What's Up In The Missouri Valley: What's Up In The Missouri Valley 1/2/2020

The Morning Dish – January 1, 2020--Hoopville

Meanwhile, Missouri Valley play is underway, and Northern Iowa had the best non-conference run by far of any team in the conference, even though as a whole it was a pretty good couple of months for The Valley. There’s no question the Panthers are the best hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament from the Valley with a NET in the 20s entering the week. But their first assignment in conference play was to go to 5-7 Illinois State, and despite a 10-point halftime deficit, the Redbirds regrouped in the second half and rallied past the Panthers 76-70.

A 7-0 run early in the second half got the Redbirds within two at 36-34, and that would be the beginning of a 14-2 run that would give them the lead. Northern Iowa would regain the lead with under six minutes left, but that lasted a matter of seconds, and after a three-pointer by A.J. Green (23 points) tied it with under a minute to go, Illinois State made six free throws to regain the lead and then seal the game after getting two stops and rebounds.

Northern Iowa out-rebounded Illinois State 39-25 but also gave the ball away 17 times. Allowing Illinois State to go 10-18 from deep didn’t help, with the Redbirds’ starting perimeter trio going a scorching 7-9 from distance to score 48 points on 15-26 shooting overall.

Northern Iowa can absorb a loss like this, but it’s not a good way to start. Since 1993-94, only three times has a Valley team lost their conference opener and later won at least a share of the regular season title. The Panthers did that 11 years ago in a different Missouri Valley, so they have some history, but they will have to regroup fast as surging Bradley comes to town on Saturday fresh off an 80-72 win over Drake in their opener on Tuesday.

Side Dishes
The other Big East game on the slate almost turned into a shocker, but not because of who would have won. Butler blew a 23-point lead but held on for a 60-58 win at St. John’s, needing a three-pointer in the final minute to emerge victorious. In ACC action, Duke routed Boston College 88-49 behind 25 points from Matthew Hurt, Florida State pulled away from Georgia Tech 70-58 and Chris Lykes had 27 points to lift Miami over host Clemson 73-68 in overtime. Temple won the lone American Athletic Conference game on tap, edging UCF 62-58 in Orlando and Missouri State handled Evansville 65-52 in the other Missouri Valley game on Tuesday.

Seed List: League play will shape Field--Bracketville

Today’s Seed List includes a typical bracket anomaly … with Northern Iowa losing at Illinois State, the Indiana State Sycamores earn a spot on the Seed List as the Missouri Valley’s automatic bid representative. The Panthers remain in the field as an at-large team, taking someone else’s spot.

News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Jan 1st--Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES
-Northern Iowa suffered a somewhat head scratching upset loss to Illinois State. UNI had looked fantastic for the entire season, and I was thinking they should be getting close to being ranked in the top 25, but they went on the road and lost their conference opener. They can’t afford too many more like that, or one of the games that they’ll need to win will have to be that last conference tournament game.

Handing out the Hardware: HoopsHD.com announces its All-Conference Players of 2019 (Part 2 of 2)--Hoops HD

MVC
G: Javon Freeman-Liberty (Valparaiso)
G: AJ Green (Northern Iowa)
F: Elijah Childs (Bradley)
F: Deandre Williams (Evansville)
C: Cameron Krutwig (Loyola IL)
POYSF: Javon Freeman-Liberty (Valparaiso)

MVC & OVC Players Land on Henson All-Decade List--Valley Hoops Insider
Does It Take a Big To Win the Valley?--Valley Hoops Insider