We broke down the power rankings for the Missouri Valley Conference. Who is the top team for MVC Basketball in 2017-18?
The Missouri Valley Conference last season would’ve been shortened to just the box scores of Wichita State and Illinois State as by far the two best teams in the conference. It wasn’t a surprise that the Shockers were good, but Illinois State head coach Dan Muller led a defensively stout Redbirds team to a great season as well.
As a whole, there wasn’t much to discuss regarding the league. The two games the top teams played against each other were high stakes blowouts, and the rest of the league put up little to no fight against the top two. In fact, it’s the first time since 2013, involving MEAC foes Norfolk State (0) and North Carolina A&T (1), when a conference had two teams with less than two losses.
What made things even worse was that there was such a huge gap between the top two and everyone else, with no one else finishing above .500 in conference play. The Shockers went on to win the conference tournament to go dancing. They eventually lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Illinois State had to settle for an NIT appearance. Of course, no one else participated in a postseason event.
This season is sure to be different, with a combination of the best teams losing players, and the bottom teams retaining theirs. Of course, the best team, Wichita State, has left for the American Athletic Conference. Had they stayed, the question wouldn’t have been whether they’d win the league, but rather if they’d go undefeated in doing so.
Their replacement, Valparaiso, has some issues of their own to deal with, so it will be interesting to see where the lie in the hierarchy of their new conference. Let’s see where they, along with everyone else stands for this upcoming season in the MVC.