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.
-We figured Tulsa vs Northern Iowa would be a battle in the Acrisure
Invitational, and it was. Tulsa picked up the huge 63-60 win and handed
Northern Iowa their first loss of the year. Both of these teams needed
this game as a resume building opportunity.
-Belmont and Buffalo are both 7-0 after picking up wins yesterday.
Belmont knocked off Toledo and Buffalo took care of Bucknell.
-Liberty, who was coming off a bit of a surprising loss to Towson,
lost again yesterday to Bradley 74-64. This will knock the Flames
pretty far away from the bubble.
Drake plays smart, steady basketball and should stay close against an LSU team that scores well but doesn’t defend consistently. Drake has the discipline to keep this inside the number.
MISSOURI VALLEY: NORTHERN IOWA - Trey
Campbell's three-point play gave Northern Iowa a sweet revenge road win
at UC Irvine. The Panthers also took care of Northern Illinois earlier
in the week with relative ease.
Northern Iowa senior Trey Campbell
led the Panthers (5-0) to a pair of victories. The second win came in
overtime as Campbell hit a driving, game-winning bucket with less than a
second on the clock. He finished with 19 points after netting 15 during
the team’s win over Northern Illinois. Campbell is the Valley’s ‘Player of the Week’ and the Panthers are 5-0 for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
Newcomers Shining
Illinois Chicago’s Mekhi Lowery recorded
two double-doubles during UIC’s two games at the Boardwalk Battle. The
Towson transfer grabbed exactly ten rebounds in each of the Flames’
games and the Valley’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’ scored 13 and
fifteen points while averaging 4.5 assists in those contests. These were
the first MVC weekly winners for both UIC and UNI.
MVC/OVC Freshman Repeaters
Valparaiso has claimed the last two Missouri Valley Conference ‘Freshman of the YEAR’
awards and Beacon rookie Rakim Chaney is making an early bid to make it
three straight. The 6’3 guard picked up his second straight ‘Freshman of the Week’
honor by scoring 23 points, grabbing four boards and handing out seven
assists in Valpo’s only game. Chaney leads the Valley with an 18.4
points-per-game scoring average and a .536 completion rate from long
distance.
Northern Iowa moved up from No. 18 to No. 8. The Panthers are 5-0 and have
wins over South Dakota St., Furman and UC Irvine. The win over the
Anteaters was by one point (70-69) in overtime Saturday. UNI heads to the
Acrisure Holiday Invitational this week and will face Loyola Chicago and
then either Tulsa or San Jose St.
Here is the full ranking:
Ranking
Team (First-Place Votes)
Points
Last Week
8
Northern Iowa
88
17
23
Belmont
25
RV
Others Receiving Votes:
UAB 21; Rhode Island 19; Buffalo 17; Davidson 13; Richmond 13; Nevada 11;
Tulsa 11; St. Bonaventure 10; New Mexico St. 9; Kent St. 9; UNC Wilmington
8; Hawaii 7; Miami (OH) 7; Memphis 6; Central Connecticut 6; Grand Canyon
5; Tennessee Martin 4; Illinois St. 4; Iona 4; Murray St. 3; North Texas
3; East Tennessee St. 3; Stephen F. Austin 1; UC San Diego 1; Columbia 1
Championship game: Wednesday, November 26 at 1:30 PM ET, Flo Sports
FAVORITES: Belmont (51.9%) and Troy (40.2%). Boy,
I can't wait to watch a tournament with two good teams and two bad
ones. Belmont is fortunate to draw Saint Francis here, whose best
performance thus far is...boy. A 36-point road loss at Oklahoma that was
a five-point game with 15 minutes left? A 74-66 home loss to Mount St.
Mary's?
Troy does draw the more competent Toledo, but considering
Toledo's defense is firmly in the 300s right now this is not exactly my
seal of approval. We're biding our time until a Troy/Belmont final (69%
shot of happening), which features your usual lovely Belmont offense
against a super-scrappy Troy team that nearly beat USC and DID beat San
Diego State.
THE BEST POSSIBLE TITLE GAME IS: Troy/Belmont. We don't need anything else. We're good.
REQUIRED PREDICTION BY JOURNALISTIC LAW: Belmont over Troy in a great final.
WATCHABILITY RATING: Leftovers. Nothing about this is bad,
but you really have to squint to see the upside. I almost put this in
the Food Poisoning category before thinking better of it. It's outside
of it entirely because of a Belmont/Troy title game.
Acrisure Holiday Invitational
Championship game: Wednesday, November 26 at 4:30 PM ET, CBSSN
FAVORITE: Northern Iowa (48.7%). Northern
Iowa always strikes me as the least-exciting kind of mid-major: one
that is simply really competent. Do they play an exciting style of
offensive basketball? No, not really. Do they play up-tempo, at least?
No, they're in the 5th-percentile in transition usage. Okay! Well, do
they run anything interesting defensively? No, they're entirely
man-to-man and allow nothing in transition.
They force a ton of
turnovers and have been incredible defensively, but I would wager this
has more to do with their competition thus far and the fact they're
very, very old. As such: a great mid-major defense that I can't say
riles me up from a watchability standpoint. This does not mean I dislike them, just that for a neutral you've gotta know what to expect.
THE BEST POSSIBLE TITLE GAME IS: Tulsa/Northern Iowa. Old-school
MVC conference game! I like this because it's a good test of if Tulsa
is for real this year...and also of how legitimate the UNI defense is.
As much as I've poo-pooed this I do like this potential game.
REQUIRED PREDICTION BY JOURNALISTIC LAW: No alarms and no surprises: Northern Iowa over Tulsa. Loyola at least defeats San Jose State to get something out of this.
ESPN Events Invitational - Imagination Bracket
Championship game: Friday, November 28 at 3 PM ET, ESPN2
FAVORITE: Illinois State (41.6%). I've
been a tad underwhelmed by ISUred through the early slate, but it's
just that: early. Plus, they do own a win over a decent Cornell team,
and some amount of shooting regression is owed their way. It doesn't fix
an inability to protect the rim or force turnovers, but just ignore all
of that and focus on the good offense. It's good!
THE BEST POSSIBLE TITLE GAME IS: Richmond/Illinois State. Not much exposition necessary. I'd be fine with any of the options, though.
REQUIRED PREDICTION BY JOURNALISTIC LAW: Richmond over Charlotte in a one-point win. Illinois State surprisingly goes 0-2.
WATCHABILITY RATING: Leftovers. I considered moving this one tier up, but I want to be more confident that any of
these teams are going to be serious factors in their respective
conferences. Furman should find their way back, but Illinois State looks
like the fifth-best team in the MVC, and Charlotte and Richmond are
swimming in deep waters.
Emerald Coast Classic
Championship game: Saturday, November 29 at 7 PM ET, CBSSN
UNDERDOGS: Drake (6.7%). I was ready to
write Drake off entirely this year, and this is probably still a gap
year for Eric Henderson in his debut season. Then they went on the road
and controlled a game against Charleston from start to finish. Now,
Charleston is missing a pair of players, but...still! That's a really
good result. There may yet be life here, though the offensive personnel
is shockingly weak for a Drake team in the 2020s.
