Murray State is playing dominating basketball and everything else in the Missouri Valley Conference is being played to the buzzer. Seventy-four percent of the conference games are being decided by ten points or less, so right now, the story of the season is Murray State and tight games.
Just nine of the league’s 36 games have been decided by more than ten points and the Racers (15-3, 7-0) own two of those larger victories. Conversely, Belmont (15-3, 5-2) is two, one-point losses away from being 17-1 and nationally ranked. The Bruins just swept their swing through Iowa, winning Saturday’s game at Drake by two points.
Evansville and Indiana State each have just one league victory. Indiana State (8-9, 1-5) has split two overtime games and has just one loss over that ten-point margin. Evansville has two.
Illinois Chicago (7-10, 2-4) hasn’t lost a league game by more than seven points. Prior to the Flames’ 13-point win (1/7) over Southern Illinois, the Salukis (8-9, 2-4) had not played in a conference contest decided by more than seven points.
Only Illinois State (12-5, 4-2) owns a scoring differential of 10-points-per game and six of the league’s eleven teams possess an average winning/losing margin between a plus 4.4 and a minus 3.5.
During Saturday’s five league games, Murray State defeated Valparaiso by 13 points. The other four games’ total point margin was 15 points with no contest being decided by more than six points.
For now, the story of this Missouri Valley Conference season is Murray State and tight games.