The league’s 90-game conference slate begins on Thursday, Dec. 30, with two games on the calendar. Two more games take place on December 31, with three more on January 1 and two on January 2. 

Quick Starts Crucial
Since 1982-83, just three teams (Missouri State, champions in 1998-99, 1994-95 and 1990-91; Drake, champions in 1996-97 and co-champions in 1987-88; and Evansville, a 2007-08 co-champion) have won at least a share of the regular-season title without winning its regular-season opener. In fact, 16 of the last 21 regular-season champs (or co-champs) have opened 2-0 or better in MVC play, with Evansville in 2007-08, Missouri State in 2004-05, UNI in 2010-11, Missouri State in 2011-12 and UNI in 2015-16 serving as the only five exceptions. 

Title Town
The league has had nine different regular-season champions in the past 15 seasons (SIU-2007, DU/UE/ILS-2008, ILS-2009, ILS-2010, UNI-2011; MSU-2012; WSU/CU-2013; INS/WSU-2014; WSU2015; UNI-2016; DU-2017; DU-2018; DU-2019; MSU-2020; MSU-2021). Bradley, Loyola and Valparaiso are the only league teams not to have won a regular-season MVC championship.

For Starters
The 18-game conference schedule begins with a full league schedule Dec. 30-Jan. 2. Here’s a look at how current MVC members have fared in conference-opening games in the last five seasons. Southern Illinois has the current longest winning streak in MVC openers, having won its last eight conference debuts and sits 8-0 in openers under coach Cindy Stein.  SIU’s last league opening loss was on Jan. 3, 2013, vs. Creighton. 

Team                     ALL     H         A    Streak
Bradley                    2-3    1-1    1-2    L1
Drake                      5-0    3-0    2-0    W5
Evansville                1-4    1-1    0-3    L4
Illinois State            3-2    3-1    0-1    L1
Indiana State          1-4    0-1    1-3    W1
Loyola                      1-4    1-2    0-2    L2
Missouri State        4-1    1-1   3-0     W4
UNI                          3-2    2-0    1-2    W1
Southern Illinois     5-0    3-0    2-0    W8
Valparaiso               1-3    1-1    0-2    W1

Closed Out Non-Con
The Valley finished non-conference play 57-49 (.538) this season. 

The MVC secured six wins over Power Five programs during the non-conference schedule. The Valley registered a 6-17 record vs. Power Five teams after going 5-9 in 2020-21. The Valley went 3-9 vs. the Big Ten, 1-1 vs. the ACC, 1-1 vs. the Pac-12, 1-3 vs. the SEC and 0-3 vs. the Big  12. Missouri State had three wins, while Bradley, Drake and Southern Illinois each had one.

NET Update
The NCAA NET Report (Dec. 28) has three Valley teams that rank in the top-100, including five of the 10 sitting in the top 200.  Missouri State leads the way at No. 19 with UNI (44) and Drake (54), rounding out the schools in the Top 100.  The Valley sits 10th as a league. 

Team                       NET
Missouri State           19
UNI                            44
Drake                         54
Loyola                      106
Southern Illinois       117
Evansville                211
Illinois State             227
Indiana State           228
Bradley                    241
Valparaiso                301
MVC                          10

BU: Dandy Dozen
When Bradley visits Illinois State Saturday, the Braves will be coming off a 12-day break in between games. The last time the Braves had 12 days to prepare for their MVC opener, they reeled off seven straight MVC wins to open the record-setting 2019-20 league campaign. In 2019-20, Bradley popped Eastern Washington, 66-46, Dec. 21 and did not play again until starting the league season Jan. 3 with an 82-51 home win against Evansville. Bradley went on to finish the MVC regular-season with a program-best 13-5 record, only to see the postseason wiped out by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

DU: Assist U
Drake continues to be one of the top assist teams in the nation, entering conference play ranking 2nd nationally with 20.0 assists per game. The Bulldogs have finished the last five seasons ranking top five nationally in assists per game, including leading the nation in 2020-21 and 2017-18.  The last tie Drake did not finish a season ranked in the top five nationally was in 2015-16 (finished 6th). 

UE: Getting to the Line
Along with playing with pace, Evansville has excelled this season at getting to the free throw line. The Aces are 28th in the nation in free throw rate according to HerHoopStats.com, generating a trip to the charity stripe on 20.2% of shots from inside the three-point arc. Leading this push for Evansville is senior Anna Newman who ranks 20th in the nation individually in free-throw rate, getting to the line on nearly half of her two-point scoring attempts with a 46.2% free-throw rate.

ILS: I-74 Rivalry
Illinois State will host familiar foe Bradley for its Missouri Valley Conference opener on Jan. 1. ISU leads BU, 51-29 in the all-time series with the Braves and most recently swept Bradley in it’s two match-ups during the 2020-21 campaign. The Redbirds are 5-4 playing on New Year’s Day and 24-14 in conference openers.

INS: Creating Havoc
Indiana State has been one of the top teams in the nation when it comes to forcing turnovers this season. The Sycamores rank 14th in Division I, forcing an average of 22.55 turnovers per game, while also ranking 26th nationally in steals (132) and 20th nationally in steals per game (12.0) after recording 15 steals and forcing 26 turnovers against Purdue Fort Wayne. Indiana State leads the Missouri Valley in all three statistical categories.

LUC: Enter The Valley
Coming off an impressive 66-52 road win over previously undefeated Cleveland State to close its non-conference slate, Loyola will raise the curtain on its Missouri Valley Conference schedule with road matchups against Missouri State (December 31) and Southern Illinois (January 2).  The Ramblers, who are 2-6 all-time in MVC openers, will be kicking off league play against the Lady Bears for the second time since joining The Valley.  In the aforementioned clash, Loyola pushed then No. 21/19 Missouri State to the brink, with a Jasmine Franklin layup as time expiring proving to be the difference in a 74-72 Lady Bear victory back on January 3, 2020 in Rogers Park. 

MSU: Streaking
The Missouri State Lady Bears have won 12 consecutive home games and are 53-7 in their last 60 home games, which began February 10, 2017. During those 60 games, MSU has averaged 74.5 points, with a plus-17.5 scoring margin and plus-9.7 rebounding margin. 

Missouri State will begin conference play on a 19-game win streak in the Missouri Valley Conference, which is the second-longest conference win streak in program history. The program record is a 24-game conference win streak set from 1/9/99 to 2/3/00.

UNI: Top 10s
The Panthers rank in the NCAA Division 1 Top 10 in two different turnover categories through the non-conference season. UNI is 6th in the nation for turnovers per game, giving up the ball only 11.1 times a game. The Panthers are also 8th in assist to turnover ratio at 1.45.

UNI heads into Missouri Valley play with a winning record of 7-4. This will be the third time in five seasons that the Panthers begin the conference season with a winning record.

SIU: Home Sweet Home
SIU will open league play at home against Valpo Friday. The Salukis played a league low two home games during non-conference play, going 2-0 beating Quincy and Illinois. 

VU: Gathering Momentum
With the win over UDM, Valpo closes non-conference play with at least two straight wins for the third time in its five seasons in the MVC. The 2017-18 squad carried a four-game winning streak into the MVC slate, while the 2019-20 team won its final six non-conference games.

Valpo made a season-high 14 3-pointers in the win over Detroit Mercy and connected at a season-best .438 clip (14-for-32) from behind the arc. Valpo now has more games with 14+ 3-pointers in the four-season tenure of head coach Mary Evans (10) than it did in the entire program history prior to her arrival (nine).