Missouri Valley Basketball: 2021 Conference Tournament preview

At the start of the season, Missouri Valley Basketball looked like a two-horse race with a few other teams built to compete and contend as well. As this pandemic-altered season progressed, the MVC did become a two-team race at the top, but it wasn’t exactly the two teams we expected. Big things were expected from Northern Iowa before their season was decimated by the season-ending injury to AJ Green, last year’s MVC Player of the Year. With the Panthers struggling last season, it left someone else to shine on the national stage.

Loyola-Chicago is playing some of their best basketball this season, now three years removed from their Cinderella run to the Final Four. Joining them at the top of the league is Drake, who entered the national spotlight with their 18-0 start to the season. These two teams played a fantastic pair of games in late February that helped decide the regular-season title, splitting the two games in Des Moines as Loyola grabbed the regular-season crown.

Ever since Wichita State departed the MVC in 2017, the power shift has certainly favored Loyola, with Drake seemingly blossoming as a surprise team in recent years. Just last season, these Bulldogs were an 8-seed in the MVC Tournament and upset top-seeded Northern Iowa in the quarterfinals. That tournament also saw the 2 and 3 seeds fall in their opening games. Could this year’s tournament proceed in a similar fashion?

The easy answer is no; but what do we really know? The top four teams in the MVC were clearly above the rest of the league, but anything can happen on a neutral court in the conference championships. Nobody expected last year’s championship game to feature 4-seeded Bradley and 7-seeded Valparaiso. What does this year hold in store?