Final score: Loyola 67 Bradley 66

[LittleBrave]

Going to be a great tourney. I'm getting the feeling that the Sat. games might be the best we've seen in years. (that's IF BU wins Friday!)

[LittleBrave]

I'm sure most of us wanted that game on Saturday more than any other this season.
1) Possible #2 seed on the line (which we haven't been that high in 19 seasons!)
2) Loyola beat us at their place and creamed us on Senior night last year (at their place) - big revenge
3) 16-1 home record would have been our best in 24 seasons!
4) Two of our seniors are 2 of the best Braves we've seen in the last 2 decades...wanted it more for them than anything (including for Kochy, who has represented BU well, and worked hard to improve each season!)

[BUfan39]

Going to be a great tourney. I'm getting the feeling that the Sat. games might be the best we've seen in years. (that's IF BU wins Friday!)

Saturday games last year were pretty darn fun... and stressful

[wily coyote]

Don't agree.
Bradley is even with Loyola - some might argue BU is slightly better talent-wise (including myself).
Indy State is a young team and quite dangerous. Don't count them out!
I think the disparity between 1 and 4 is not huge in the league.

I agree with you Ind. State is very dangerous but in my mind MSU is the most dangerous team going into St. louis. They are playing like everyone thought they would at the beginning of the year. I also think 6 teams can win this thing and I wouldn't totally count out ISU red. They would be a long shot but they have some talent. Only team I'd say probably won't be playing Sunday would be Evansville and they beat Kentucky the first week of the season. Think it's gonna be a great Tourney hope to see a lot of BU fans in St. LOu and we go dancing.

[Dub]

I agree with you Ind. State is very dangerous but in my mind MSU is the most dangerous team going into St. louis. They are playing like everyone thought they would at the beginning of the year. I also think 6 teams can win this thing and I wouldn't totally count out ISU red. They would be a long shot but they have some talent. Only team I'd say probably won't be playing Sunday would be Evansville and they beat Kentucky the first week of the season. Think it's gonna be a great Tourney hope to see a lot of BU fans in St. LOu and we go dancing.

I’m ready to “totally count out” ISU red. There, I did it.

[Tommy]

The only thing ISU Red is good at is blowing leads. No. Just no. Eli played his worst game as a Brave there and we still beat them.

Even if I thought they had a chance, I’d never admit it!

[Da Coach]

I know this goes against the code of conduct for all true Bradley fans, but I am pulling for ISU to beat Drake and upset UNI so we can beat them one more time.

[wily coyote]

I’m ready to “totally count out” ISU red. There, I did it.

I agree with you but Taylor Bruninga is a friend of mine. We used to work together at Coyote Creek when he was in HS. So if ISU won that would be great.

[Tommy]

I know this goes against the code of conduct for all true Bradley fans, but I am pulling for ISU to beat Drake and upset UNI so we can beat them one more time.

LOL, that's hilarious.

[Mikovio]

No team is winning 4 games in 4 days. Thursday winners are 1-46 under the current format. Every subsequent team you play is more rested and Thursday teams generally don't have a quality bench. I'd like to see ISU Red knock off UNI for selfish reasons, and while they did beat them earlier, they'll be on like a half day's rest playing a fresh UNI. The 8-9 game turnaround is brutal.

[Da Coach]

No team is winning 4 games in 4 days. Thursday winners are 1-46 under the current format. Every subsequent team you play is more rested and Thursday teams generally don't have a quality bench. I'd like to see ISU Red knock off UNI for selfish reasons, and while they did beat them earlier, they'll be on like a half day's rest playing a fresh UNI. The 8-9 game turnaround is brutal.

True... you are referring to the play-in teams advancing past the quarterfinal games. Only 1 team from the play-in round has won against a top 6 seeded team in the quarterfinals. Since the format changed to include all 10 teams and incorporated a play-in round in 1997, the only play-in team to advance to the semifinals was Jim Molinari's 1998 team.

A little history of the MVC Tournament- the tournament started in 1977. The tournament was played on campus sites until 1991, when it switched to St. Louis. The first St. Louis tournament was played in the old Kiel Auditorium (opened in 1934). That was the home of the St. Louis University Billikins for many years. But, that venue was scheduled for demolition shortly after the 1991 tournament, so the tournament was moved to the old St. Louis Arena (opened 1929) for the next 3 years (1992, 1993, and 1994). That was the original home of the St, Louis Blues hockey team. The St. Louis Arena was closed permanently shortly after the 1994 tournament and demolished in 1999. Then the tournament moved to the new Kiel Center from 1995-present. It was called the Kiel Center from 1995-2000, then renamed the Savvis Center from 2000-2005, then the Scottrade Center from 1995-2018, then the Enterprise Center from 2018- present.
Here is the history of the winners-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missou...mpions_by_year

From 1977 to 1991, the MVC varied from 7 to 9 teams, and sometimes required a complex bracket to include all the teams in the tournament. But after expanding to 10 teams in 1992 until 1996, the conference switched to an 8-team bracket and excluded the bottom 2 teams.
Then in 1997, it switched to the current format with all 10 teams included in the MVC Tournament using the play-in round to create an 8-team bracket.
From 1997 to 2005 the tournament which then required 4 days, started on Fridays and ended on Mondays. Then in 2006, the tournament changed to the current Thursday through Sunday format.

A few other pieces of trivia-
The top seeded team has won the MVC Tournament title only 16 out of the 43 tournaments (since the tournament began in 1977).
And since it was moved to a neutral site (St. Louis) in 1991, the #1 seed has won the tournament only 9 times out of 29 tournaments.
The only team to be eliminated in the quarterfinal round and still get an at-large bid was the 2005 UNI team.
2006 was the only time 4 MVC teams received NCAA bids- SIU got the automatic bid, and Creighton, Bradley, and Wichita State got at-large bids.
Missouri State did not get a bid in 2005 after finishing tied for 2nd place, while Bradley got an at-large bid despite finishing 5th in the regular season. That 2006 Missouri State team had an RPI of 21 on Selection day, which is still, by far, the best RPI by any team that did not get a bid. They also had the 46th best Strength of Schedule, so the only reason possible was that the NCAA simply was not going to extend 5 bids to the MVC.
Bradley's comeback win from an 18 point deficit against UNI in the 2019 championship game tied a record for the largest comeback win.
The only four teams seeded worse than #3 to win the tournament title were #4 Creighton in 2000; #5 Indiana State in 2001; #4 UNI in 2016; and #5 Bradley in 2019
In 2010, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the MVC Tournament in St. Louis, a fan vote selected Deon Jackson's 25-foot miracle buzzer-beater to beat Missouri State in the 1996 semifinals as the Top Moment in Arch Madness history.

The record for total attendance was the 2007 tournament. It drew 85,074 fans for all 5 sessions combined. Last year's attendance was 35,706.

Here is the MVC yearbook with a lot of interesting stuff about the past tournaments on pages 175-200+
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...edia_Guide.pdf

[Tommy]

Great info!

I’m curious how many of the 16 conference champs that went on to win the tourney were Creighton and Wichita St.?

[Da Coach]

Wichita State won the tournament 4 times- 1985, 1987, 2014, and 2017- their overall record in the tournament in just 35-34
Creighton won the tournament 12 times- 1978, 1981, 1989, 1991, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2013

I believe Creighton's success in the tournament had a lot to do with depth. Dana Altman, who was Creighton's coach from 1994 to 2010 played 10-12 players regularly throughout the seasons and developed better depth than any other MVC teams which helped in the tournament. The 1989 & 1991 titles were because of an outstanding duo of Bob Harstad and Chad Gallagher and the 2012 and 2013 titles were pretty much exclusively because of Doug McDermott.

Here are all the teams and the years they won the MVC Tournament-


And here are the all time conference regular-season winners-

[BU FAMILY]

HUGE gap between UNI and Loyola and the rest of the conference. I’ll eat my hat if one of those teams don’t win the tournament. Braves swept by both.

Would you like some salt, pepper, or some condiments with that hat?

[egib52]

Would you like some salt, pepper, or some condiments with that hat?

I think we need video of this