Primarily a collection of news links about all 11 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.
While known for its stingy defense that ranks 24th nationally all season,
it was Northern Iowa’s offense that spurred the four wins in four
days run at Arch Madness.
It’s not often you see four year players in today’s era of college
basketball let alone a player who started for all four years they played
college basketball. Well, meet Trey Campbell of Northern Iowa who has
started 131 out of 133 games over four seasons with the Panthers. After
back-to-back 20+ win seasons, this will be Campbell’s first trip to the
NCAA Tournament having lifted Northern Iowa to the 2026 Missouri Valley
Conference title with 23 points over UIC.
(5) St. John's (-9.5) vs. (12) Northern Iowa, 7:10 PM ET, CBS.
More to this game than meets the eye for the average neutral observer, who
sees St. John's is 19-1 in their last 20 and believes an easy cruise to the
Sweet Sixteen lies ahead for the Johnnies. Certainly can happen, but I'll
note up top here that not all 19-1s are created equal. Despite the gaudy
record, the Johnnies rank below all of Iowa State, Purdue, Illinois, and
Texas Tech at Torvik over their last 20 (all teams with 5+ losses), and
since February 1 this is the sport's 75th-best offense, sitting 316th in
eFG%.
I think the Big East Tournament along with UConn's late-season swoon may
have helped cover up some of SJU's issues, to go with some astonishing
late-game shooting luck (opponents shot 20% from deep in the final 8 minutes
of St. John's games from February 1 to now). There's still plenty
imperfections surrounding this team, which has almost entirely become the
Zuby Show as Bryce Hopkins' usage has dipped and as the team almost entirely
plays through the frontcourt now, with extremely low guard usage rates
outside of Dylan Darling's minutes.
All of that makes for a fascinating matchup against the very best mid-major
post defense in the entire field and possibly the third-best alive here
outside of Virginia/Gonzaga. St. John's is a tough matchup for anybody down
low, but in terms of average post-up rate the Missouri Valley had the
highest average post usage of any conference in America this year, which
included some excellent post-first offenses like Illinois State and Belmont.
UNI also had the fortune(?) of playing Saint Mary's in the non-con, perhaps
the best post prep you can possibly get.
In that game, an SMC offense with better shooting than SJU got held to 63
points in an absolute slog of a game (62 possessions) and shot just 39% from
2 in one of their worst efforts of the year. They won entirely because of
rebounding, which is as usual a worry in any game featuring the Johnnies,
who should have a significant edge. Still, I'd note that even against the
best of the best UNI held up extremely well, holding SMC to 0.82 PPP on
post-ups. Worth noting the Panthers have a very high double rate in the
post:
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But this may not be a great idea against Ejiofor, a very good passer for a
big who has SJU's highest Assist%. Part of that is the function of not
having a point guard (who could have guessed that might be an issue) but any
big capable of putting up 16/12/10 (as he did against Villanova) is probably
pretty good at his job. Getting the ball to Ejiofor will be the main task,
though, as UNI's hard hedge was the crux of a tremendous P&R coverage
this season (93rd-percentile). Weird to note, but no team in the entire P5
this year faced less hedge coverage than St. John's (per
Basketball Index). SJU isn't a P&R team by any stretch, but everyone uses ball screens
and if SJU can handle the severe pressure applied by UNI here will be
important.
The other end of the court is fascinating in its own right. Northern Iowa
plays about the way you would expect Northern Iowa to play: very slow, very
deliberate, with almost no pushing after misses. Most of what St. John's
does defensively is outstanding, and I'm not expecting UNI to get much done
in P&R or in pure post-ups (where Zuby could do to UNI what UNI may do
to Zuby). However, one of the most drop-heavy coverages in the field against
Trey Campbell has the capacity to be a real problem, and UNI's dribble
handoffs were outstanding against basically everyone this year - perhaps
less than ideal news for a SJU defense Synergy has in the 38th-percentile in
defending off-ball screens and 31st-percentile in handoffs:
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Probably pretty clear where I stand but this is a tremendous matchup for UNI
and a terrible one for SJU on paper, who really needs a transition-heavy
game to score frequently and has become so frontcourt-reliant that their
backcourt suffers because of it. Also worth noting the obvious: in games
where Tristan Smith (UNI's most impactful player and best perimeter
defender) was available, the Panthers have played like a top-50 team at
Torvik. Have liked UNI here since Selection Sunday and I'm not stopping now,
though the path to a huge miss by me is SJU breaking through UNI's
outstanding defensive rebounding and simply getting to the foul line on a
loop. - Will Warren
The Northern Iowa Panthers had an up-and-down season, starting off 12-3 and
4-0 in the Missouri Valley, but they fell to just a 1-6 stretch. They
finished the regular season 19-12 and 11-9, but won four games in a row in
Arch Madness to pick up the auto-bid to the Big Dance.
The Panthers are 72nd in KenPom and the NET. They are driven by their
defense as they sit at 24th in defensive adjusted efficiency, 23rd in
opponent effective field goal percentage, 101st in two-point shooting
percentage, and 3rd in opponent three-point shooting percentage. Trey Campbell
is the leading player, averaging 13.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.9 assists,
and 1.6 steals while shooting 44% overall and 34.7% from beyond the arc.
St. John’s was a preseason favorite, but they fell flat at the beginning as
they opened up to just 4-3. However, they figured it out as they’ve lost
just twice since the calendar turned to 2026, falling to Providence 77-71
and UConn in an insane 72-40 rout. They cruised through the Big East
Tournament, including a 72-52 win over UConn in the Championship.
There are a few factors coming into play here as I feel like St. John’s
could’ve been a four-seed, while Northern Iowa could’ve maybe been a
13-seed. However, these two defenses make it an interesting game to monitor.
St. John’s sits at 12th in defensive adjusted efficiency and 68th in tempo,
while UNI is top-25 in defense as well, but just 363rd in tempo. On the
offensive end, UNI is 52nd in two-point shooting and 128th in three-point
shooting, compared to St. John’s who sits at 190th and 216th in both.
If the Panthers want to pick up the win over the Red Storm, they are going
to have to force them to play at their speed, play excellent defense as St.
John’s isn’t an efficient shooting team. For St. John’s, they need to focus
on the offensive glass as they are one of the best in the country at 28th
and UNI is 356th.
Darren
Brooks of the Southern Illinois Salukis goes up for a layup in the
first half against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. | Ronald Martinez/Getty
Images
How good were the Salukis in the regular season? Southern
Illinois made six consecutive NCAA tournaments in the 2000s under three
coaches, and this was its best team by winning percentage.
Who was the Salukis’ star? Apart
from coach Matt Painter—plucked by Purdue as coach-in-waiting at
season’s end—Southern Illinois was led by conference scoring champ guard
Darren Brooks.
What happened to the Salukis in the NCAA tournament? No.
9 Southern Illinois came oh-so-close to toppling Elite Eight-bound No. 8
Alabama during the first round in Seattle, losing on a game-winning jumper by Crimson Tide guard Antoine Pettway with five seconds left.
2015 Northern Iowa
How good were the Panthers in the regular season? Northern Iowa was magnificent for most of the year, beating three major-conference teams and cracking the Top 10 in March.
Who was the Panthers’ star? Forward
Seth Tuttle was a consensus All-American as a senior, averaging 15.3
points per game; he’s now an assistant at his alma mater.
What happened to Northern Iowa in the NCAA tournament? The
Panthers, a trendy pick to do damage, blew out Wyoming in the first
round before losing, as Saint Louis had the year prior, to the
Cardinals.
An early Big Ten tournament defeat at the hands of Oregon prevented the
Terrapins from hosting the first two rounds of March Madness, but Brenda
Frese’s squad has fared well in the face of several injuries this season.
Still, that early exit looms over this matchup with the Racers, who have the
12th best offensive rating in the country.
Somehow an entire decade has passed since Jacobson and Northern Iowa were in
the Big Dance but this program is ready for their next moment. Jacobson did
plenty of early work under Greg McDermott before succeeding him as the
Panthers’ head coach way back in 2006. The last two decades have featured a
ton of victories and notable moments, including shots by Ali Farokhmanesh
and Paul Jesperson. With this year’s MVC Tournament title, the Panthers are
dancing again and Jacobson is hoping to add to his impressive record in the
Tourney field.
Northern Iowa: Northern Iowa was helped by one of many upsets
across the country when Belmont went down early in Arch Madness. UNI is
the No. 12 and will face the regular season and tournament champs out of
the Big East, No. 5 St. John’s and Slick Rick Pitino. Could be a tough one
in store for UNI, but magic has happened for this program before. If UNI
does it, though, they get a rematch with Kansas as a possibility.
We are back with another Championship Week Video Notebook, recapping wild
days across all the conference tournaments — highlighted by some wild upsets
at Arch Madness and overtimes for everyone!
Missouri Valley semifinal game #1 (#185 Drake vs. #108 UIC (-6)), 3:30 PM
ET, CBSSN.
A truly unexpected first semifinal of Arch Madness, as Drake demolished
Belmont and UIC did much the same to Murray State. I wasn’t floored by the
latter but Drake’s surprise rise to competence after a month straight of
horrific basketball is genuinely hard to figure out. There were no injuries
or off-court problems that were fixed or would suggest an Arch Madness
rekindling. They just went out there and smoked Belmont for 40 minutes out
of nowhere.
The most recent version of this was forgotten 2019-20 MVC ruler Northern
Iowa getting smashed like a fly by, you guessed it, Drake in the
quarterfinals. The next day, Drake’s legs caught up to them a bit as they
shot 28% from 3/68% from the line. That was two coaches ago now, but only
one team (2020 Valpo, coincidentally) has ever gone from Thursday to Sunday.
Simply put: it’s pretty hard to pull off four in a row when your opponent
has one extra day of legs. The two UIC/Drake battles this year both went the
Flames’ way and both followed pretty similar paths: Drake hangs for a while
and hits some shots before UIC’s frontcourt proceeds to own the boards, win
the foul battle fairly heavily, and Drake ends up bombing away without being
able to get back many of their misses. -
Will Warren
Missouri Valley semifinal game #2 (#76 Northern Iowa (-4) vs. #122
Bradley), 6 PM ET, CBSSN.
Northern Iowa’s pack line has been the perfect defense in the usually
shooting averse confines of the [will always be named in my heart] Kiel
Center, as neither Evansville nor Illinois State last night have been able
to penetrate the paint with any regularity. The Aces actually shot
reasonably efficiently from 3 in the opening round, but still didn’t sniff 1
PPP, and the Redbirds were even worse. UNI has allowed a grand total of 24
points at the rim through 2 games in St. Louis, 12 each to the Aces and
Redbirds. Bradley and UNI split the regular season series, with the Panthers
losing in Peoria during their injury plagued January swoon. Bradley,
generally not a strong threat at the rim offensively, has averaged 36 points
at the rim through 2 games in St. Louis, which has counteracted a pretty
substantial 2 game 3PT variance tidal wave against them, as the Braves have
shot 9-35 from 3 vs 19-49 for their opponents. The win in Peoria saw Bradley
score 30 points at the rim, the third highest total the Panthers allowed in
MVC play. Apparently UNI took that personally, as Bradley scored just 6
points at the rim in the rematch in Cedar Falls. UNI’s wing athleticism has
been the star of their show in St. Louis, with Leon Bond dominating on both
ends of the floor, slashing to the rim against ISUred’s drop coverage and
shutting down the Redbird backcourt with his length.
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This latter point is key against the smaller but quicker Jaquan Johnson’s
dribble and ball screen creation. UNI’s length denied him the ball in the
win in Cedar Falls, holding him to his 4th lowest usage rate in MVC play.
UNI is attempting to reach Sunday from Thursday, an ultra rare feat in Arch
Madness (I believe done just once before, with no winner ever emerging from
Thursday- wildly we could have two Thursday teams in the finals if both Iowa
teams win), but Bradley’s “rest advantage” was somewhat negated by playing
10 extra minutes Friday night in an ultra physical game with Valpo.
Ultimately I think UNI’s rim denial and length/athleticism combo on the
perimeter against Bradley’s smaller backcourt could be the
difference. - Jordan Majewski
We had more automatic bids given out today as High Point won the Big South,
Queens won the ASun, North Dakota State won the Summit League, and
Northern Iowa won Arch Madness. We take a look at all those games as well as all of the other conference
tournament action, which includes a handfull of upsets.
The Northern Iowa Panthers had an up-and-down season, but they started and
finished the year off strong. They started off 6-0 with wins over Furman, UC
Irvine, and CSUN. They went on to pick up wins against Oakland and lost by
five points of Saint Mary’s. In conference play, they started off 4-0,
dropped five straight, then finished the year 6-4 in their last ten games to
finished 19-12 and 11-9 in the MVC.
The Panthers’ defense was carrying them as they had a daunting task to win
four games in a row as they finished with the six seed which meant they had
to play in Thursday of Arch Madness. They went on a run, taking down
Evansville 68-59, Illinois State 74-52, Bradley 73-69, and UIC in the
Championship game 84-69. When their defense has held teams to less than 70
points, they are phenomenal with a record of 18-7 on the season. They sit at
25th in KenPom for defensive adjusted efficiency.
Their defensive team metrics overall lie at:
23rd in opponent effective field goal percentage
97th in opponent turnover percentage
25th in opponent offensive rebounding percentage
3rd in opponent three-point shooting percentage
96th in opponent two-point shooting percentage
46th in opponent non-steal turnover percentage
Typically, a stout defensive team wins Arch Madness and we saw that once
again with Northern Iowa who as now won five games in a row. They’ll most
likely earn a 12-seed in the NCAA Tournament, but they’ll be a dangerous
12-seed at that depending on who they draw come Selection Sunday.
Trey Campbell
was incredible in Arch Madness. The 6’4 senior finished with 23 points
against Evansville, 12 with six rebounds against Illinois State, 13 with
six assists, three rebounds, and four steals against Bradley, and 23
points with four rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and one steal against
UIC.
Chaos
Arch Madness
Arch Madness is traditional one of the most fun conference tournaments to
follow in all of college basketball. Just three number one seeds have won
the Missouri Valley Conference Finals since 2016 and this year was no
different as we had two teams from the Thursday games fighting each other
between UIC and Northern Iowa as the five and six seeds.
These two teams weren’t the only story though. Opening night saw nothing but
pure chaos. The Drake Bulldogs came into Arch Madness losing nine games in a
row, finishing the regular season just 12-19 and 6-14 in the MVC. However,
they took down a Southern Illinois team that had won seven of their last ten
in the opening round 67-63, then upset the number one seeded Belmont Bruins
100-79 in the quarterfinals. Belmont was 26-5 and 16-4 in the MVC as some
were arguing for their potential to get an at-large bid, though those
chances were very slim. They’ll now head to the NIT as the Missouri Valley
Conference earns an auto-bid to the NIT.
Jalen Quinn
was the star of the show for Drake as he finished with 22 points and four
rebounds against Southern Illinois, followed up with 31 points, three
rebounds, four assists, and two steals against Belmont.
UIC was a team that we had talked about a few times this season during our
Heat Check Reports. They finished the regular season 17-14 and 12-8 in the
MVC and they had even popped off an eight game winning streak in conference
after starting off just 0-4. After a run to the MVC Championship as a
five-seed, they fell to Northern Iowa who was a six-seed in another season
without the top-seed winning the auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament from the
Missouri Valley Conference.
Back then: Drained one of the biggest “no, no, yes!” shots in NCAA
Tournament history, sinking a 3-pointer early in the shot clock rather than
bleeding out the clock with a one-point lead and 35 seconds remaining in
Northern Iowa’s 69-67 second-round win against No. 1 overall seed Kansas in
2010.
Now: After spending 11 seasons as an assistant at Nebraska, Drake and
Colorado State, the 37-year-old Farokhmanesh is in his first season as Colorado State’s
head coach. The
Rams
are 20-10 heading into their regular-season finale on Saturday, March 7.
