MVC – Road Wins Will Decide the Race

Crowded Middle and Tight at the Top

(St. Louis, MO) – With five games left in the Missouri Valley Conference season almost anything can still happen. No team is mathematically eliminated from winning the title, four teams are two games out of first place AND two games out of last.  The Valley has a crowded middle and is tight at the top.

Bradley and Missouri State are the two hottest Valley teams and Valparaiso and Evansville are slumping. Of the five MVC games this weekend, none is bigger than Missouri State’s visit to Loyola. The Bears (8-5) are one game behind the defending champs. An MSU win and a Drake victory would produce a three-way tie for first.

Suddenly Missouri State can Defend

After dropping four of their first six games and surrendering at least 70 points in all the losses, the Bears have not allowed more than 65 points during their run of winning six of their last seven games. Five times they’ve held their opponents under 60 points and in two of those, they held the opposition under 40! Coach Dana Ford slowed down his offense and it has helped their transition defense.

Ilinois State (7-6) has dropped three straight and host red-hot Bradley (6-7). The Braves have won six of their last eight games and they look like world beaters.

Suddenly the Braves Can Score

After dropping five of their first seven league games and not scoring over 64 points in any of them, Bradley has topped the 80 point mark four times during the streak. Coach Brian Wardle has tinkered with his lineup and during the streak and guard Darrell Brown has taken off with four scoring performances of 20 or more points.

Wardle says Brown is being more aggressive and his team is making better and quicker offensive decisions.

 

 

If all the home teams win this weekend then the league would have five teams tied at 6-8 and Evansville would be one game behind that peloton of teams battling to avoid the Arch Madness play-in round. So the ‘War on 74’ takes on added significance.

Winning at home is easier said than done. Last season Valley teams won a total of 28 regular season road contests. With 25 games to play, they’ve won 25 of the 65 games played. Winning on the road is where teams earn playoff births, win titles and make up big ground. Winning on the road this weekend is like winning a double-header. Since virtually every team is in contention with every other team for something, every game has deep meaning.

Injuries have decimated Valparaiso. The good news is they seem to be healing at the right time. They’ve dropped six of their last seven games and with leading scorer Ryan Fazekas missing all but one of those games and Markus Golder being in and out of the lineup, Valpo has struggled to score. Five times during the collapse, they have failed to score 60 points.  In the two games where they did reach that total they won once and lost in overtime in the other. Golder seems to be back at full strength and Fazekas came off the bench Wednesday and is getting closer to returning to his ‘impact player’ status.

At 9-and-4, Loyola could become just the fifth team in Valley history to win the title with as many as five losses. MSU and Drake, at 8-and-5 have that chance too. That’s how tightly this Valley’s season is bunched.

Watch for road wins. They will decide the race. Those are this weekend’s headlines that will truly make a difference for the crowded middle of the Missouri Valley Conference.

Do Good