Loyola @ UNI – Winner Take All

League Title Up For Grabs Saturday

(St. Louis, MO) – The whole Missouri Valley Conference season has come down to a winner take all finale in Cedar Falls. After all the ups and downs of a long basketball season, one game will decide the Valley’s regular season champion.

Loyola (22-6, 13-4) visits Northern Iowa (17-10, 13-4) in a game that couldn’t be drawn up any better. One of these programs, or Drake have won each of the last four regular season titles. The Ramblers in 2018 and in 2021. They shared the title with Drake in 2019 and the Panthers won the 2020 crown. One of them will win it again on Saturday.

The league title is up for grabs in a winner take all game. Three different trophies are on the line during this game.

A Conference Championship

Loyola has won 20-games for a record fifth straight season. The Ramblers are shooting for their fourth title in five years. UNI has won or shared just three championships during their first 31 MVC seasons. All three of those titles have come during Ben Jacobson’s 15 years in Cedar Falls.

For the purists out there, a regular season championship is the more true test than the upcoming league tournament. A regular season title means that you hang a banner and you have the easiest path at Arch Madness.

While the rest of the world is fixated on the conference tournament and the automatic qualification for the NCAA Tournament, the regular season title brings with it the spoils of war.

Game time on ESPNU is 5:00 pm with the Valley’s top ESPN broadcasting team Clay Matvick and Kevin Lehman. 

Player of the Year

Typically the Larry Bird – ‘Player of the Year Award’ comes from the Valley’s first place team. This year there are three or four candidates for that award. A case can be made for two Missouri State stars. Isaiah Mosley and Gaige Prim each have great credentials for the award, but if the MVP is coming from the league champion, this game will determine the individual award too.

UNI’s A.J. Green was the Larry Bird winner in 2020 and is one of the four favorites going into the last weekend of play. He, Mosley and Illinois State’s Antonio Reeves are battling for the league’s top scoring spot. After sitting out most of last season with a hip injury, Green has come back stronger and perhaps better than his previous MVP season.

Loyola’s Lucas Williamson is the heart and soul of the Rambler program. Coach Drew Valentine calls Williamson ‘the standard’ of the program. Williamson was the Valley’s top defender last year and continues to shine on that side of the floor, but the 6’5 wing has expanded his offensive game. The fifth-year guard is averaging 13.6 points-per-game and converting .408 from deep. His teammates build off his energy and defensive tenacity.

During LUC’s great run of success, Clayton Custer, Marques Townes and Cameron Krutwig all claimed ‘Player of the Year’ trophies.

Winning this game could launch Green or Williamson to the Larry Bird Trophy.

Coach of the Year

The Valley’s ‘Coach of the Year’ award routinely goes to the regular season champion or the coach of a team that greatly over achieved. There is no coach with that second situation. So, the COY has to come from one of these two teams or perhaps Drake or Missouri State.

Drake was picked to win the regular season title with Loyola picked second and Northern Iowa third. So either the rookie head coach Drew Valentine or the ‘Dean of the Valley Coaches’ Ben Jacobson, should win this trophy. Jacobson has won the award four times and Valentine’s predecessor, Porter Moser earned the hardware in 2018.

Whichever team wins this Saturday’s showdown they will do more than win a game. This is a winner take all affair. The winner will likely take the ‘Player’ and ‘Coach’ of the year awards home with them too.

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