MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE

A rather slow week in the sporting community, so I thought I would take this opportunity to highlight the success of the Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball this season. In addition, highlighting the conference tournaments that took place for men's and women's NCAA around the nation. 

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE


To start, this was a fun season of basketball to watch. I had the opportunity to attend and work every single home Bradley Men's Basketball game and night in and night out, there was always a competitive game from the Valley teams. Seeing players who are ranked among the best in the nation every night was very special. 

This season the MVC as a whole jumped from the 15th best conference in the nation to 9th best (based on NET ranking). And for the first time 2021, there should be two teams from the Valley selected on Selection Sunday to dance. 

This season in Arch Madness, we saw an upset in the final game for the second year in a row with the Drake Bulldogs beating the Indiana State Sycamores, 84-80 to punch their ticket to March Madness. However, with Indiana State being ranked at no. 23 in the nation earlier this season, it seems likely that they will receive an at-large bid to also go dancing. 

Not only did those two teams have successful seasons, but the Bradley Braves saw a complete roster change and were still able to compete for the third best spot in the conference, and are hopeful to be selected for the NIT. UNI also had a great run this season and were able to complete a few upsets to solidify their program success for the years to come. 

As a whole, regardless of who won the tournament (even though I am biased based on my affiliation with Bradley) it was a HUGE year for the conference and will send the hopes of the Valley high for next season. 

OTHER SPORTING NEWS
- LSU and South Carolina Women's Basketball had a bench clearing fight to end the game on Sunday. Check out the link to see the brawl! The retaliation upon both teams was that both benches were sent out of the arena and the players that were in the game had to remain in the game for the final 2 minutes.

- Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes took home the BIG 10 title to solidify their spot in March Madness. The Hawkeyes and the CornHuskers went into OT in the championship game. 

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Going into March Madness, who do you want to see win? Who do you think will win?






Comments

  1. Jacob MorrellMarch 13, 2024 at 10:08 PM

    It was very cool to see a MVC team crack the top 25 earlier this year. Me and my friends have run a March Madness pool for the past six years or so and it's always a great time. Gives us a bit of the fantasy football feeling when the NFL isn't playing games. I've never been a fan of college basketball, but that had to change when I started going to Bradley. Although I only went to three games during my time here, one of them was the Bradley vs Drake regular season finale last year, and that was incredible.

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