Much To Play For

Final Day of Valley Season

(St. Louis, MO) – There is much to play for during the final day of the Missouri Valley Conference season. Loyola can earn a share of their third straight league title and three different teams are battling to avoid the Arch Madness ‘play-in’ round.

UNI Playing for NCAA Opportunities

Northern Iowa (24-5, 13-4) has earned a share of the title and will be the tournament’s top seed. Should the Panthers lose and Loyola win, their superior NET measurement will break the tie and grant them the top spot in next week’s tournament.

UNI has larger goals. A Panther win would give them 25 victories and a solid NET ranking heading into conference tournament season. The Panthers are currently 43^rd in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Most bracketologists have Northern Iowa currently in the NCAA Tournament with a ten, eleven or a twelve seed.

Battle for Second

Loyola (20-10, 12-5) and Bradley (20-10, 11-6) face off in Peoria. A Bradley win would tie the two teams for second. Since they split the regular season games, the tie-breaker for second place would come down to the NET.

The Ramblers (98) have a significant edge over Bradley (109), but those numbers won’t be finalized until this weekend.

Scrambling Away From Thursday

The bottom four teams play in the tournament’s Thursday night opening round. Evansville (0-17) is locked in at number ten and Illinois State (4-13) is ninth. Missouri State and Drake are 8-and-9 and tied for seventh. Valparaiso is 9-8.

A Valpo win secures the Crusaders a Friday game in St. Louis. If they lose at Indiana State (17-11, 10-7), then a three-way tie could be the result. The three teams have split their mutual games. Missouri State hosts Southern Illinois and Drake entertains Northern Iowa.

Valpo is looking for their first non-Thursday night invitation to St. Louis. Drake is roughly 30 NET spots behind both MSU and Valpo. The Bears have a narrow, three-spot NET edge on the Crusaders.

Battle in the Middle

Southern Illinois and Indiana State are both 10-7 and one game behind Bradley. A BU loss could result in a three-way tie for third place. Bradley would hold on to the third spot, by virtue of its 3-1 record against the other two. SIU and INS would tie for fourth and would play one another during Arch Madness’ second round.

Eight of the ten Valley teams have much to play for.

Do Good