Missouri Valley Conference – Semifinal Saturday

Best Day of College Basketball

(St. Louis, MO) – This is the best day of college basketball. As a long time follower of the Missouri Valley Conference, semifinal Saturday is what the whole season builds toward. Four of the Valley’s best teams will gather at the Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis for the right to compete for Sunday’s championship.

While the championship game is thrilling and provides the winner with the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, semifinal Saturday has all the drama, competition and season-defining theater you could ever want, and we do it twice!

Today, Bradley brings its regular season title and all its accomplished to face the upstart Indiana State team that has defied the experts and conventional thinking to score tons of points, win over twenty games and reach this semifinal Saturday.

In the other bracket, the Drake Bulldogs losers of the last two Arch Madness title games, are attempting to reach the title game for the third straight year. They’ll be facing a Southern Illinois team that has reached the twenty-win plateau for the first time in five years and survived a very physically demanding game with Missouri State to reach the final four of Arch Madness.

It is set up to be an amazing semifinal Saturday.

Random Thoughts About Arch Madness 2023

Cooper Neese is already on the All-Tournament team. Through two days the Cloverdale, Indiana native has scored 52 points, is climbing the tournament all-time three point lists and has been amazing. His nine threes yesterday set a new single game, Arch Madness record. If you like scoring and dramatic offensive moves, Friday’s 94-91 Indiana State win over Belmont was incredible.

As I kept expecting Neese and the other Sycamore and Bruin scorers to cool off, it never happened. Hats off to coaches Josh Schertz and Casey Alexander. Their players know the game plan, how to find their teammates and they have the skill level to make the plays.

How do Drake and Southern Illinois compete today? Drake, of course, picked up an injury yesterday. It wouldn’t be Arch Madness if Drake didn’t lose a key player to injury. All-freshman team member Conor Enright left yesterday’s game with a rumored head injury. He later returned to the Bulldog bench in street clothes. We’ve heard no official word on Drake’s first man off the bench.

While he sometimes plays alongside Roman Penn, he often gives the all-Valley guard a breather. Penn was noticeably gassed late in yesterday’s victory over Murray State.

SIU’s game with Missouri State was tremendously physically taxing and not just for us who watched both teams miss over 60 percent of their shots. All-Valley guard Marcus Domask looked like he had been in a bar fight. During the postgame press conference, Domask had growing black eyes. Yes, I said eyes. How much does Mr. Domask have left in the tank after playing 38:35 yesterday in MMA style conditions?

Is This Bradley’s Tournament?

How many more Bradley fans will show up today? They were clearly the largest fan base in attendance and as they chanted ‘One More Year’ to center Rienk Mast after yesterday’s win, you could feel that group’s confidence rising almost to the level of coach Brian Wardle’s. He and his team are extremely locked in, trust one another and have all the right ingredients to not only win on semifinal Saturday and cut the nets down on Sunday, but to win a couple of games later this month!

I bet a large part of that fan base will follow them wherever they may play later in March.

Next Season Thoughts

There is much work to do at Valparaiso. During their six years as a Valley member, they have won five Arch Madness games and made a championship game appearance in 2020. However, they have played on Thursday four of their six of their tournament appearances and have made it to one semifinal Saturday.

The university has to figure some things out. While I haven’t been to the Athletics-Recreation Center, I’m told it is by far the Valley’s worst home venue. I’ve also been told the university is hurting for money. Perhaps that’s why they didn’t send a pep band to Arch Madness. They have one of the Valley’s smallest enrollments and the options are limited for the private institution. New Athletic Director Dr. Charles Small has a big challenge before him and we wish him success.

They will have to figure out the best way to invest in the program. As it stands,  Matt Lottich is left to building it on his own. It has to be a team effort at Valpo.

Speaking of Valparaiso, Donovan Clay sounds like he’s returning for another season at Missouri State. The Alton, Illinois native made that announcement last night. During the postgame press conference, he said he has discussed things with his family and plans to return to Missouri State for a third season and fifth overall.

Semifinal Saturday Games

Indiana State (22-11) plays the underdog role today in their third game of the weekend. The Sycamores haven’t been to semifinal Saturday since 2016 and have won two Arch Madness games for the first time since 2014. While this has been a dramatic ‘turn-around’ season for the high scoring Sycamores, they face a daunting task today.

Schertz’s Sycamores are playing their third game in three days and playing a very good Bradley team that has no holes and is the MVC’s best defensive team. How INS battles the Bradley Bigs will determine their opportunity to upset the conference champs.

This is when Brian Wardle’s teams play their best. His teams are built for March and under Wardle they have won nine Arch Madness games in 14 opportunities. The Braves (24-8) won this title in 2019 and 2020 and have made it to five semifinal Saturdays in nine years.

Drake (25-7) is playing in their fifth straight semifinal Saturday. Darian DeVries arrived in Drake and put ‘Des Moines’ Home Town Team’ on the map. He is 7-4 at Arch Madness but is yet to cut down the nets. This is SIU’s first semifinal appearance since 2018. The Salukis (23-9) are enjoying their first twenty-win season under Bryan Mullins and their first since that same 2018 season.

Semifinal Saturday Updates

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