What's Up In The Missouri Valley: What's Up In The Missouri Valley 3/2/2021

The Other Top 25: Rust(on) never sleeps--Mid-Major Madness

The Other Top 25: Week 15

Rank School Record Change Our reasoning

2 Loyola University Chicago 21-4 - Loyola has won three in a row since it fell to Drake, but the Ramblers have hardly been automatic. Those three wins have come by a total of 17 points.
10 Drake 24-3 -1 If Drake doesn't win Arch Madness, it'll be in for a LONG wait on Selection Sunday. That loss to Bradley (6-12 MVC) is not a great look.

Rank	School	Record	Change	Our reasoning
2	Loyola University Chicago	21-4	-	Loyola has won three in a row since it fell to Drake, but the Ramblers have hardly been automatic. Those three wins have come by a total of 17 points.
10	Drake	24-3	-1	If Drake doesn't win Arch Madness, it'll be in for a LONG wait on Selection Sunday. That loss to Bradley (6-12 MVC) is not a great look.

Handing out the Hardware: All-conference awards of the year (Part 1 of 2)--Hoops HD

MVC
G: Tyreke Key (Indiana State)
G: Shamar Givance (Evansville)
F: Isiaih Mosley (Missouri State)
F: Gaige Prim (Missouri State)
C: Cameron Krutwig (Loyola Chicago)
POY: Isiaih Mosley (Missouri State)
ROY: Bowen Born (Northern Iowa)
DPOY: Gaige Prim (Missouri State)
6TH: Ja’Shon Henry (Bradley)
COY: Darian DeVries (Drake)

Bubble Watch: Texas, Purdue, USC and Oklahoma State lead a new list of locked teams--The Athletic

Others

It’s a banner day down here in the Others section, where we can now happily present not one but two new NCAA Tournament locks from outside the traditional power conferences — one from way outside. The other, BYU, is more adjacent; the Cougars may be in the WCC, but in terms of resources and profile BYU is a pretty massive athletics department with tons of money and a desire to compete at the highest levels of both revenue-generating men’s collegiate sports. The Cougars are one thing. Loyola Chicago is entirely another. The Ramblers are a true mid-major program, a product of one of the mid-major-iest conferences (the Missouri Valley) this sport has to offer. That they are just a couple seasons removed from a Final Four run, and are as already as good as they are again, speaks less to the program being some kind of rising Second City Gonzaga resource-wise (although, maybe?) than to the job Porter Moser has done on a true mid-major’s budget. Rambler Fever™ never dies.

Locks: Gonzaga, Houston, Loyola Chicago, BYU
Work to do: St. Bonaventure, Boise State, VCU, Drake, Colorado State, Utah State, Saint Louis, Richmond, SMU, Wichita State, Western Kentucky
Drake (22-3, 15-3; NET: 42, SOS: 262): What on Earth should the committee do with Drake? On the one hand, the Bulldogs suffered their third loss of the season Saturday, a 67-61 letdown at Bradley that added a Quadrant 3 defeat to a team with some genuinely rough schedule numbers. On the other hand, Drake is playing without ShanQuan Hemphill, who should be back in time for Arch Madness. On the other other hand, Drake was playing without Roman Penn, who is done for the season, and whose absence undoubtedly makes this team worse. On the other other other hand, Drake did split with Loyola. On the — OK, you get the picture. There’s a lot to weigh with the Bulldogs, and some of it is going to come down to what you value in an NCAA Tournament résumé. We think Drake belongs, but the committee may or may not agree, and avoiding a disastrous early loss in St. Louis is now a must.

Final Week Stars--Valley Hoops Insider

Missouri Valley Conference

Evansville’s Shamar Givance helped Evansville end a seven-game losing streak and nabbed a fifth seed for Arch Madness. Givance scored 21 points during Friday’s loss to Missouri State, then the 5’10 junior poured in 22 points to help UE upset the third-seeded Bears. This week’s ‘Player of the Week’ sparked the Purple Aces’ rise to an Arch Madness, first round bye.

Northern Iowa is playing its best basketball of the season and one of the reasons is the play of freshman guard Bowen Born. The 5’11 rookie led the Panthers to a weekend sweep of Illinois State. He scored 19 points during Saturday’s double-overtime win, which secured head coach Ben Jacobson’s 300^th career win. Born is the Valley’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘.

Two Braves Earn Valley Honors--bradleybraves.com

Hoops HD Staff Bracket Projections (From The Puppet): March 1st--Hoops HD

OTHERS CONSIDERED: Xavier, Louisville, VCU, Stanford, Drake, Duke, Utah State, Memphis
STAFF COMMENTS
From Chad:
– Instead of David’s picks, I would have Louisville, Drake, VCU and Xavier in. Louisville has a pretty “clean” profile with only one bad loss on it and only 5 losses overall. In the ACC. They have 7 wins against teams in the field or seriously under consideration. I can live with a lack of Tier 1 wins if a team is 7-0 against Tier 2, and all 7 are quality opponents. The Cardinals are in.
– Drake also belongs in, though they have a very slim margin for error. They probably need to lose in the MVC title game to Loyola-Chicago if they want an at-large bid. But they are good enough to win the next two games and get there. VCU is still the second best A10 team in my opinion, ahead of Richmond — whom the just beat a week ago. Xavier just beat Creighton. I guess David ignored that game entirely when he left the Musketeers out.

Four Drake men's basketball players earn All-Missouri Valley Conference honors--Des Moines Register
Four Bulldogs Earn All-MVC Men’s Basketball Honors--godrakebulldogs.com