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MVC Basketball: Preview of Southern Illinois/Indiana State and other league games

By Harry Schroeder

Bradley head coach Brian Wardle, right, has a few choice words for Christian Davis in the second half of the Braves' home opener against Utah State on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023 at Carver Arena.
Bradley head coach Brian Wardle, right, has a few choice words for Christian Davis in the second half of the Braves' home opener against Utah State on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023 at Carver Arena. /
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Evansville’s Head Coach David Ragland MVC Basketball Mb Uevsuic 21
Evansville’s Head Coach David Ragland MVC Basketball Mb Uevsuic 21 /

One of the hottest conferences in college basketball pushes pause on the non-conference season this week and jumps into league play. The twelve-team MVC Basketball plays twenty conference games, so the league squeezes some league games in earlier than normal.

In the middle of a highly successful non-conference schedule, Missouri Valley Conference teams face one another. Stepping into the Valley means these late November and early December games are worth even more than a typical winter night.

All twelve Valley teams play their first MVC games this week. Since Valley teams are 29-2 at home, stepping into the Valley on the road is a challenging proposition. Seemingly, every MVC team has great momentum, and the league has risen to eleventh in the most recent KenPom.com rankings.

Valley squads finished the multi-team event season winning 23 of thirty-four contests with Bradley, Evansville, Indiana State and Missouri State winning their respective MTEs. Two Valley squads, Bradley and Evansville are undefeated and open conference play with road games.

Evansville and Bradley have each won their first six games. The fantastic start by the Purple Aces is the team’s best since the 1964-65 season. Only two Valley teams have losing records and half of the league members have lost either one, or no games.

By December 3, eleven Missouri Valley Conference games will be in the books and this red-hot league will have early leaders in the highly coveted regular season race. This surprising league lost four of its best players to the Big Ten and is shockingly better than last season.

At year’s end, half of the Valley’s twelve teams were over 200 in the KenPom rankings. Today there are a total of two. Last year, two teams finished in the rankings’ top 100 and there are four in the top 100 today.

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