Primarily a collection of news links about all 12 Missouri Valley League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.
Bradley (MVC, 1-2, 200 KP) vs. Colorado State (MW, 3-0, 55 KP), 1 p.m. Brown (Ivy, 3-1, 232 KP) vs. Creighton (Big East, 3-0, 59 KP), approx. 3:15 p.m. Northeastern (CAA, 1-2, 179 KP) vs. Duquesne (A 10, 1-2, 188 KP), approx. 5:45 p.m. Southern Illinois (MVC, 1-1, 132 KP) vs. Colorado (Pac-12, 3-0, 42 KP), approx. 8 p.m.
This field features 2016 champion Creighton and 2017
winner Colorado, and they’ll be the favorites to meet in the final on
Monday night; however, don’t dismiss the possibility of a CU-Colorado
State matchup, particularly with their regular-season series on hold for
this season. For the second straight event in the Virgin Islands, there
are two Missouri Valley teams in this field (Illinois State and
Valparaiso made the trip in 2019). That will be the case again in 2022,
as both Drake and future MVC member Belmont are slated to make the trip.
The Bruins won last year’s truncated event, held in Washington, D.C.
Both Bradley and Colorado State were originally scheduled to play here
in 2020.
Loyola Chicago shows no signs of a potential down season in the first
year under head coach Drew Valentine. The Ramblers’ schedule has been
weak to date, but they have been the epitome of efficiency offensively.
The most notable adjustment under Coach Valentine thus far has been an
increase in offensive tempo. We will see if this continues to be the
case against better competition.
The Ramblers ranked in the bottom half of the nation in offensive
tempo in each of the first 12 seasons since KenPom started tracking
possession speed. Their average ranking in that category was 279.8, and
they never averaged possessions shorter than 17.9 seconds. Through three
games this season, though, Loyola Chicago is averaging just 15.3
seconds per possession, ranking 49th in the country in tempo.
The shift has only led to improved offensive efficiency so far.
Loyola ranks extremely highly nationally in just about every notable
offensive category: eighth in effective field-goal percentage (.643),
61st in turnover rate (.154), 134th in offensive rebounding rate (.305),
28th in 3-point percentage (.433), 16th in 2-point percentage (.637),
55th in 3-point attempt rate (.469), and third in assist rate (.731).
Good luck to the rest of the Missouri Valley with how well this team is
moving the ball and connecting on open looks.
Lucas Williamson is blossoming as Loyola Chicago’s star. Not only is
he arguably the nation’s best individual defender, but he has also
massively improved as a playmaker, dishing 16 assists to just two
turnovers so far this season.
Bonus “Not Take” of the Week: “Loyola Chicago will never make the NCAA Tournament out of the A10.”
Whenever I see a team make an announcement about its conference
affiliation, I know that the last thing I should do is wade into the
Twitter comments … but here we are. This gem was not just provided by
one person either, and seemed to be a pretty popular minority opinion in
response to Jon Rothstein’s “breaking” update.
I want to start off by saying that Loyola Chicago has been more
consistent than nearly every A10 team over the last five years, and
would probably be picked to finish second in the conference if they had
joined prior to this season. I want to finish by saying that the MVC’s
highest-ranked KenPom team has finished ahead of every conference’s top
ranked team at least once in the last five years with the exception of
the WCC, SEC and Big 12. Additionally, the two teams that have left the
MVC in the last 10 years – Creighton and Wichita State – earned NCAA
Tournament bids in the first seasons with their new conferences.
-NORTHERN IOWA AT ARKANSAS. I don’t know what happened to the
Northern Iowa team that won 23 games two years ago. All those players
are back, but they haven’t looked good at all in their first few games.
We had this one circled as a big chance for them to pickup a quality
win, and it still is, but based on how they’ve played it could end up
looking like just another ordinary buy game. Arkansas has a fantastic
team this year and is well deserving of their top 25 ranking.
-Northern Iowa, after sleepwalking through their first two games,
seemed to wake up yesterday and really made Arkansas sweat. That’s the
good news for UNI. The bad news is that Arkansas still got the 93-80
win after getting control late in the second half. I think this will
end up being a win that Arkansas gets more credit for than what most
realize now, because I do think UNI has finally woken up and will end up
having a nice year.
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