The ‘Illinois Valley Conference’?

(St. Louis, MO) – The power shift is apparently complete! Illinois is not only the geographical center of the Missouri Valley Conference, but it is now the seed of power in the 111 year old league. For the first time in league history, the four teams in the semifinal of the postseason tournament are all from the ‘Land of Lincoln’.

Regular season success found three of the teams in the top three spots in the standings and the fourth (Bradley) finished fifth. We spoke to this power shift back in early February (MVC Power Shift to Illinois) and Loyola went on to win the regular season title, with Southern Illinois finishing second and Illinois State tied for third.

Eight of the players named to the Valley’s three, all-conference teams came from these four squads, with Loyola’s Clayton Custer named to the first team and as the league’s ‘Player of the Year‘. Illinois State’s Milik Yarbrough joined Custer on the first team and was tapped as the ‘Newcomer of the Year‘. Loyola’s Cameron Krutwig was the ‘Freshman of the Year‘, his senior teammate Ben Richardson was the ‘Defensive MVP‘ and Southern Illinois’ Tyler Smithpeters earned the ‘6th Man of the Year‘ trophy’.

Scottrade Center, home of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues will have more Blackhawks’ fans today than at any time in history.

One semifinal features regular season champion Loyola (26-5), riding a eight game winning streak, facing a Bradley Braves (20-12) team, that is the last squad to hand them a loss. The night cap finds second place Southern Illinois (20-12) matched up with Illinois State (17-14).

In a tournament where no game has been won by more than 10 points (the average margin of victory is 5.2 points per game) and the combined 17 point differential in the four quarterfinal games was the smallest in tournament history, these games promise to be great theater.

Loyola is 31st in the latest RPI rankings and Illinois State fans will attest that for a Valley school apparently that isn’t a good enough number unless you play in a ‘money conference’. So the Ramblers, like their three Illinois cousins, must keep winning if they want to play in the NCAA Tournament.

The Ramblers and Braves tip at 2:30 and the Salukis and Redbirds at 5 pm. Both games are on CBS Sports Network.

(CBS Sports Network play-by-play man Brent Stover will be one of our guests on Saturday’s ‘Voices of the Valley‘. We’ll also hear from SIU beat writer Todd Hefferman, Bradley beat writer Dave Reynolds, and Fox Sports Midwest color analyst Rich Zvosec.)

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