Valley continues to lay an egg in big games as Drake is about to fall to Belmont.
Valley continues to lay an egg in big games as Drake is about to fall to Belmont.
Yeah, not good. Drake will get a great game against #10 Alabama tomorrow. Don't think either of them (Loyola/Drake) have killed their at-large chances yet but there's not many good wins to get this year in the Valley given how things have gone.
Missouri Valley Conference Games for Friday, November 26th:
ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, FL
#58 Drake vs #24 Alabama 3:30 PM ESPNU (No line yet)
Drake gets a #10 overall Alabama coming off an upset loss to Rick Pitino's Iona Gaels on Thanksgiving. Huge opportunity for the Bulldogs to leave Orlando with a big win. The Crimson Tide are led by Jaden Shackelford.
Battle 4 Atlantis
#35 Loyola Chicago vs #73 Arizona State 6:00 PM ESPN News (No line yet)
The Ramblers look to leave Atlantis with a win against an Arizona State team that lost to Baylor and Syracuse. The Sun Devils feature Illinois State transfer DJ Horne.
Drake down 4 to #10 Alabama on ESPNU at halftime
Watching Drake vs Alabama. Devries is going to be a PROBLEM. Only a freshman.
Drake down 10 with 2:10 left. Good effort against a good team coming off a loss but would have been great to pull that off.
Devries does look good. I think he was trying to do a little too much on his own in this one but overall Drake and Loyola are still the class of the league by far at this point.
Missouri Valley Conference games for Saturday, November 27th:
Valley teams are home from MTE's and we get a very front-loaded schedule on Saturday. Lot of good afternoon games.
#166 Indiana State @ #271 Ball State 12:00 PM ESPN3 (Indiana St favored by 1)
Indiana State heads to Muncie, IN for an in-state game against Ball State from the MAC. The Cardinals are coming off a big win against #120 UMass last week but have bad losses to FIU and Georgia Southern. Ball State was picked to finish 8th in the MAC preseason media poll.
#134 Northern Iowa @ #30 St. Bonaventure 1:00 PM ESPN+ (St. Bonaventure favored by 10.5)
Game of the day in the MVC as UNI searches for their first D-1 win of the year. Won't be easy against probably the 2nd best mid-major in college basketball on the road. The Bonnies are led by Seniors Kyle Lofton and Jaren Holmes.
#346 Maine @ #214 Bradley 2:00 PM ESPN3 (No line yet)
Another MVC team searching for it's first D-1 win of the year. The Braves welcome in the Black Bears of Maine to Carver Arena. Maine is 2-3 but both wins are against non D-1 teams. Maine lost by 44 to Colorado on the road earlier in the season. This should be where the Braves grab a win.
Trinity (IL) @ #235 Valparaiso 6:00 PM ESPN3
Valpo plays their first game after going 2-1 in their MTE and face NAIA Trinity from Palos Heights, IL.
Purdue Northwest @ #236 Illinois State 8:00 PM ESPN3
Illinois State returns from their 0-2 MTE trip in Cancun and face D2 Purdue Northwest.
Schizophrenic MVC continues. UNI beats undefeated #16 St Bonaventure handily on the road!!!
Missouri Valley Conference Games for Sunday, November 28th
Last games before the first conference games on Wednesday.
ESPN Events Invitational
#54 Drake vs #119 North Texas 9:30 AM ESPNU (Drake favored by 5.5)
Morning Valley action! Drake finishes their MTE after a day off and looks to leave Orlando with a win. North Texas can't be taken lightly, they're 2-3 but have played a difficult schedule and are coming off their 2nd round NCAA Tournament appearance last season.
#232 Evansville @ #345 Eastern Illinois 1:00 PM ESPN+ (Evansville favored by 5.5)
Evansville travels to Charleston to face their former head coach Marty Simmons. Eastern Illinois has 0 D-1 wins this year and are in the bottom 15 teams in KenPom. We'll see how Evansville does before their game against SIU on Wednesday.
Schizophrenic MVC continues. UNI beats undefeated #16 St Bonaventure handily on the road!!!
The rumors of Northern Iowa's demise were greatly exaggerated. Green looked really good, back to normal and that is all they need to be a top team.
The Valley has to step up if they want to be taken seriously. Lots of talent but limited impactful wins.
Thought SIU might be a big time sleeper this season, but they have a lot of work to do.
Drake goes 0-3 in Orlando losing to North Texas, looks like a one bid league to me
The losses of Krutwig and Yesefu are looming large. All four top teams have their issues to sort, otherwise MVC play may end up being one huge slop fest with the top half beating up on the bottom and each other, which is the recipe for a one-bid league with so many swing and misses OOC.
"Close" doesn't even come close to cutting it anymore outside of the power conferences.
--Insert something witty here--
The losses of Krutwig and Yesefu are looming large. All four top teams have their issues to sort, otherwise MVC play may end up being one huge slop fest with the top half beating up on the bottom and each other, which is the recipe for a one-bid league with so many swing and misses OOC.
"Close" doesn't even come close to cutting it anymore outside of the power conferences.
Drake does not seem to be moving the ball as well as they did last year and yes, Yesufu's shotmaking ability was a huge loss. I watched them a fair amount in Orlando this week and Penn has not been as good as you would hope/expect at the point. He was fine, but not playing at a First Team All-MVC level by any stretch.
And yes, the at-large hopes have largely gone up in smoke already around the league, discouragingly, though if Loyola rattles off several more wins in December (they still have DePaul, Vandy and Davidson, on top of having beaten Arizona State), they could still be in the mix.
