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Missouri Valley Basketball: 5 key questions for opening night of 2021-22 season

By Harry Schroeder

Northern Iowa guard A.J. Green takes the ball up court during a NCAA Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa.190105 Uni S Illinois 016 Jpg
Northern Iowa guard A.J. Green takes the ball up court during a NCAA Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa.190105 Uni S Illinois 016 Jpg /
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Southern Illinois’ Marcus Domask
Southern Illinois’ Marcus Domask /

UNI’s A.J. Green and SIU’s Marcus Domask

No MVC teams were as adversely affected by injury than Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois. UNI was picked to win the 2021 title and star guard A.J. Green was tabbed as the conference’s preseason, player of the year. He had won the award the previous season.

Three games into the season, Green was averaging over 20 points per game and then his season was over. A hip injury that eventually led to surgeries on each hip, ended his season and UNI’s hope for a Valley crown ended too. The Panthers limped to a 10-15 record with a 7-11 conference mark.

Southern Illinois’s story sounds similar. Ten games into the season, their star wing Marcus Domask, the reigning freshman of the year, was averaging over 16 points per game and the Salukis were 7-3. A leg injury ended his season and the Egyptian Dawgs stumbled to a 5-11 finish.

SIU opens on the road at Little Rock and the Panthers entertain Nicholls State. Jay Bilas and Dickie V (we’re praying for you Mr. Vitale) don’t have those games circled, but we will be watching.

Can Green and Domask cut hard and strong? Will they be able to take a hit or a fall and get up and perform. We know they will both be able to ‘dribble, pass and shoot’ but how will their previously injured limbs hold up? This is burning question number one.

If both are healthy the entire season, both of these teams are serious contenders for the MVC crown.