MTEs and Other Events
(St. Louis, MO) – Missouri Valley Conference teams are jumping into the scheduling process. This upcoming season will see Valley teams lined up with some other outstanding mid-major teams. New coaches at Drake, Illinois Chicago, Missouri State and Southern Illinois have lined up some non-conference opportunities. High major teams are also on the horizon.
Drake’s new coach Ben McCollum is jumping into the deep end of the pool, entering his team in the Shriners Hospital Charleston Classic. The Bulldogs could face the likes of Miami, Nevada, Oklahoma State, Seton Hall, Vanderbilt, VCU or Florida Atlantic.
Drake’s MTE will be conducted during the weekend before Thanksgiving (November 21-24) and presents the Bulldogs with several opportunities to compete with ‘power conference’ teams.
During that same weekend, UIC faces formidable competition at the Boardwalk Battle. East Carolina, La Salle, Jacksonville State, Stetson, Toledo and San Diego join the Flames in the Daytona Beach-based tournament hosted by the Gazelle Group. First year head coach Rob Ehsan is securing some great non-conference action with this MTE.
Illinois State heads to the Virgin Islands to participate in the Paradise Jam. 
The Redbirds will compete with George Washington, Kansas State, Liberty, McNeese State and UAB.
Missouri State is doing some fancy traveling. The Bears and new head coach Cuonzo Martin are heading to the Cayman Islands. Boston College, Boise State, Duquesne, Hampton, High Point, Old Dominion and South Dakota State await the new-look Bears.
Ben Jacobson’s Northern Iowa Panthers head to Buena Vista, Florida for an ESPN Events Invitational. North Texas, Saint Bonaventure and Utah State join the Panthers. Jacobson is entering his nineteenth season as the Panthers’ head coach.
Opening Day
Southern Illinois will participate in a brand new event. Rob Dauster’s ‘The Field of 68’ website and podcast behemoth is launching an opening day event at the Sanford Pentagon. The Sioux Falls, South Dakota arena and event will tip off the basketball season with three games. Former Indiana State coach Josh Schertz and the Saint Louis University Billikens take on Santa Clara in the opener.
SIU faces College of Charleston in the middle game and McNeese State takes on ‘host’ South Dakota State in the night cap. This will be a home coming of sorts for new Saluki head coach Scott Nagy. He spent numerous seasons at South Dakota State while the school was a Division 2 competitor and then led the Jackrabbits to three NCAA Tournaments during the team’s first nine seasons in Division 1.
Evansville is one Missouri Valley Conference team participating in an ‘on-campus’ event. David Ragland’s team will play in the Ohio State MTE. The Buckeyes will host the Aces, Campbell and Green Bay. Many of these on-campus events have popped up in the past few years.
Saint Louis is rumored to be in talks to host a similar event. I’ve been told that Billiken head coach Schertz is interested in bring Missouri Valley Conference teams and perhaps OVC teams like Southern Illinois Edwardsville, SEMO or Lindenwood to Chaifetz Arena.
Do Good
Twitter Feed
.@SEMOMBB wins at home and is 2-0, tied with @MSUEaglesMBB atop the @OVCSports. Our prayers are with the @LRTrojans after the death of one of their managers Josh Claxton. Their game with EIU was postponed today.
Good officiating in the @SEMOMBB/@SIUEMBB in a little late game dust up.
BTW, @LindenwoodWBB is 2-0. @CoachAmyEagan has that program headed the right direction.
With @SkyhawkHoops winning on the road and @LUMensBball winning at home, right now, 5 @OVCSports teams are 1-1.
