Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Blog

The 2009 Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Tournament has begun and on Thursday two teams ended their seasons while two moved on to the quarterfinals. In the opener, #9 seed Indiana State improved to 11-20 on the season defeating #8 Drake (17-15). The Bulldogs will now sit at home and hope for a invite to the CBI or CIT Tournament if they want to continue their season.

In the second game of the night, #7 Wichita State defended their higher seed by defeating #10 seed Missouri State 59-46. The win drops the Bears to 11-20 and ends their season while the Shockers are now 16-15 on the season.

Friday play continued in the quarterfinals of the 2009 MVC Basketball Tournament with #1 Northern Iowa vs, #9 Indiana State, #4 Bradley vs. #5 Southern Illinois, #2 Creighton vs. #7 Wichita State and finally #3 Illinois State vs. #6 Evansville.

All eyes in the Missouri Valley Conference are on St. Louis as the MVC Basketball Tournament is set to tip-off on March 5th and DFN Sports and MVC Fans has released their 2009 Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Tournament preview. Find out what to expect from this great 4-day event and follow the scores & results on the 2009 MVC Tournament page at MVC-fans.com.

Call the Missouri Valley Conference what you want; a mid-major, a high major, and upper middle class major, whatever. The fact is that any team outside of the 6 high-profile conferences relishes the chance to show off their talents in postseason tournaments and with the recent announcement of the new CollegeInsider.com Basketball Tournament, MVC teams that finish above .500 have an increased chance of continuing their seasons. Last season Bradley took advantage of a similar opportunity as they advanced to the College Basketball Invitational Championship Series where they fell 2 games to 1 to Tulsa.

The end of January is here and the Missouri Valley Conference is solid yet again in 2007-2008. While the conference as a whole is ranked #8 in the RPI rankings (compared to the Top 6 last year), the MVC is led in 2008 by a surprising team, the 19-1 Drake Bulldogs. Let’s take a look at the current Missouri Valley Conference standings in RPI ranking order:

- Drake - 19-1 (10-0) - #6 RPI
- Illinois State - 15-6 (7-3) - #46 RPI
- Southern Illinois - 11-10 (6-4) - #69 RPI
- Creighton - 14-6 (5-5) - #55 RPI
- Northern Iowa - 13-8 (5-5) - #100 RPI
- Bradley - 12-10 (5-5) - #102 RPI
- Indiana State - 10-10 (5-5) - #119 RPI
- Missouri State - 11-11 (4-6) - #132 RPI
- Wichita State - 9-12 (2-8) - #165 RPI
- Evansville - 6-14 (1-9) - #256 RPI

Find SIU apparel & clothing online as well as Drake Bulldogs apparel & Wichita State hats and more at DFN Sports sites.