The Real Season Begins

(St. Louis, MO) – Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, the real season begins for the Missouri Valley Conference. Wednesday night we kick off the conference schedule and that’s when the real season begins.

There are great early schedule match ups, but there are games we’ve circled for months that we can’t wait to see.

This Week

Missouri Valley favorite Loyola gets an early taste of the two ‘upstarts’. On opening night of the MVC schedule, Loyola (7-6) hosts surprising Indiana State. The Sycamores’ (8-4) strong start has surprised many. Greg Lansing’s team was picked sixth in the league’s preseason poll but has knocked off the likes of Western Kentucky, San Jose State, Colorado and UNLV.

Saturday the Ramblers travel to play an even more surprising early season success story when they visit Drake. The Bulldogs (11-2) own the best Valley nonconference record and have defeated Boise State, New Mexico State and San Diego.

Can those two ‘surprise teams’ knock off the defending champion Ramblers? One week from today we’ll understand more about the power structure in the Missouri Valley Conference

Second Week

There are two ‘mystery teams’ in the Valley. Northern Iowa (5-8) is not exactly the Panther team we’re used to seeing. Ben Jacobson’s team is not performing like a Ben Jacobson-coached team. So Valley watchers keep expecting to see ‘the real Panthers’ emerge.

Valparaiso’s record is interesting. Three of the Crusaders’ (7-6) wins have been against sub-standard competition, but they did defeat UNLV and George Washington and were competitive against both Wake Forest and West Virginia. They got drilled by Texas A & M.

If the Panthers and Crusaders are to be a factor in the Valley race, the second week will be important. UNI opens with games against Bradley and Southern Illinois and in week two they travel to Illinois State and host Drake. If Northern can survive the first two weeks they still may be the Panthers we expect.

Valpo is in the same boat. Week one competition (Illinois State and Missouri State) is followed up with games against Bradley and SIU. Three of the Crusaders’ first four games are against teams picked in the upper echelon in the preseason poll.

Circled Dates

Illinois State was picked second to Loyola in the preseason poll and the Redbirds travel to Loyola on January 12 and then visit Bradley for the ‘War on 74’ on January 23. The Braves were picked third, so those two games are both pivotal in the MVC race and huge for regional bragging rites.

How these teams battle one another is what the real season is about. It starts on January 2.

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