3MW’s All Conference Team:
Player of the Year: AJ Green, So., Northern Iowa
Coach of the Year: Ben Jacobson, Northern Iowa
Newcomer of the Year: Marcus Domask, Fr., Southern Illinois
Freshman of the Year: Marcus Domask, Fr., Southern Illinois
Season Storylines:
Northern Iowa completed the best regular season by any mid-major in the country, notching a 25-5 overall record with wins at Colorado and against South Carolina on a neutral floor. UNI set itself part from the rest of the Valley, ranking 39th in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency standings, a whopping 61 spots higher than the second-best Valley school, Loyola. Led by super sophomore AJ Green and the comeback player of the year Austin Phyfe, the Panthers laid ruin to the Missouri Valley and went a perfect 16-0 at the McLeod Center on the year. With a top-40 NET and five Q1/Q2 wins, the Committee miiiiight put UNI into the Dance as an at-large should it fall short in Arch Madness, but Coach Jacobson would prefer to just take the sure-thing auto-bid.
I will eat all the crow for doubting the Salukis this season, picking them last place in the MVC and having no hope for them to come anywhere near the top of the conference. First-year coach and Carbondale hero Bryan Mullins proved all the haters wrong this year by leading his team to a respectable 10-8 mark in conference play. On February 8th, the Salukis had just completed a seven-game win streak and stood at 9-3 in the MVC looking to vie for the league title. Five losses in six tries brought SIUC back down to Earth, but the Salukis should still consider this season a success. With a strong freshman class and an apparent wiz-kid on the bench in Mullins, SIUC may be back competing for NCAA Tourney bids sooner than we thought.
Evansville looked like a mid-major darling early in the year, upending a good Ball State team and then beating some school named Kentucky in November. The Aces waltzed to a 9-4 non-conference record and looked poised to compete in the Valley. The disaster struck. All-MVC caliber forward DeAndre Williams went down with an injury and former head coach Walter McCarty was let go for a Title IX allegation. Without its coach and star player, the Aces floundered. Even with Williams back late in the year (though he’s nowhere near 100%) and an experienced coach in Todd Lickliter taking over, the Aces couldn’t manage one measly conference win. It was a Jekyll & Hyde season for the ages, one Ace faithful will hope to forget in short order.
Tournament Preview
Ahhh, Arch Madness. One of the very best postseason conference tournaments in the all the land, held at the prestigious Kiel / Savvis / Scottrade / Enterprise Center in St. Louis, MO. One thing to note in this league - a team seeded 7-10 has never won four games in four days and captured the Tourney crown.
This is UNI’s tournament to lose. The Panthers were the class of the conference all season and will look to prove that once again over the next few days. However, Arch Madness can get pretty nutty so don’t be surprised to see a team like Missouri State, the preseason MVC favorite, or even Bradley, last year’s Big Dance rep, steal a bid and make other bubble teams nervous nellies.
Tournament Predictions
(8) Drake over (9) Illinois State
(7) Valparaiso over (10) Evansville
(1) UNI over (8) Drake
(4) Bradley over (5) Southern Illinois
(2) Loyola over (7) Valparaiso
(6) Missouri State over (3) Indiana State
(1) UNI over (4) Bradley
(6) Missouri State over (2) Loyola
(1) UNI over (6) Missouri State