So Much To Play For

(St. Louis, MO) – Only first and last place are settled in the Missouri Valley Conference, so every game on this final day of the season, has great significance. What is at stake for Valley teams? The main issues to decide are found at the top and bottom of the standings.

At The Top

Second place is a plumb prize. The top two teams in league’s final standings receive the benefit of playing their quarterfinal game against a team that had to win a game just to earn the right to participate in that round. Those top two teams not only play teams that seemingly have struggled all year long, but they are also teams that are fatigued from a hard fought victory 18 hours previous.

Current second place resident, Southern Illinois (19-11, 11-6) is hoping to hold off both Drake and last year’s co-champion Illinois State. They are one game back at 10-6. SIU and Illinois State play road games while Drake finishes the season hosting last place Valparaiso.

If SIU wins, they hold on to second place, but should the Salukis lose at Evansville, all bets are off! The Valley’s tie-breakers start with head-to-head match ups. The three teams split their regular season games. The second tie-breaker is Sunday’s final RPI.

In any tie scenario Illinois State has the edge with an RPI of 85, while SIU (90) would edge Drake (139). The Redbirds visit regular season champion Loyola.

 

 

At The Bottom

Seventh through 10^th place are like four-letter-words to Valley members. To finish in those spots means your team has to play on Thursday at Arch Madness and earn your way into the tournament’s quarterfinals. In 27 years of the St. Louis-based tournament, one team (Bradley) has won a quarterfinal game.

Valparaiso is locked into tenth place and Northern Iowa is stuck into one of those other two spots. Hoping to flee those other two slots are preseason favorite Missouri State (17-13, 7-10), Indiana State (12-17, 7-10) and Evansville (16-14, 6-11).

If Missouri State wins Saturday at Northern Iowa they escape the Thursday night game by virtue of their sweep of their games with Indiana State. The Bears won’t participate in the play-in round if they lose and Indiana State loses at Bradley. Even if Evansville defeats SIU, a three-way tie results in the Bears pulling out of that tie since they won three of the four games with their closest rivals.

In The Middle

This is a little muddled.

If Bradley (19-11, 9-8) wins and either or both Illinois State or Drake drop their season finales Bradley still can’t climb higher than fifth place. When a three-way tie ensues for third place, Drake finishes third because they went 3-1 against the other two teams. Illinois State finishes fourth in a tie with Bradley because of a superior RPI. In other words, Bradley can finish no higher that fifth.

Finally, regular season champion Loyola must continue to win games to maintain an outstanding RPI (they stand at 32) to keep their hopes of an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament, if they happen to stub their toe at conference tournament.

Now that everything is amazingly clear, enjoy this weekend’s games.

Do Good