All 10 Teams Play

(St. Louis, MO) – For the first time this season, all 10 Missouri Valley Conference teams play against each other on one day. Two of the undefeated teams tangle. None of the winless teams face off, but three of them play at home.

Big Dogs

Evansville (13-2, 2-0) faces Valley favorite Wichita State (8-5, 2-0) at Koch Arena and 10,500 rabid Shocker fans. This might be the biggest game of the the Purple Aces’ season. They can lose this game and still feel good about how their season is going. But if they get blown out at the ‘Round House’, then the doubts creep in and ‘Play Angry’ looks like Darth Vader all over again. Wichita State has won 38 in a row at home and are as healthy as they’ve been all year.

The Shockers have a tall order in handling UE big man Egidijus Mockevicius. The 6’10 senior is averaging 18.3 points and a national best 14.3 rebounds per game. In his last four games, the ‘Big Lithuanian’ is averaging over 21 points and 17 rebounds.

The other two undefeated teams, Southern Illinois (13-2, 2-0) and Illinois State (8-7, 2-0) battle their other Illinois-based brethren as the Salukis travel to Bradley for a game with the young and struggling Braves (2-13, 0-2), while the Redbirds host Loyola (7-7, 0-2). Dan Muller’s ISU team has won three straight overall.

SIU has to avoid the road upset in Peoria. The Egyptian Dawgs host Wichita on Saturday.

500 Club

Just two clubs have split their first two games. Northern Iowa (9-6, 1-1) owns the best RPI in the Valley and they travel to Missouri State (4-10, 0-2). Indiana State (7-7, 1-1) visits Drake (5-9, 0-2).

The balanced Northern Iowa team has four players in the league’s top 20 in scoring. Valley watchers would expect Wes Washpun (15.2), Paul Jespersen (12.7) and Matt Bohannon (11.9) to be on that list, but Jeremy Morgan (11.7) has been taking the Valley by storm lately. Morgan has reached double figures in nine of the Panthers 15 games including three of the last four. He is third in the MVC in both field goal and free throw percentage and leads the league in steals.

All five games can be viewed on ESPN3.

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