of Joliet West High School and a native of Joliet, Ill., Powell was a three-year starter for the University of Illinois during his playing days, earning Honorable Mention All-Big Ten recognition in each of his final two seasons after being named to the Big Ten All-Tournament Team as a sophomore. His winning track record dates as far back as his days playing for the Illini, when he helped the team to three Big Ten regular-season titles, two Big Ten Tournament crowns and three Sweet Sixteen berths. During his senior year in 2004-05, Powell was part of an Illini team that finished 37-2, won 29 straight to open the season and reached the national title game.
