Only Two Leagues With 10
Through games of Feb. 10, only two conferences have all of its members with double-digit win totals -- the Big East and the Missouri Valley Conference.

Weekly MBB Notes (PDF)

MVC Player of the Week
Darrell Brown, Bradley
5-10, 190, Jr., Gd., Memphis (Tenn.) Germantown High
Brown led the Braves to two wins last week against UNI and Indiana State. The junior averaged 27.5 points, while shooting 60.6 from the field and 73.3 percent from 3-point range (11-of-15). In Bradley’s first win at Northern Iowa in 11 years, Brown scored 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting and 5-of-6 from 3-point range. He then added 26 in a dominating win against Indiana State, making 9-of-15 field goals and a career-best six triples (in nine attempts).

MVC Newcomer of the Week
Javon Freeman, Valparaiso
6-3, 175, Fr., Gd., Chicago (Ill.) Whitney Young High
Freeman continued his recent strong play for Valpo by averaging 22 ppg on 66.7% shooting from the field over the two games last week. Freeman opened the week with a 27-point effort at Illinois State, leading all scorers as he went 11-of-13 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from three-point range, and added five rebounds, four assists and three steals. He scored 20 of his points against the Redbirds in the first half, the first 20-point half by a Valpo freshman since November of 2013. Freeman followed with a team-high 17 points against Loyola on Sunday and tallied two steals as well as he maintained his spot atop the MVC steals chart.

Only Six Games Left
Since 1991-92 (when the MVC began its current 10-team format), 27 of 30 regular-season champs (or co-champs) have been in the lead (or tied for the lead) through 12 games of the league’s 18-game MVC schedule.  The only three teams in sole possession of first place with just six games left that failed to win or share the league’s regular-season title include Creighton (11-1 in 2012), Wichita State (10-2 in 2011) and Wichita State (10-2 in 2005).

• Since 1991-92, no MVC team with a two-game lead with six games remaining failed to win the league.
• Since 1992-92, the MVC’s eventual league champion won its final six games on 14 occasions, including six of the last eight seasons.
• Only one MVC eventual champ in that span lost three of its final six games in the regular season (Drake, in 2008, started the year 12-0 and won the MVC regular-season title with a 15-3 mark.)
• Since 1991-92, a total of 41 different MVC teams have been in first place (alone or tied) with six games left.  All but one (Illinois State in 1993) reached post-season play, which includes 32 NCAA bids and eight NIT berths.

Tightly Bunched
All 10 MVC teams are within 5 games of first place.  Notably, only twice in the past 30 years has there been a gap of fewer than eight games between first and last place at season’s end in the Valley men’s basketball race (1992-93 and 2012-13 each had a 13-win champion and a 6-win last place team.)   Notably, just two games separate the second-place and eighth-place teams.

Clawing Into Contention
After starting the league season with an 0-5 mark, Bradley is now 5-7 in league play, which includes three wins on the road (at SIU, at UNI, at UE).  Just three teams over the past 11 seasons (UNI, 2017, 0-5; Illinois State, 2013 - 0-6; Bradley, 2008 - 0-4) have opened MVC play 0-4 or worse and rebounded to avoid Thursday night’s opening round at Arch Madness.

Only Five Have Done It
Just five MVC coaches have won or shared the league’s regular-season title after having won an MVC title as a player, including current MVC head coaches Dan Muller and Porter Moser.

A Bakers’ Dozen
Only three times in the league’s 111-year history have all teams reached 13+ wins, including last year.  The MVC has not had a season in which every team reached 14 or more wins.  In the league’s 111 seasons, the MVC has had all teams reach 11 or more wins 10 times.  Only five times in the MVC’s 111 seasons have all league teams reached 12 wins.

First-Round NCAA Streak
Loyola’s first-round win against Miami (Fla.) gave the MVC a perfect 9-0 record in first-round games since 2013.  Technically, the streak is 10-straight wins as Creighton won a Friday first-round game in 2012 following Wichita State’s Thursday first-round loss to VCU.

Historical Streaks in NCAA First-Round Games
1941-55 – MVC 10-0 in first-round games, with 5 Final Four trips
1958-65 – MVC 8-0 in first-round games, with 5 Final Four trips
1968-73 – MVC 6-0 in first-round games, with 3 Final Four trips
2012-pres. – MVC 10-0 in first-round games, with 2 Final Four trips

What’s the Point?
Drake continues to lead the MVC in conference-only scoring, averaging 70.7 points per game.  The Bulldogs notched their season high in a league game in Saturday’s win against UNI, 83-77.  It was the most for Drake in a league game since beating Indiana State, 90-76, last season.  Bradley, meanwhile, scored its most points in a regulation MVC game in 12 years (in its 96-67 win against Indiana State on Saturday), while matching the team’s MVC record for 3-pointers in a game (14).  Four of the league’s top seven scoring games were last week, while the Bradley-Indiana State game is the highest combined point total in an MVC game this season.
Loyola’s 86-point effort in an 86-64 victory over Drake on Feb. 5 was its highest output since a 97-75 decision versus Missouri State, February 3, 2018. The Ramblers are now 31-2 under Porter Moser when scoring 80 or more points.

Most Points, MVC Game, 2018-19 96 -- Bradley (vs. Indiana State, 2/9/19)
88 -- Southern Illinois (vs. Indiana State, 1/30/19)
86 -- Loyola (vs. Drake, 2/5/19)
85 -- Bradley (vs. Illinois State, 1/23/19)
85 -- Indiana State (vs. Evansville, 2/6/19)
85 -- Loyola (at Drake, 1/5/19)
83 -- Drake (vs. UNI, 2/9/19)

Most Combined Points, MVC Game, 2018-19 
163 -- Bradley (96) vs. Indiana State (67), 2/9/19
161 -- S. Illinois (88) vs. Indiana State (73), 1/30/19
160 -- Drake (83) vs. UNI (77), 2/9/19
159 -- Loyola (85) vs. Drake (74), 1/5/19
155 -- UNI (81) vs. Evansville (74), 1/26/19
154 -- Bradley (81) vs. Evansville (73), 1/30/19
154 -- Evansville (82) vs. Drake (72), 1/2/19
153 -- Bradley (85) vs. Illinois State (68), 1/23/19

As you might surmise, scoring offense varies in wins/losses.  Loyola holds the biggest disparity, scoring 74.8 points per game when it wins and just 53.4 points per game in its losses.

Freshman Leader
Javon Freeman of Valpo currently leads the league in steals per game (1.8).  The last MVC freshman to lead the league in one of the following four stat categories (scoring, rebounding, assists, steals) – was Jake Odum of Indiana State (1.8 steals/game in 2010-11).

Five in Double Figures
Southern Illinois has five players who average in double figures – Loyola was the only MVC team to do that last year.  Prior to that, it hadn’t happened in the league since both Wichita State (t5th that year) and UNI (7th) had five double-figure scorers in 2001-02. Drake is second, with four players in double figures (and a fifth at 9.7 ppg).  Valpo also has four.

Nothing Green About Green
UNI’s AJ Green is the league’s top scoring freshman, averaging 15.1 points per game to rank 7th overall in the MVC.  The last MVC freshman to average 15.0 points per game was Illinois State’s Tarise Bryson, 15.5 in 1998-99. Only 21 freshmen in MVC history have reached 400 points in a season.  Green has 378 entering this week.  Wichita State’s Landry Shamet (411) and Bradley’s Darrell Brown (400) each reached the 400-point plateau as freshmen during the 2016-17 season.  Doug McDermott of Creighton established the league freshman scoring record with 581 points.

Home Cooking
Loyola has won 13-straight at home against MVC foes.  The Ramblers’ last loss in conference play at Gentile Arena was a 61-57 setback to Indiana State on Jan. 3, 2018. The last time Loyola had a streak this long was when it won a program-record 14-straight home league games, Jan. 12, 1979 until Feb. 1, 1982.  The league record belongs to Southern Illinois, which won 42-straight MVC regular-season home games from Jan. 5, 2001 until Feb. 1, 2006. Wichita State is the only team since SIU to have a streak of 20 or more, winning 24-striaght MVC games at home from Jan. 5, 2014 until Feb. 13, 2016.