The 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Championship, otherwise known as Arch Madness, tips off tonight at Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis. 10 teams will play a total of nine games over the course of the weekend in the 25th edition of Arch Madness. The ninth game will be played on Sunday afternoon and decide who will get the MVC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship.

The Missouri Valley Conference has held its Men’s Basketball Championship in St. Louis since 1991. It signed an agreement last year to keep the tournament at Scottrade Center in St. Louis through 2018. The tournament has an estimated economic impact of $16 million each year for the city of St. Louis. That figure puts it among the city’s biggest events.

The two nationally ranked teams, Wichita State and Northern Iowa, hold the top two seeds in the field, which also features (in order) Indiana State, Illinois State, Evansville, Loyola, Drake, Missouri State, Southern Illinois and Bradley.

In the latest Associated Press poll Wichita State (27-3) is ranked #8 and Northern Iowa (27-3) is ranked #11. The Shockers earned the #1 seed in the conference tournament by virtue of their 17-1 conference record, while Northern Iowa sports a 16-2 mark in the MVC. Wichita State’s lone loss in MVC play came in Iowa in late January. Wichita State got its revenge on Northern Iowa back in Kansas in the last game of the season. Aside from falling in Wichita, the UNI Panthers also had a three-point setback to Evansville on New Year’s Day in Evansville.

Northern Iowa’s Seth Tuttle was named the MVC Larry Bird Player of the Year earlier this week, an award which he was awarded by a wide margin. Tuttle has been a well-rounded player for the Panthers and is the only active player in the country with 1,600 career points, 850 rebounds and 250 assists. The 6’8″ fellow from a small town with a population of just 1,172 is beloved in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

In the conference’s Player of the Year voting Tuttle was followed, in order, by Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet of Wichita State then Egidijus Mockevicius and D. J. Balentine of Evansville. As Bleacher Report points out, Wichita State and Northern Iowa are clearly the top MVC teams heading into the tournament, but the next three seeded teams, Indiana State, Illinois State and Evansville have the tools to make them earn the right to play for the championship on Sunday.

While all ten teams in the Missouri Valley Conference are eligible for the conference tournament, the bottom four seeds are tasked with playing in the opening round. #8 Missouri State, which lost its leading scorer earlier this year to suspension then a transfer, and #9 Southern Illinois kick off Arch Madness tonight and are followed by #7 Drake taking on #10 Bradley. Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote today how the Missouri State and Southern Illinois programs are in unfamiliar territories.

Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com predicts Wichita State and Northern Iowa will be the two teams representing the MVC in the NCAA Tournament, with Wichita State getting the automatic bid. Any other MVC team hoping to get into the tournament will more than likely need to win on Sunday.

 

Here’s the full Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Championship Schedule

Thursday, March 5 — Session I
Game 1 — #8 Missouri State  vs. #9 Southern Illinois Result: Southern Illinois 55, Missouri State 48
Game 2 — #7 Drake vs #10 Bradley Result: Bradley 52, Drake 50 (OT)

Friday, March 6 — Session II
Game 3 — #1 Wichita State vs. Southern Illinois Result: Wichita State 56, Southern Illinois 45
Game 4 — #4 Illinois State  vs. #5 Evansville Result: Illinois State 71, Evansville 67

Friday, March 6 — Session III
Game 5 — #2 UNI  vs. Bradley Result: UNI 71, Bradley 46
Game 6 — #3 Indiana State  #6 Loyola Result: Loyola 81, Indiana State 53

Saturday, March 7 — Session IV
Game 7 — Wichita State vs. Illinois State 1:35 p.m.
Game 8 — UNI vs. Loyola, 4:05 p.m.

Sunday, March 8 — Session V
Championship — Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 1:05 p.m.

 

Here’s your updated #ArchMadness Bracket heading into tomorrow’s semifinal round. pic.twitter.com/VEfvETMDaz

— Missouri Valley (@MVCsports) March 7, 2015

For more Arch Madness information, check out ArchMadness.com

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