Most Losses for Champ?
Only four seasons in the Valley’s first 111 years has a league regular-season champion lost five games (Creighton, 2012-13), Evansville (1998-99) and Illinois State (1992-93) -- all were 13-5. The other season was in 1970-71 when Drake, Louisville and Saint Louis tied for the top at 9-5.  No previous MVC champion has lost six league games.

Weekly Notebook (PDF)

Tightly Bunched
Just five games separate first-place from last place. The last time the Valley finished that compacted was in 1976-77 when 8-4 champion SIU was five games better than last-place Tulsa.  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 MVC men’s basketball race (the 1992-93 and 2012-13 seasons each had a 13-win champion and a 6-win last place team.)  

MVC Player of the Week & MVC Newcomer of the Week
Tulio Da Silva, Missouri State
6-8, 211, Jr., Fwd., Formiga (Brazil) Arlington Country Day [South Florida]
Da Silva led the Bears to a pair of road victories and into a share of first place in The Valley after averaging 16.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. He also fired a 56.5 percent clip from the field for the week and capped his streak of consecutive field goals made at 16 straight from Feb. 6 to Feb. 13. Da Silva scored 16 points and snagged a game-high 9 rebounds in Sunday’s win over Loyola to give MSU a season sweep over the Ramblers. He also blocked 3 shots and had two steals in that game. Earlier in the week, he had game highs 17 points and 7 rebounds in MSU’s win at Evansville, going 7-for-13 from the field with a block, a steal and a 3-pointer.
A total of 21 players in league history have swept Player and Newcomer honors in the same week, including five this year.   The MVC began awarding a Newcomer of the Week during the 2003-04 season.

Drake Hits 20 Wins
Drake reached 20 wins for the sixth time in program history with a 2-0 week this past week.  The Bulldogs last hit 20 wins during a record-setting 28-win season in 2007-08, a year in which they won the regular-season and conference championship and represented the MVC in the NCAA Tournament.

Drake - Most Wins in a Season
28 - (28-5) 2007-08 - NCAA First Round
26 - (26-5) 1968-69 - NCAA Final Four
22 - (22-7) 1969-70 - NCAA Elite Eight
21 - (21-7) 1963-64 - NIT 2nd Round
21 - (21-8) 1970-71 - NCAA Elite Eight
20 - (20-7) 2018-19 - 

Rookie Coaches
A total of 19 coaches won the league in their first MVC season, but it’s only happened three times since Bill Hodges won the league with Indiana State in 1979.  Darian DeVries (Drake) and Dana Ford (Missouri State) have their teams currently tied for first place with four games remaining.

Last Three Rookie Coaches to Win MVC
2003-04 -- Matt Painter, SIU (25-5 / 17-1 MVC)
2004-05 -- Chris Lowery, SIU (27-8 / 15-3 MVC)
2007-08 -- Keno Davis, Drake (28-5 / 15-3 MVC)
 
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.  Loyola’s Porter Moser is looking to become just the second to earn a league title as a player then in back-to-back seasons as a head coach. 

Margin Call
The current league co-leaders (Drake, Loyola and Missouri State) lead the league in scoring margin in conference games, but none are better than +3.9 through 14 league games.  Only two MVC regular-season champs in the past 23 years have had a scoring margin in league play of fewer than +5.0.

Lowest Scoring Margin, Champ (Since 1997)
+2.1 Evansville (1999)
+4.6 Indiana State (2000)
+5.2 Wichita State (2006)
+6.1 Southern Illinois (2005)
+6.2 Missouri State (2011)
+6.3 Southern Illinois (2007)

Clawing Into Contention
After starting the league season with an 0-5 mark, Bradley is now 7-7 in league play.  Since the MVC adopted a 10-team tournament format in 1997, just three teams (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.

0-4 Starts To Avoid Thursday, Since 1996-97
2008 -- Bradley (0-4), finished 9-9, T5, #5 Seed
2013 -- Illinois State (0-6), finished 8-10, #6 Seed
2017 -- UNI (0-5), finished 9-9, T3, #3 seed

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

Freshman Leader
Javon Freeman of Valpo currently leads the league in steals per game (1.9).  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).

Nothing Green About Green
UNI’s AJ Green is the league’s top scoring freshman, averaging 15.3 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 22 freshmen in MVC history have reached 400 points in a season, including Green.  Green currently ranks 17th on that list, with 412 points.  Doug McDermott of Creighton established the league freshman scoring record with 581 points.  Javon Freeman of Valparaiso (301 total points and an 11.1 average) ranks second in the MVC in both categories.

Winning with Defense
Since 2010, every team but one that has led the MVC in field goal percentage defense has earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament.  (Loyola was third in the MVC in that statistic last year.)  Notably, in the past 14 seasons, the MVC leader in team defense (PPG allowed in league-only games) has reached the NCAA Tournament 10 times and the NIT three times.  Loyola led the league in scoring defense last year (61.6 ppg allowed in league games).  UNI, in 2013, was the only MVC leader in that stat category to fail to reach post-season play.

1,000-Point Club
Nine active Valley players have eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau in their careers, including seven as MVC student-athletes.  Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye of Bradley is 21 points shy of joining teammate Darrell Brown on the list.  Milik Yarbrough has 1,508 career points, and is 22 points away from reaching 1,000 while he’s been at Illinois State.  Sean Lloyd of Southern Illinois is 53 points shy of the 1,000-point mark. 

On the MVC Road
MVC teams are 29-41 in league road games this year - the best road winning record in the past 22+ seasons.  Not surprisingly, since 1996-97 (22 previous seasons) the league team with the best road record in MVC play has won the league every year but one (in 2011 Wichita State was 8-1 on the road in MVC games and finished second to Missouri State.  The Bears were 7-2 on the road that year.)  Notably, league teams were just 28-62 on the road in MVC play last year.  An MVC champ has won six or more league road games in 18 of the past 22 years.