Although Division I college men’s basketball season has another week of regular-season games in both the Big Ten Conference and Mid-American Conference, the Missouri Valley Conference was set to start Conference tournament play Thursday, March 7 in St. Louis. It’s a brutally compact tournament which run four consecutive days and called Arch Madness.
Loyola and Drake were tied for first place in the MVC each with a conference record of 12-6. Loyola, 19-12 overall, beat the Bulldogs twice in Conference which gave the Ramblers the No. 1 seed.
No. 7 Illinois State, 16-15 and 9-9, plays No. 10 Evansville, 11-20 and 5-13, Thursday, March 7 in a wing bracket game. The victor will play Drake Friday.
The Redbirds have an overall winning record, ended .500 in Conference, and took two victories over Conference co-champ Drake. Yet, it will take four victories in four days for Illinois State to emerge with a tournament championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Starting in 2008 tournament, the Redbirds have reached the championship game six times, and, on each occasion, came up short.
Loyola will play the Indiana State-Valparaiso winner Friday. A victory would give head coach Porter Moser’s charges a 20-victory season.
• Northern Illinois’ season once held great promise, but continues to plunge.
The Huskies played host to Eastern Michigan Saturday in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play, and were defeated, 75-69. It was the final home game of the season for Northern Illinois and left the team with a 6-10 record in Conference and 13-16 overall. After opening conference play 3-0 with two of the victories on the road, Northern Illinois was 3-10 in the MAC.
The Northern Illinois-Eastern Michigan game was close all the way. The Huskies were ahead 24-16 midway through of the first half. But, that advantage didn’t last and at the halftime break Eastern Michigan led, 38-36.
The key to Eastern Michigan’s victory was rebounding with a 45-26 advantage. Eastern Michigan’s 6-10 James Thompson IV pulled down 17 rebounds. High man for Northern Illinois was Lacey James with seven.