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.
NOW, ONTO THE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS, WHICH THERE WERE A LOT
OF:
We break down a busy night of conference tournaments with the ASun, Ohio
Valley, Patriot League, and Horizon League all having their quarterfinal
action tonight. The West Coast and Missouri Valley also got underway.
Missouri Valley: Loyola Chicago is No. 31 in the
NET and KenPom but is just the No. 4 seed in Arch Madness. The
Ramblers, who open tourney play on Friday afternoon against Bradley,
likely have to make the championship game to secure an at-large bid.
But what if they lose in the title game? Then there’s a real
possibility that the Valley puts two teams in the NCAA Tournament
for the second straight year.
Bid thievery potential rating:4 out of 4 fake robber emojis.
There’s a timeline in which we see Loyola Chicago, North Texas,
Murray State and Davidson all get at-large bids, not to mention San
Francisco, Saint Mary’s, Boise State and Wyoming. What a
memorable event that would be.
(Photo of Loyola Chicago’s Lucas Williamson and Northern
Iowa’s A.J. Green: Chris Kohley / Icon Sportswire via Getty
Images)
I talked about Drake/SIU and Bradley/Loyola
in my MVC tournament preview, but summary is Wilkins is a big loss for
Drake, as he eliminated Lance Jones, and giving SIU two scorers to go
along with their stout defense makes this a very tricky matchup for the
Bulldogs. Loyola sliding down the 4 spot was brutal, as Bradley is a
tough, tough matchup for the ‘Blers...
A revitalized post-Muller Illinois State team gave Northern Iowa
a scare late in the regular season,...
Missouri State shredded Valpo
in both meetings, as the Beacons had no answer for Mosley...
Loyola’s offense dominated UNI
in both match ups, getting whatever they wanted in PNR and at the rim...
Drake
pulled away from SIU in the 2H last night thanks to the Tank Hemphill
Show, but this is a game Drake is going to really miss Wilkins... Despite the regular season sweep
by MissouriState, both games were grindout tossups...
Will Loyola-Chicago rebound to win the Missouri Valley tournament and remove
themselves from the at-large pool? Let’s see where the dust settles by
Sunday evening.
Work to do: Loyola Chicago, North Texas, Memphis, Wyoming, VCU, SMU, BYU
Loyola Chicago (21-7, 13-5; NET: 31, SOS: 115): For
another reminder of how hard it can be to pick your way through a
mid-major league, check out Loyola, which took its fifth loss in
Missouri Valley play Saturday in overtime at Northern Iowa. It’s a
testament to the Ramblers’ work in the nonconference (including their
hastily arranged neutral-court win over San Francisco, which proved
crucial) that they are even still in consideration here; most years,
five losses in the Valley would end the discussion. Four of these losses
are Quadrant 2 (home versus a good Drake team is the exception), making
them at least tenable, but heading into Friday’s Arch Madness fixture
against Bradley, the Ramblers are very much a your-mileage-may-vary
bubble team in a way they simply weren’t a month ago.
Lucas Williamson (right) and Loyola are squarely on the bubble.
Nam Y. Huh/AP
TalkinBlers
asks: Why do people have teams like UNC, Michigan, Memphis and Indiana
over Loyola Chicago when they have worse records and worse NET and
KenPom rankings?
It’s hard to do these comparisons across
multiple teams because each team listed has a different case for being
in and a different case for being out.
So I’ll instead take this
question as a chance to gauge the Ramblers’ at-large hopes heading into
the MVC tournament. Without question, the best aspect of Loyola’s résumé
is its quality metrics. The Ramblers are No. 30 in KenPom, No. 28 in
BPI and No. 45 in Sagarin. And the NET, which tends to closely mirror
KenPom, has Loyola at No. 29. Those numbers are better than most bubble
teams, and if the Ramblers are left out of the field they’ll likely have
the best KenPom rating among teams who don’t make the cut.
The
issues for Loyola lie in its résumé metrics and lack of great wins. A
KPI at No. 61 and a strength of record at No. 57 isn’t overly
compelling, and the Ramblers are really relying on their neutral-court
win over San Francisco in January to carry their résumé after high-major
wins over DePaul, Vanderbilt and Arizona State haven’t aged as well as
hoped. It’s those areas that hold the Ramblers back compared to most
high-major bubble teams. The good news for Loyola is that it could add
multiple Q2 wins at the MVC tournament this weekend even without winning
the tournament, which could give those numbers a boost.
Baylor*
Michigan State
Providence*
Northern Iowa*
Princeton*
Miami
Kentucky
Jacksonville State*
Michigan
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