Missouri Valley Tournament Preview: Odds, Schedule, Information & Predictions

Arch Madness is easily the best name for a tournament and I don’t think it’s particularly close. On top of that today marks the starts of middle of the day basketball with the Sun Belt and Patriot League getting in on the fun as well. So, here’s to watching/betting on college kids all day long for the next 10 days.

When is the Missouri Valley Tournament?

Thursday, March 2nd through Sunday March 5th.

Where is the Missouri Valley Tournament played?

Arch Madness is played at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Hence the moniker.

How to watch the Missouri Valley Tournament

The first two rounds will be streamable on MVC TV and ESPN+.  The semifinals are shown on CBS Sports Network Saturday with Sunday’s final on CBS.

Who won the regular season title?

Bradley won the MVC with a 16-4 record.

Defending Champ

Loyola Chicago went out on top winning their last game in the MVC before leaving for the A-10.

Who will participate

All 12 teams are in, making this the biggest Arch Madness of all time, apparently.  (three new teams joined this season)

How Many teams will the Missouri Valley send to the tournament?

Drake and Bradley have had some nice seasons, but are still a bit too far down the rankings to find their way in without winning it all in St. Louis.

Missouri Valley Tournament Bracket

The top four teams have byes into Friday’s quarterfinals with the bottom eight duking it out today.  No reseeding, no days off.

Missouri Valley Tournament Odds

Big gap after the top two with the second-seed favored.

Missouri Valley Tournament Preview

Powerhouse Loyola Chicago took their ball, their 100 year old chaplain and their conference titles and headed to the Atlantic-10 in the offseason, leaving a bit of a power vacuum. Bradley and Drake are the class here, but this is a neutral court tourney that often sees upsets and is featuring SEVEN teams that have winning conference records including five teams with 20-win seasons so far.

I don’t want to totally ignore the top two teams, but the prices do kind of suck seeing how they will not have the advantage of any home games, nor extra byes compared to the three and four seeds, so I’ll say one nice thing about each and move on.

Drake’s Tucker DeVries deserved player of the year, he’s very good.

Bradley may be the most rounded and certainly has the best defense.

Ok.

Belmont is a fun offense, but if the threes aren’t falling the team can look really rough. Go look at their two games against Drake this year.

Southern Illinois is the other top four seed that gets to take the day off and their biggest issue is an offense that kind of runs through one man that can get really get slogged down if a defense is able to take him away and make the backcourt carry more of the load.

The knocks on the squad I will be backing are fair. They did not get a bye, they will have to play through the top seed in the semis and are a bit streaky (started conference play 6-0, lost five straight, then won seven straight before dropping the last two). But they have good (and experienced) guard play, offensive efficiency numbers that rival the favorites here and don’t rely on the three to keep the offense moving so…

Missouri Valley Tournament Prediction

Gimme the Sycamores at a nice sized price in this one. While they don’t technically have a bye, they don’t have a very tough opponent today and essentially just get a nice warm up game as 17 point favorites this afternoon versus Evansville.

My Bet: Indiana State +700