Three-Way Tie For First
The Missouri Valley Conference enters the final week of the regular season with three teams knotted for first (Drake, Loyola and Missouri State are all 10-6.) UNI is just a game back at 9-7.  There have been 19 seasons in which the MVC had co-champions in its previous 111 years of men’s basketball (excluding the MVC’s first seven seasons in which divisional play occurred).  There have only been three MVC seasons with tri-champs.

MVC Seasons With Tri-Champions
1930-31 Creighton/Oklahoma State/Washington (5-3)
1935-36 Creighton/Oklahoma State/Drake (8-4)
1970-71 Drake/Louisville/Saint Louis (9-5)

MVC Weekly Notebook (PDF)

MVC Uses NET as Tiebreaker
Following head-to-head, the league tiebreaker is the NCAA Evaluation Tool (N.E.T.) -- if necessary, we’ll use the numbers published Sunday, March 3.  Previously the league used RPI and before that non-conference schedule strength as its final tiebreaker for seeding.

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.

MVC Player of the Week
Elijah Childs, Bradley
6-7, 225, So., Fwd., Kansas City (Mo.) Lee’s Summit West
Childs led the Braves during the week with the sophomore forward averaging 18.5 points and 11.0 rebounds in a pair of games, shooting 57.1 percent with three blocks and three assists. He scored a career-best 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting in Tuesday’s game at Drake before registering his sixth double-double of the season on Saturday with 13 points and 13 rebounds against Evansville.

MVC Newcomer of the Week
AJ Green, UNI
6-4, 175, Fr., Gd., Cedar Falls (Iowa) Cedar Falls High
Green ended the week with 32 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists to help the Panthers go 2-0 on the week. Green went 3-8 from the field and made all 4 of his free throw attempts against Missouri State, totaling 10 points. The freshman guard led the Panthers with 3 steals and hauled in 3 rebounds in the midweek matchup. Green finished with 22 points in the Panthers victory over Valparaiso, going 9-16 from the field and 3-6 from beyond the three-point arc. Green hauled in 5 rebounds on Saturday to help the Panthers record their fourth straight win, the longest winning streak of the season.

Poll Reversal
The MVC began conducting a pre-season basketball poll in 1985-86.  Drake, picked ninth in this year’s poll, and Missouri State (picked 8th) are currently tied for the top spot.  Only 11 times has a team picked for the lower division finished first or second in the final regular-season standings (the last was UNI in 2008-09 -- picked sixth and tied for first).

Avoiding Thursday
In the 42 previous seasons of the MVC Tournament, only three times has a seed worse than a No. 3 won the title (No. 4 Creighton won in 2000, No. 5 Indiana State won in 2001, and No. 4 UNI won in 2016).  Only one team that played in the opening round has won a quarterfinal game (No. 7 seed Bradley beat No. 2 seed Creighton, 76-68, in the 1998 tournament.)  Only 38 times in NCAA history has a team won four (or more) games to win its conference post-season tournament title.  Last year, two teams accomplished the feat.

9-9 Record Enough?
Since the MVC expanded to a 10-team tournament format in 1997 (22 previous tourneys), only twice has a team with a 9-9 league mark played on the opening round (Thursday night) of the State Farm MVC Tournament.  Bradley (1998) and Drake (2012) each won their first-round game as No. 7 seeds.  Bradley in 1998 became the only Thursday night team to win its second game, defeating No. 7 seed Creighton.

Drake Hits 20 Wins
Drake has reached 20 wins for the sixth time in program history.  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.

Title Town
The MVC has had eight different regular-season champs in the past 12 seasons (Creighton-2009, 2013; Drake-2008, Illinois St.-2017; Loyola-2018; Missouri St.-2011; UNI-2009, 2010; Southern Illinois-2007; Wichita State-2012, 2014, 2015, 2017).  

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. 

Rookie Coaches
A total of nine coaches in their first years with an MVC team won 24 or more games.  Bill Hodges established the league record for wins by a rookie coach, winning 33 games with Indiana State’s 1979 Final Four team. A total of 19 coaches won the league in their first MVC season, but it’s only happened three times since Hodges won the league with ISU in 1979.  Darian DeVries (Drake) and Dana Ford (Missouri State) have their teams currently tied for first place with two games remaining.

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.

Clawing Into Contention
After starting the league season with an 0-5 mark, Bradley is now 8-8 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.

Shooting A Key For Loyola
Loyola has shot .500 or better in 17 games this year (16-1 mark).  The Ramblers are 1-11 when they fail to shoot .500.  In their 17 wins, Loyola is an NCAA-best .560 (for teams with 4+ wins).  For the season, Loyola ranks 9th in the NCAA in FG percentage (.496).

Dazzling D
Loyola leads the MVC and ranks 6th nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 60.9 points per game.

Scoring Defense, MVC Play
Loyola and Missouri State are tied for the league’s top spot in scoring defense during MVC games, as both are allowing just 61.1 points per game through 16 conference games.  Loyola led the MVC in scoring defense in conference play last year (61.6), and Missouri State has not led the league in that stat category since 2003 (allowing 57.6 that 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.

Margin Call
UNI leads the league in scoring margin in conference games at +3.6 through 16 league games.  No MVC champ since 2001 has had a scoring margin in league play of less than +5.0.  Indiana State in 2000 (+4.6) was the last league champ with a sub-5.0 scoring margin in conference games.

Leading the League in PPG
Drake leads the MVC in all games (75.9 ppg) and conference-only scoring (71.3 ppg in 16 league games).  The Bulldogs have not led the MVC in scoring in MVC-only play since 1980.

Defending the Shot
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.)  Bradley leads the leauge in field goal percentage defense this year.

Dangerous From Downtown
Drake’s Brady Ellingson ranks 4th in the nation in three-point field goal percentage.  His 74 makes are currently 11th all-time for a first-year MVC player.

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).

1,000-Point Club
Ten active Valley players have eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau in their careers, including nine as MVC student-athletes.  Sean Lloyd of Southern Illinois is 43 points shy of the 1,000-point mark. 

Making an Impact
Several newcomers to the league are making an impact in various categories.  Valpo’s Deion Lavender is technically not a newcomer having played as a freshman at Southern Illinois, and SIU’s Eric McGill is also listed among the newcomers despite participating in 10 games last year (he was awarded a medical hardship and didn’t lose a year of eligibility).  Two first-year MVC players are leading the league in a major stat category (Josh Webster, MSU, assists; Javon Freeman, Valpo, steals).  The last MSU player to lead the league in assists was Michael Bizoukas in 2012.

Nothing Green About Green
UNI’s AJ Green is the league’s top scoring freshman, averaging 15.3 points per game to rank 6th 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 9th on that list, with 444 points.  Doug McDermott of Creighton established the league freshman scoring record with 581 points.

Tyreke Keys Indiana State
Indiana State’s Tyreke Key leads the league in scoring at 17.1 points per game.  Since 1956, when the league began tracking scoring leaders for all games, only three Sycamores have led the MVC in scoring.  (Indiana State joined the league for the 1976-77 campaign.)   David Moss’ league-leading total in 2006 marked the last Indiana State player to lead the MVC.  His 16.6 average was the fourth-lowest average to lead the league since 1956.

Yarbrough in Select Company
Illinois State’s Milik Yarbrough has 481 points, 203 rebounds and 94 assists -- all three are in the Top 5 in the MVC.  Only six in the MVC have accomplished those numbers in the past 25 seasons, and Yarbrough is the only to do it twice.

Getting to the Line
Evansville’s K.J. Riley ranks ninth in the nation in free throw attempts, as he has gone to the line 215 times this year.  He is 13th nationally in FT made, sinking 159 of his 215 tries.  Should Riley reach 250 attempts this season - he’ll be just the 20th MVC player to attempt 250 free throws in a season.  The milestone has been reached just 22 times by 19 different players in 111 previous seasons.

Second-Half Teams
Southern Illinois has had the biggest disparity in the MVC when comparing first-half and second-half scoring margins.  The Salukis have been outscored by 121 points in the first halves of games this year and have outscored their opponents by 158 points in the second halves.