Busting Brackets
Fansided

Missouri Valley Basketball: 4 emerging trends early in league play

By Harry Schroeder

Nov 12, 2021; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Indiana State Sycamores head coach Josh Schertz gives a thumbs down during the first half against the Purdue Boilermakers at Mackey Arena. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 12, 2021; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Indiana State Sycamores head coach Josh Schertz gives a thumbs down during the first half against the Purdue Boilermakers at Mackey Arena. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 5
Next
Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson Missouri Valley Basketball 190105 Uni S Illinois 031 Jpg
Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson Missouri Valley Basketball 190105 Uni S Illinois 031 Jpg /

Covid and conference play are among the topics of this week’s ‘Missouri Valley Monday’. Virtually every Missouri Valley Basketball squad has been affected by the various variants of coronavirus and conference play began in earnest on Sunday.

But there are other emerging trends during the early part of the Valley’s 115th competitive season. Some of those trends are on the court and some range beyond the 94 feet of college basketball’s competitive arena.

The Valley’s competitive, top-to-bottom parity and home-court dominance have been on full display. After nine league games, seven teams are 1-1 in conference play. Of the other three teams, two of them (Loyola Chicago and Southern Illinois) have only played one game. No team that has played more than one game is undefeated in league play.

During this edition of Missouri Valley Monday, we’ll look at four emerging conference trends. How is the coronavirus pandemic continuing to affect Valley teams? What’s the latest on MVC expansion? Which teams are trending upward and who has impressed us so far.

While this is the last season before Loyola Chicago leaves the Valley and before Belmont joins the league, Valley fans continue to pull for the Ramblers in hopes that they will warrant an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament if some other league member can prevail at the conference’s end-of-the-year tournament.

Due to numerous near-miss defeats in the non-conference schedule, that is the only scenario where the MVC could possibly find more than one team playing in the NCAA Tournament.