Busting Brackets
Fansided

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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Drake head basketball coach Darian DeVries talks with Roman Penn 20200229 Drakevsuni
Drake head basketball coach Darian DeVries talks with Roman Penn 20200229 Drakevsuni /

Seniors and graduate students everywhere

Drake and Loyola are the favorites to win the Valley regular-season title. The Bulldogs have won 20 or more games for three straight seasons and the Ramblers are the defending champions who reached last season’s NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen.

Each team is loaded with talent and is rich with seniors and graduate students filling their roster. Teams like these have a huge advantage over younger teams, but could also suffer from ‘senioritis. These teams carry more hardware around than most carpenters.

Drake’s squad sounds like an all-star team. Guard Roman Penn (first) and ShanQuan Hemphill (second) were all-Valley performers. Center Darnell Brodie was named to the all-newcomer team and swingman Garrett Sturtz is a two-time member of the league’s all-bench team. Sharp-shooter D.J. Wilkins landed on the 2019 all-freshman team.

Loyola’s roster sounds even more enshrined. Fifth-year performer Lucas Williamson has twice been named the Valley’s Defensive Player of the Year. Forward Aher Uguak joined Williamson on the all-defensive team and was part of the most-improved team. Marquise Kennedy is a two-time all-bench player and Tate Hall was a third-teamer two seasons ago. Guard Braden Norris was part of the Horizon League 2019 all-freshman team and was on the Arch Madness all-tournament team last spring.

Both teams played and won games during March Madness. Having accomplished so much during their careers, do these players come back hungry, or have entitlement and expectation snuck into their mentalities?

Opening night finds them both at home and burning question number two must begin to be answered. Are they hungry veterans or has the dreaded ‘senioritis set in?