What's Up In The Missouri Valley: What's Up In The Missouri Valley 3/9/2021

Bracketology 2021: Michigan State grabs big win, Maryland records bad loss, Drake must wait--Blogging The Bracket

The Missouri Valley champion Loyola Chicago Ramblers and Big South’s Winthrop Eagles join the Liberty Flames, who did win the ASUN title game yesterday afternoon, and Morehead State Eagles in seeing their names bathed in gold in today’s bracket. Two more teams will join them at around 9 p.m. Eastern tonight after the Southern and Sun Belt title games. Beyond Sunday’s three title games, the smattering of regular-season finales on the slate led to some changes in the bracket when compared to Sunday’s:

Drake’s 75-65 loss to Loyola dropped them to 23-4 in games against Division I opposition and 47th in the NET. Given the Selection Committee’s recent history of power-conference bias, Bulldog fans are going to have to hope that the bubble teams in action as the week progress record costly late losses.

Who’s going dancing? Predicting the final week of women’s conference tournaments--The Athletic

Missouri Valley: Missouri State started its season with wins over two teams I’ve picked to win their respective conference tournaments — Florida Gulf Coast and Maryland — and they’ve been just as impressive since. Missouri State has produced some really impressive coaches, among them Cheryl Burnett, Katie Abrahamson-Henderson (now at UCF) and Kellie Harper (now at Tennessee). I see Amaka Agugua-Hamilton continuing that tradition and leading the Bears to their 16th NCAA Tournament appearance in her second season.

Gabi Haack Named MVC Scholar-Athlete Of The Year--bradleybraves.com

NCAA Tournament bubble watch: Michigan State sneaks in, Duke’s bubble bursts--Fansided

Bubble Watch – Last 4 in
Colorado State, Drake, Xavier, Boise State
Drake did everything they could to stay on the bubble by getting to the MVC final, where they lost to a very good Loyola-Chicago team. A 24-4 record should be enough to get the Bulldogs in with a weak bubble, especially when they can point to the fact that star guard Tank Hemphill should be back for the NCAA Tournament, but it will be a long week of sitting on the sidelines while other teams get to make their case to dance.

Bracketology – Hoops HD Staff Bracket--Hoops HD

COMMENTS FROM JOHN:

– It will be interesting to see where I differ from the rest of the staff without being affected by groupthink.
– My First Four teams out are Michigan State, Drake, Ole Miss and SMU. At least Drake will have a window to try to schedule someone this year when they would normally not be able to do so.
COMMENTS FROM THE STAFF:

FROM CHAD:

– I would like to welcome John back to the bracket submissions and back to being wrong.
– Saint Louis is not there in my opinion either. I will take Drake over them very easily. Even though Drake will not play a game this week because they hit the maximum number of permitted regular season games.

Bubble Watch Live: Assessing teams as they play their way into — and out of — the 2021 NCAA Tournament--The Athletic

Others
Work to do: Boise State, Saint Louis, Drake, Utah State, Colorado State, Memphis, SMU, Wichita State
Drake (23-4, 15-3; NET: 47, SOS: 170): Hold up. Now that we think about it, should Saint Louis just play Drake? The Bulldogs are also done until Selection Sunday. They could also use another quality top-50-ish win on their team sheet. The juice might not be quite as worth the squeeze for Darian DeVries’s guys, though, as they tend to remain in most projected brackets and, in our view, rightfully so. Then again, who knows? It’s a unique résumé with nothing of note in the nonconference, and their loss Sunday to Loyola Chicago made them 1-2 against the best team they’ve played all season. That win over the Ramblers is nice, but is it enough to elevate a 23-4 team into the field? We think so, but what if we’re wrong?

Ask the bracketologists: Will Drake make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large?--Des Moines Register

Bair Named MVC Player of the Week for Second Time--godrakebulldogs.com
Burich and Monahan Named to MVC Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete Teams--godrakebulldogs.com

Abby Feit named MVC Scholar-Athlete Honorable Mention--gopurpleaces.com

Wilson named Valley Newcomer of the Week--Vidette Online
The Kristen Gillespie Show Presented by Bud Light Airs Tonight--goredbirds.com
DeAnna Wilson Named MVC Newcomer of the Week--goredbirds.com
Redbirds Place Two on MVC Scholar-Athlete Teams--goredbirds.com

Greg Lansing out as men’s basketball coach at Indiana State--Associated Press
Todd Aaron Golden: Pressure is on ISU to wow us and prove skeptics wrong--Terre Haute Tribune Star
Indiana State, Greg Lansing part ways--Terre Haute Tribune Star
Indiana State parts with Lansing after 11 seasons--Southern Illinoisan

Adrian Folks Receives MVC Honorable Mention Scholar-Athlete Honors--gosycamores.com

Sean Miller, Archie Miller, Scott Drew and more: Who to watch on the college basketball coaching carousel--The Athletic

Porter Moser, head coach, Loyola Chicago. One source told me, “There’s a 2 percent chance Porter Moser is the coach at Loyola next year.” In other words … there’s a chance! Three years after taking the Ramblers to the Final Four, Moser has led them to another Missouri Valley Conference championship and is heading back to the NCAA Tournament. He should have his pick of several high-quality jobs in the Midwest, including in his native Chicago at DePaul. Moser could also be an attractive option at BC, which, like Loyola, is a private Catholic school in a big city.

Rice, Day Earn MVC Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete Honors--loyolaramblers.com

Happening Hoops CBI bracketology--Happening Hoops

College Basketball Invitational (8-12 teams)

California Baptist (13-9 WAC)
Eastern Kentucky (22-7 OVC)
Missouri State (17-7 Missouri Valley)
Chattanooga (18-8 SoCon)
Bellarmine (13-7 ASUN)
North Alabama (13-11 ASUN)
Texas State (18-7 Sun Belt)
Cleveland State (17-7 Horizon)
Toledo (20-7 MAC)
UMass Lowell (11-11 America East)
UC Riverside (13-7 Big West)
Tarleton State (10-10 WAC)

MSU Insider: Dana Ford extension? Mosley's future? Expectations? Early offseason preview.--Springfield News-Leader
Missouri State men's basketball season wrap: close, but not close enough--The Standard
Ford Named to Coaching Award Finalist Lists--missouristatebears.com

Calip, Hipp Earn MVC Scholar-Athlete Honors--missouristatebears.com