Wildest of Weeks Ahead

Four Different Teams Can Win

(St. Louis, MO) – A weekend of home team wins has set up the wildest of weeks. Three Missouri Valley Conference teams are tied for first place with Northern Iowa one game back.

This will be the first season in 112 of Valley play that the champion will have as many as six conference losses. Defending champion Loyola, upstart Drake and streaking Missouri State art tied at 10 and 6.

During a season where visiting teams have been winning games at a record pace, MVC squads flexed their home court muscles and won nine of last week’s ten games. Sunday’s home wins by Illinois State (over Drake) and Southern Illinois (over Loyola) threw the race back into turmoil.

The Valley has tie-breakers in place. If teams are tied, head-to-head matchups are the first eliminator and the NCAA’s new NCAA Evaluation Tool (N.E.T.) will break the unbroken ties.

Three other teams, Bradley, SIU and Illinois State are tied at 8 and 8. One of those teams will finish in the bottom four of the league and play in the Arch Madness play-in round. It’s likely that two of them will play one another in St. Louis’ quarterfinal game as the fourth and fifth seeds.

This is the wildest of weeks.

Top Teams Collide

Loyola (10-6) @ Northern Iowa (9-7) – Wednesday Night

Loyola visits Northern Iowa on Wednesday. The two teams battled to the wire in late January. LUC won it 61-60. Rambler senior Cameron Krutwig was unstoppable in the first meeting, scoring 22 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and handing out five assists.

UNI coach Ben Jacobson says stopping the skilled Krutwig is nearly impossible.

 

 

Player of the Year candidate Marques Townes scored 19 points in the first matchup. Freshman of the Year candidate A.J. Green scored 14 for the Panthers. Northern Iowa has a conference home record of 6 and 2.

Loyola coach Porter Moser says the red-hot Panthers are playing with a confident urgency.

 

 

The Ramblers have lost three of their last four games and Moser says his veterans, Clayton Custer, Townes and Krutwig have to play better.

 

 

Drake (10-6) @ Missouri State (10-6) – Saturday Afternoon

If these two can win their Wednesday night games, this contest could decide the regular season title.

The first time they met (Drake won 74-63) the Bears held Player of the Year candidate Nick McGlynn under double digits for just the second time during the Valley season.

But they couldn’t stop Brady Ellingson. The 6’4 senior scored 25 points while making seven of eight long distance shots. Ellingson is the league’s best three-point shooter, both by volume and percentage. That Drake loss was a line of demarcation for Missouri State and coach Dana Ford.

The Bears are 8 and 2 since that game. They’ve slowed their offense, improved their defense and have climbed into the current three-way tie for first. MSU has not allowed over 60 points five of those ten games and no one has scored more than 65 points since that January 20^th contest.

Ford says his seniors had to make big adjustments to help the team change styles and become more successful.

 

 

Fellow first year coach Darian DeVries says his team has put ‘team first’ all season long. They lead the Valley in rebounding and assists and do it with a collective effort.

 

 

A lot of other things will be happening this week. Those three teams tied at 8 and 8 are all trying to avoid a Thursday night game in St. Louis and trying to build some momentum heading in to Arch Madness.

The mathematical equations still remaining are endless and in this wildest of weeks, every game is a standings shaper.

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