Quote Originally Posted by Parrott View Post
Yes, the Missouri Valley was strong this season. Wichita State and Northern Iowa both cracked the top-25 rankings, made the NCAA tournament & finished with 30-win seasons. Illinois State won 22 games (beating Green Bay and Wichita State as well as Evansville three times) and ended up in the NIT after nearly upsetting Northern Iowa in the MVC tournament title game. Loyola beat ULM to win the CBI & won 24 games.

In non-conference Evansville (24-12, 9-9 MVC) beat Fresno State and Belmont and had a pair of two-point losses to postseason-bound teams (Green Bay and Murray State). The Aces also beat Northern Iowa. In fact, eight of their 12 losses this season were by five points or fewer (five in the MVC). They had two rough stretches (three straight losses from Jan. 31 to Feb. 7 and four in a row from Feb. 22 to March 6) but also saw their second-, third- and fourth-leading scorers miss a combined 11 games. They realized their potential after getting healthy late in the year.

The MVC should be strong again next season, even with Wichita State, Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Indiana State and Loyola losing some key seniors. Wichita State could be a top-25 team again if Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet come back next season and some of the other returning Shockers (or newcomers) fill the void left by departing seniors Darius Carter and Tekele Cotton.

I expect Evansville to contend for the league title given that all but one of its top contributors should return and Balentine will be one of the nation's top returning scorers. Mockevicius nearly averaged a double-double but is a redshirt junior and could play elsewhere next season as a grad transfer, so his return will be key for the Aces to carry over the momentum from this season.
This is great info for giving perspective.