Is it ILLINOIS Valley Conference?

The Ramblers return three starters from last year’s record-setting 32-win team that swept the MVC regular-season and tournament titles and reached the NCAA Final Four. Clayton Custer earned the Larry Bird Trophy in his junior year last season and has been selected as the preseason MVC Player of the Year for 2018-19.

Clayton Custer

The Ramblers received 29 first place votes and 410 points to outdistance Illinois State, which earned 374 points and 10 first place tallies to finish second. Southern Illinois, which returns all five starters, received four first place votes and 362 points to finish third in the poll. The league’s fourth Illinois school, Bradley is fourth in the poll. For the first time in Arch Madness history, all four of the league’s Illinois programs reached the semifinals in 2018.

This year’s five-player first team unit features a pair of Illinois State Redbirds: Phil Fayne (15.6 ppg; 7.4 rpg) and Milik Yarbrough (16.6 ppg; 6.6 rpg; 152 assists); Loyola’s Custer (13.2 ppg; 135 assists); Armon Fletcher of Southern Illinois (14.1 ppg; 5.1 rebounds) and Jordan Barnes of Indiana State (17.4 ppg; 117 3FG).

The league’s second-team unit is also loaded. It features Darrell Brown of Bradley (13.5 ppg; 142 assists); Keyshawn Evans of Illinois State (15.2 ppg; 107 assists); Kavion Pippen of Southern Illinois (12.1 ppg; 5.9 rebounds); and Loyola teammates Cameron Krutwig (10.5 ppg; 6.1 rpg) and Marques Townes (11.1 ppg; 4.0 rpg; 92 assists). Illinois State and Loyola led the league with three players apiece on the first or second-team units.

Pollsters have accurately predicted the league’s regular-season champ five of the past six years, but only 17 times out of 33 total since 1985-86, but the pre-season favorite Ramblers can take solace in that 29 of those 33 predicted champs have gone on to post-season play, with 21 of those 29 playing in the NCAAs.