(St. Louis, MO) – After a week of worrying, waiting and fingers crossed, the Illinois State Redbirds are not going dancing after all. During Sunday’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show, Dan Muller’s co-champion Redbirds hoped to hear their name called, instead they will play in the National Invitation Tournament as the Valley’s regular season co-champion.
The Redbirds (27-6) tied Wichita State as the Missouri Valley Conference’s regular season champion and lost to the Shockers in the tournament championship game and were forced to sweat out an anxious week of watching bracketologists declare they would not get invited to the dance. The bracketologists were correct.
Illinois State returns to post-season play for the first time since 2015 when they play Wednesday night. While Muller, the players and fans are disappointed in missing the national tournament, post season play is still valuable for the team that has already produced more victories than any previous ISU season.
MVC ‘Player of the Year’ Paris Lee leads a senior laden Redbird team to the tournament opening round game with Big West Conference champion UC Irvine. Ironically, the Anteaters (21-14, 12-4) are playing in the NIT instead of the NCAA Tournament, because they lost the Big West Tournament championship game to UC Davis and former Bradley head coach Jim Les.
Wednesday’s game will be played at 8:30 at Redbird Arena and can be seen on ESPNU.
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Three more road wins so far in @ValleyHoops as @BradleyUMBB @BelmontMBB & @UIC_MBB capture road wins. Looks like @DrakeBulldogsMB will do so too. #FatherHarry
Well @RacersWBB followed the men's example and swept Iowa in the @ValleyHoops race! Racers are 6-1 & if @BelmontWBB holds on to their Iowa sweep, the Bruins and Racers will be tied for first. What a trip for those two teams! #FatherHarry
After today's action, @EIUWBB is 8-0 in @OVCSports play. 4 teams @usiwbb @TTUWBB @LRTrojans @LindenwoodWBB are tied at 6-2. Six other teams are under .500. Great race to the finish lies ahead. #FatherHarry
Really entertaining game between @BelmontMBB & @UEAthletics_MBB. Under four minutes left in a one point game. Gabriel Pozzato back in the Aces' lineup. Rogers is playing like I've expected. Triples are dropping. It's fun and @kylejpeach bringing it on #ThePlus #FatherHarry
