MVC Tournament Championship game- Sunday, March 6

[Da Coach]

MVC Championship game Sunday, 1:00 pm- Drake vs. Loyola on CBS
Schedule and stats links- https://www.statbroadcast.com/events...gid=mvc#tourny

These same two teams met last year for the MVC Tournament championship, and Loyola won 75-65-
https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2021...ver-drake.aspx

Both teams got NCAA bids. Loyola beat Georgia Tech 71-60, then Illinois 71-58, but then lost to Oregon State in the Sweet 16 65-58.
Drake beat Wichita State 53-52, then was beaten in the round of 32 by USC 72-56.

If Drake wins Sunday, there is a chance the MVC could get 2 bids again. But if Loyola wins, there is no chance for Drake to get an at-large bid.
Drake's NET is in the 80's, while Loyola's is around 30. With a loss, Drake will be hoping for an NIT bid. Loyola, with a loss will be hoping for an at-large NCAA bid. But right now, both Jerry Palm (CBS), and Joe Lunardi (ESPN) have Loyola on the bubble.

Today's losing teams- Missouri State's NET is in the mid-60's, and UNI's in the mid-90's.
UNI will get an auto-bid to the NIT, and there is a good chance Missouri State will get an NIT bid too.
NET rankings for MVC- https://www.warrennolan.com/basketba...issouri-Valley

ESPN Bracketology- per Joe Lunardi- https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/st...ness-men-field
Lunardi had Loyola as the final team in the NCAA Tournament with this morning's update.

CBSSports Bracketology- per Jerry Palm- https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba.../bracketology/
Jerry Palm does not have Loyola in the NCAA as an at-large, and not even among the First Four Out. That could change with them winning today, but they are clearly on the bubble if they don't win the tournament final tomorrow.

[Fetz86]

Hoping San Francisco beats BYU tonight to knock BYU down the bubble order and it helps improve LUC numbers.
Go Drake, don’t let the Ramblers win

[bradleyfan124]

I find it interesting that the 2 teams in the championship game have the most veterans and are the most experienced. They have been saying all year that they brought the most players back

[Classof77]

Go Drake!!!

[BUfan17]

Drake has to be exhausted after last night. I'm rooting for them but I expect Loyola to win.

[bigjimmy]

Drake beat Loyola both times this year, by 9 in Des Moines and by 7 in Chicago. In their last game 51, yes, 51 fouls were called. Drake shot 23-31 from the FT line while Loyola shot 21-26. To me once the big keys is depth as Drake has pretty much gone with their 5 starters. In 2 tournament games their bench has scored just 5 points while Loyola’s bench has scored 63. Whoever can handle the pressure defense and create their own shot as well as the pressure of competing for the MVC Championship will your champion.

[Da Coach]

Live stats link for Drake-Loyola game-

https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=383716

The previous televised CBS game has several minutes left, so we could miss the start of the Drake-Loyola game. Thankfully, this Houston-Memphis game is a blowout, so there shouldn't be a lot of timeouts, or fouling.

[houstonbrave]

DC-You didn’t stay in STL ?

[basketball nut]

Why does any true valley fan want Loyola in the NCAA? They are traitors just like Wichita and Creighton.
LETS GO DRAKE!!

[bigjimmy]

Loyola a 5 1/2 point favorite based off of their year and especially how they’ve played in their last 2 games. I’m hoping for a Drake win. Most of the crowd is cheering for da Bulldogs. Biggest crowd this tournament. Maybe 6,500-7,000

[Da Coach]

DC-You didn’t stay in STL ?

No. Back home.

[Da Coach]

If these first 4+ minutes are any indication, the officials seem to be allowing a lot of contact on both ends, and not blowing the whistles as much as they could be.

[bigjimmy]

Drake being the aggressors early with a 6-2 lead with 15:35 left. Drake with 5 blocks already.

[Bradley3342]

Hard to believe Drake can keep up this pace after the last game of the day and overtime to boot yesterday but I hope they can…

[basketball nut]

They couldn't have brought in a worse refereeing crew.