ST. LOUIS – Illinois State and Belmont each claimed a share of the 2022-23 regular-season title, but Illinois State will be the No. 1 seed in the MVC Tournament thanks to a head-to-head victory. It is only the eighth time in 40 seasons Valley women's basketball has a shared title and first since 2013-14.
The title is the eighth regular season title for the Redbirds and first since 2009-10. Belmont earns a share of the title in its first season as a Valley member. Illinois State finished the regular season 23-7, 17-3 MVC, while Belmont sits 21-10, 17-3 MVC after closing the season on a 14-game win streak.
UNI (16-4 MVC) claims the third seed, while Drake (14-6 MVC) earned the No. 4 seed to avoid Thursday's opening round into Friday's quarterfinals. The Bulldogs held the tiebreaker vs. Missouri State (14-6 MVC) who claims the No. 5 seed.
This year's tournament - the 16th neutral-site event in the conference's history - begins on Thursday, March 9, at Vibrant Arena at The MARK in Moline, Illinois. The top seed has won the conference tournament in 19 of 36 seasons in which a tournament was played and a team that has won or shared the regular-season title has gone on to win the tournament title 22 times. Top seeds have six runner-up finishes. Teams seeded No. 2 have won the tournament five times and finished as the runner-up 13 times.
The tournament, which features 11 games over four days, culminates on Sunday, March 12, with the title game airing live on ESPNU at 1:05 p.m. (CT). Both semifinals on Saturday, all four quarterfinals on Friday and the four first round games on Thursday will be available live on ESPN+.
2023 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Tournament
Thursday, March 9
Game 1 -- #8 Murray State (14-15, 7-13 MVC) vs. #9 Evansville (11-18, 6-14 MVC), 12 p.m. [ESPN+]
Game 2 -- #5 Missouri State (19-10, 14-6 MVC) vs. #12 Bradley (4-27, 1-19 MVC), 2:30 p.m. [ESPN+]
Game 3 -- #7 Southern Illinois (11-18, 8-12 MVC) vs. #10 Indiana State (11-18, 6-14 MVC), 6 p.m. [ESPN+]
Game 4 -- #6 UIC (17-14, 9-11 MVC) vs. #11 Valparaiso (7-22, 5-15 MVC), 8:30 p.m. [ESPN+]
Friday, March 10
Game 5 -- #1 Illinois State (23-7, 17-3 MVC) vs. Winner Game 1, 12 p.m. [ESPN+]
Game 6 -- #4 Drake (19-9, 14-6 MVC) vs. Winner Game 2, 2:30 p.m. [ESPN+]
Game 7 -- #2 Belmont (21-10, 17-3 MVC) vs. Winner of Game 3, 6 p.m. [ESPN+]
Game 8 -- #3 UNI (21-8, 16-4 MVC) vs. Winner of Game 4, 8:30 p.m. [ESPN+]
Saturday, March 11
Game 9 -- Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 1:30 p.m. [ESPN+]
Game 10 -- Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 4 p.m. [ESPN+]
Sunday, March 12
Championship -- Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, 1 p.m. [ESPNU]