MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE (ranked 14th by kenpom)
March 3-6
Hosted by: The Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri
Sponsored by: State Farm. Tournament is also known as “Arch Madness.”
Tickets: $125 for ‘em all.
The Bracket:
Thursday March 3: #7 Drake v. #10 Bradley (1)
#8 Southern Illinois v. #9 Illinois State (2)
Friday March 4: #1 Missouri State v. Winner of (2)
#4 Creighton v. #5 Northern Iowas
#2 Wichita State v. Winner of (1)
#3 Indiana State v. #6 Evansville
Saturday March 5: Semis
Sunday March 6: Finals
The Favorite: Missouri State. This was a tough one. Missouri State is coming off their big win over Wichita in Springfield, Missouri, and their first regular season MVC title. They’ve beaten Wichita twice. More importantly, they’re playing better as of right now. It really is a coin flip though. The question that remains is, if both teams advance to the finals, will both get in? I said yesterday that I would be surprised, and I’m sticking with that for now.
Trivia: This has turned into a good tournament. More importantly, the teams that have represented the MVC have done very well in recent years. N. Iowa scored a big upset last year over Kansas. In 2006, the Valley had two teams in the sweet sixteen! Bradley beat Kansas and Pittsburgh before losing to Memphis, while Wichita State beat Seton Hall and Tennessee before losing to other Cinderella George Mason. Southern Illinois advanced to the sweet sixteen in 2007, before falling to Kansas by 3.
According to the website, the MVC is the second longest running conference tournament at a neutral site. I think the longest running is ACC, which has been played in 500000 different sites, but all neutral, and dates back to 1954 (the Valley to 1977).
The one seed has won three straight MVC tournaments.
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