For the fourth time in five seasons (and sixth time overall), the Wichita State Shockers (23-7, 16-2) will enter the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball tournament as the event’s No. 1 seed. In the tournament’s 25-year history in St. Louis, Wichita State has been the No. 1 seed four times previously (2006, 2012, 2014, 2015) winning the tournament title in 2014, while losing in the semifinals the three other times.
THURSDAY, MARCH 3
6:00 pm — Game 1 (#8 Loyola vs. #9 Bradley)
8:30 pm — Game 2 (#7 Missouri State vs. #10 Drake)
FRIDAY, MARCH 4
12:00 pm — GAME 3 (#1 Wichita State vs. Game 1 winner)
2:30 pm* — GAME 4 (#4 UNI vs. #5 Southern Illinois)
6:00 pm — GAME 5 (#2 Evansville vs. Game 2 winner)
8:30 pm* — GAME 6 (#3 Illinois State vs. #6 Indiana State)
SATURDAY, MARCH 5
2:30 pm — GAME 7 (Game 3 & 4 winners)
5:00 pm* — GAME 8 (Game 5 & 6 winners)
SUNDAY, MARCH 6
1:00 pm — MVC Championship Game
* Times of second games of sessions are approximate
This is the 10th Wichita State MVC men’s basketball regular-season title, and the fourth one under head coach Gregg Marshall, the most by a Shocker coach in program history. The Shockers have won 3-straight outright MVC crowns for the first time in its history (going 51-3 over the past three years in league play).
Notably, Wichita State is just the second MVC team in the last 46 years to three-peat, joining Southern Illinois (four-in-a-row from 2001-02 to 2004-05). Wichita State’s 10 MVC men’s basketball titles all-time is tops among active league members ahead of Southern Illinois (8), Drake (7) and Bradley (6). Oklahoma State and Creighton lead all-time with 15 overall crowns in men’s hoops.
Evansville (23-8, 12-6) and Illinois State (18-13, 12-6) tied for second place in the league race this year, and the Aces won the tiebreaker (better RPI) to take the No. 2 seed. It’s Illinois State’s highest regular-season finish since 2008 and the highest for Evansville since it won the MVC regular-season title in 1999. Additionally, the Aces have been as high as a No. 2 seed in the MVC Tournament just once previously (No. 1 in 1999). The last time ISU was as high as a No. 3 seed in the tourney was in 2010 (the Redbirds were also a No. 3 that year.)